syngja ("to sing") is a strong Class-3 verb, and that single fact tells you everything you need to predict — and everything that trips learners up. Strong verbs change their stem vowel across the tenses (ablaut) instead of adding a -ði/-aði ending, and Class 3 runs through a memorable four-vowel series: i – ö – u – u. So syngja gives syng (present), söng (past singular), sungu (past plural), sungið (supine). If you learn this verb as a member of its class rather than as a lone item, you unlock a whole family at once — drekka ("drink"), finna ("find"), vinna ("work"), binda ("bind") all march to the same drum.
Conjugation
Class: strong, Class 3 (ablaut series i–ö–u–u). Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef sungið "I have sung." The infinitive syngja carries a j (before the -a ending), which also surfaces in the við-present syngjum and the 3pl present syngja.
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að syngja |
| 1sg present | syng |
| 1sg past | söng |
| Supine | sungið |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | syng | söng |
| þú | syngur | söngst |
| hann / hún / það | syngur | söng |
| við | syngjum | sungum |
| þið | syngið | sunguð |
| þeir / þær / þau | syngja | sungu |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | syngi | syngi |
| þú | syngir | syngir |
| hann / hún / það | syngi | syngi |
| við | syngjum | syngjum |
| þið | syngið | syngjuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | syngi | syngju |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | syngdu! |
| Imperative (þið) | syngið! |
| Supine | sungið |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | sunginn / sungin / sungið |
| Middle voice (miðmynd) | (rare) syngjast á — "sing back and forth, trade songs" |
The Class-3 vowel series: syng – söng – sungu – sungið
Strong verbs are not irregular — they are systematic in a different way. Where a weak verb signals the past with an ending (tala → talaði), a strong verb signals it by changing the stem vowel. Class 3 follows the series i – ö – u – u:
| Slot | Vowel | syngja | drekka (drink) | finna (find) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | i | syng | drekk | finn |
| Past sg. | ö (← a, u-umlaut) | söng | drakk | fann |
| Past pl. | u | sungu | drukku | fundu |
| Supine | u | sungið | drukkið | fundið |
A word on the ö of söng. Historically the past-singular vowel of this class is a (as you can still see plainly in drakk, fann). In syngja, the following nasal ng triggers a u-umlaut-like rounding that turns that a into ö — hence söng, not "sang." It is the same rounding that gives the class its memorable ö slot. You don't need the history to use the verb, but it explains why syngja shows ö where drekka shows a.
The pay-off of treating syngja as a class member rather than a lone word is real. Once the i–ö–u–u skeleton is in your ear, you stop "looking up" these verbs and start generating them. Hear a new Class-3 verb in the present and you can already predict its past and supine; meet it in the past plural and you can rebuild the present. This is the opposite of the weak verbs, where the stem never moves and the work is all in the endings — here the endings are humdrum and the vowel is the whole story. Treat the four principal parts (syng, söng, sungu, sungið) as a little tune you memorise once, and the rest of the paradigm falls out of it.
Hún syngur í kórnum á hverjum fimmtudegi.
She sings in the choir every Thursday. (present: syngur)
Amma söng alltaf fyrir okkur þegar við vorum lítil.
Grandma always sang for us when we were little. (past singular: söng)
Allir gestirnir sungu afmælissönginn hástöfum.
All the guests sang 'Happy Birthday' at the top of their voices. (past plural: sungu)
Ég hef aldrei sungið einsöng fyrir framan svona marga.
I've never sung a solo in front of so many people. (supine: sungið with hafa)
syngja fyrir — "sing for (someone)"
To sing for an audience or person, use syngja fyrir + accusative. To sing a particular song, simply take the song as a direct accusative object: syngja lag, syngja afmælissönginn.
Viltu syngja eitt lag fyrir okkur?
Will you sing us a song? (syngja fyrir + accusative okkur)
Kórinn söng nokkur jólalög fyrir íbúa hjúkrunarheimilisins.
The choir sang a few Christmas songs for the residents of the nursing home.
The noun: söngur
The derived masculine noun söngur means "singing" or "song" (as the activity or genre), while an individual song/tune is usually lag. A singer is a söngvari (m.) / söngkona (f.), and a choir is a kór. The noun keeps the ö of the past stem, a tidy echo of söng.
Söngur barnanna fyllti alla kirkjuna.
The children's singing filled the whole church. (söngur = singing)
Common Mistakes
❌ Amma syngdi alltaf fyrir okkur.
Incorrect — syngja is strong, so the past is the ablaut form söng, not a weak '-di' form 'syngdi'.
✅ Amma söng alltaf fyrir okkur.
Grandma always sang for us.
❌ Þau söngu öll saman.
Incorrect — the past PLURAL takes u, not ö: it's sungu, not 'söngu' (ö is the past-singular vowel only).
✅ Þau sungu öll saman.
They all sang together.
❌ Ég hef söngið þetta lag áður.
Incorrect — the supine uses the past-plural vowel u: sungið, not 'söngið'.
✅ Ég hef sungið þetta lag áður.
I've sung this song before.
❌ Ég syngi í kórnum.
Incorrect for a plain statement — the indicative present 1sg is the bare syng; syngi is the subjunctive, not the everyday 'I sing'.
✅ Ég syng í kórnum.
I sing in the choir.
Key Takeaways
- syng / söng / sungu / sungið — a strong Class-3 verb following the i–ö–u–u ablaut series; never weak (not "syngdi").
- The past singular has ö (söng); the past plural and supine share u (sungu, sungið). That shared u is your anchor.
- Same class as drekka, finna, vinna, binda — learn the series once and you conjugate them all.
- The bare syng is the indicative "I sing"; syngi is the subjunctive — don't confuse them.
- syngja fyrir
- accusative = "sing for someone"; the noun söngur (m.) = "singing/song."
- Auxiliary is hafa: ég hef sungið.
Now practice Icelandic
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Strong Verb Classes 1-3B1 — The first three ablaut classes of Icelandic strong verbs and their vowel series: Class 1 (í–ei–i–i: bíta → beit, bitu, bitið), Class 2 (jó/jú–au–u–o: bjóða → bauð, buðu, boðið), and Class 3 (e/i–a–u–o: verða → varð, urðu, orðið; finna → fann, fundu) — including some of the highest-frequency verbs in the language.
- 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'.
- Annotated Text: A Song Lyric (B1)B1 — An original pastiche verse in the Icelandic folk/hymn tradition — written for this guide, not a real song — glossed and then unpacked for what poetry lets you do: mild word-order inversion for meter, the optative and subjunctive of wish and blessing (blessi, megi, vaki), rhyme-driven choices of form, and emotive vocabulary. A gentle, singable first taste of the poetic license formalised at C2.
- drekka (to drink)A2 — Full conjugation of the strong Class-3 verb drekka (drekk / drakk / drukku / drukkið), with the i–a–u vowel series, the preaspirated double kk, the supine drukkið for the perfect, and the accusative object it governs.
- Strong Verbs and Ablaut: OverviewA2 — The strong verb system: verbs that build the past by changing their stem vowel (ablaut) instead of adding an ending, with FOUR principal parts — infinitive, preterite singular, preterite plural, supine — and the crucial split where the past singular and past plural can carry different vowels (fann vs fundu).