spjalla ("to chat, have a casual conversation") is the relaxed, friendly cousin of tala ("to speak") and ræða ("to discuss"). It is the word for the easy back-and-forth you have over coffee — light, social, unhurried. Grammatically it is a textbook weak Class-1 verb with an -aði past, so it is wonderfully regular except for one thing every learner must master: the u-umlaut, which turns the stem a into ö wherever an -u- follows. That is why "they chatted" is spjölluðu, not "spjallaðu." Get the umlaut right and you have the whole verb.
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 1 (the -aði preterite, the tala type). Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef spjallað "I have chatted." The stem is spjall-, which becomes spjöll- before any ending containing -u-.
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að spjalla |
| 1sg present | spjalla |
| 1sg past | spjallaði |
| 3pl past | spjölluðu |
| Supine | spjallað |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | spjalla | spjallaði |
| þú | spjallar | spjallaðir |
| hann / hún / það | spjallar | spjallaði |
| við | spjöllum | spjölluðum |
| þið | spjallið | spjölluðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | spjalla | spjölluðu |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | spjalli | spjallaði |
| þú | spjallir | spjallaðir |
| hann / hún / það | spjalli | spjallaði |
| við | spjöllum | spjölluðum |
| þið | spjallið | spjölluðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | spjalli | spjölluðu |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | spjallaðu! |
| Imperative (þið) | spjallið! |
| Supine | spjallað |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | spjallaður / spjölluð / spjallað |
spjalla við + accusative — "chat with someone"
The core construction is spjalla við einhvern ("chat with someone"), where við takes the accusative. This is the form you will use most: it frames the conversation as a two-way social exchange. spjalla can also stand alone ("we chatted") or take um + accusative for the topic ("chat about something").
Við spjölluðum saman langt fram á nótt.
We chatted together late into the night.
Komdu og spjallaðu aðeins við okkur!
Come and have a little chat with us!
Ég spjallaði við hana um helgina yfir kaffi.
I chatted with her over the weekend over coffee.
In spjalla við hana, "her" is hana — the accusative of hún — because við here is the preposition "with" governing the accusative, exactly as in tala við and ræða við.
Register: the casual word
spjalla is firmly (informal). It signals that the conversation is light and friendly, not a formal discussion or an official statement. For "speak" in a neutral sense you want tala; for "discuss / debate a matter" you want ræða. Choosing spjalla tells your listener the tone is relaxed — it is the verb of small talk, catching up, and chatting online.
Þau sátu bara og spjölluðu um daginn og veginn.
They just sat around chatting about this and that.
The idiom um daginn og veginn (literally "about the day and the road") means "about everything and nothing, idle chit-chat" — the natural collocation with spjalla.
The noun spjall
The related noun is spjall (neuter), "a chat, a chinwag" — fá sér gott spjall "have a good chat." You will also meet it in compounds: spjallrás / spjallþráður for an online chat channel or thread, and the borrowed-but-naturalised að spjalla á netinu "to chat online." The noun keeps the same spjall- stem, with spjöll- appearing in its umlauting forms.
Eigum við að taka eitt spjall eftir vinnu?
Shall we have a chat after work?
Common Mistakes
❌ Þeir spjallaðu allt kvöldið.
Incorrect — the 3pl past umlauts: spjölluðu, not spjallaðu.
✅ Þeir spjölluðu allt kvöldið.
They chatted all evening.
❌ Við spjallum oft á kaffistofunni.
Incorrect — the present 1pl umlauts before -um: spjöllum, not spjallum.
✅ Við spjöllum oft á kaffistofunni.
We often chat in the break room.
❌ Ég spjallaði með vinkonu minni.
Incorrect — 'chat with' is spjalla við + accusative, not spjalla með; say spjallaði við vinkonu mína.
✅ Ég spjallaði við vinkonu mína.
I chatted with my friend.
❌ Hún spjallti við mig í síma.
Incorrect — spjalla is a Class-1 -aði verb, not a -ti/-di verb; the past is spjallaði.
✅ Hún spjallaði við mig í síma.
She chatted with me on the phone.
Key Takeaways
- spjalla / spjallaði / spjölluðu / spjallað — a regular weak Class-1 verb with an -aði past.
- The one thing to master: u-umlaut. Stem a → ö before any -u- ending: spjöllum, spjölluðum, spjölluðu, spjölluð.
- spjalla við
- accusative = "chat with someone" (við takes accusative). Use um
- accusative for the topic.
- accusative = "chat with someone" (við takes accusative). Use um
- Register is (informal) — small talk and casual conversation, distinct from tala (speak) and ræða (discuss).
- The noun spjall (neuter) means "a chat"; spjallrás is a chat channel. Auxiliary is hafa: ég hef spjallað.
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- tala (to talk / speak)A1 — Full conjugation of the model weak Class-1 verb tala (tala / talaði / töluðu / talað), with the u-umlaut in tölum/töluðum, and the idioms tala við (acc) 'talk to' and tala um (acc) 'talk about'.
- U-Umlaut as a Sound Alternation (a → ö)A2 — When a u appears (or once appeared) in the next syllable, a stem 'a' is rounded to 'ö' — barn → börn, dagur → dögum, kalla → köllum. This is the living u-umlaut (u-hljóðvarp), an automatic, predictable rounding that explains why so many Icelandic paradigms 'change their vowel'.
- The Weak Preterite: -aði, -di, -ði, -tiA2 — How to choose and form the weak past tense — Class-1 -a verbs take -aði (tala → talaði, plural töluðum), Class-2 verbs take the short dental -di/-ði/-ti picked by the preceding sound (reyndi, dæmdi, keypti) — with the full tala paradigm and the 'when in doubt, -aði' default for unknown verbs.
- ræðaB2 — Full conjugation of the weak Class-2 verb ræða (ræði / ræddi / ræddu / rætt), 'to discuss, talk over'. Covers ræða um + accusative 'discuss / talk about', ræða við + accusative 'talk to', the middle ræðast við 'confer with one another', the homonymous noun ræða 'a speech' (halda ræðu), and the register difference from the everyday tala 'talk'.
- með: 'with', and the ComitativeB1 — með is a two-case preposition with a meaning split: með + DATIVE for accompaniment and instrument (með vinum mínum 'with my friends', skera með hnífi 'cut with a knife'), but með + ACCUSATIVE for carrying or bringing along (vera með peninga 'have money on you', koma með bók 'bring a book'). The everyday vera með + accusative is how Icelandic says 'have on one's person' — Ertu með bíl? 'do you have a car (with you)?'