takast ("to succeed, to manage, to come off well") is the lexicalised middle (-st) form of taka "to take," and it is one of the most important quirky-subject verbs an intermediate learner can master. Its single most striking feature is that the person who succeeds is not in the nominative — they are in the dative: mér tókst að klára means "I managed to finish," literally "to-me it-succeeded to finish." The verb itself stays in the 3rd person singular, agreeing with nothing (or with an impersonal "it"), while the dative experiencer carries the real-world subject role. This pattern — dative person + frozen 3sg verb + að-infinitive — is the backbone of how Icelandic says "manage to," and it is utterly unlike English, which puts the achiever in the subject position.
Conjugation
Type: middle voice (miðmynd, the -st conjugation) of the strong verb taka; in its "succeed/manage" meaning it is used impersonally with a dative subject and stays in the 3rd person singular. Auxiliary: hafa — mér hefur tekist "I have managed." Principal parts: tekst / tókst / — / tekist.
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að takast |
| 3sg present | tekst |
| 3sg past | tókst |
| 3sg past subjunctive | tækist |
| Supine | tekist |
Because the "manage" sense is impersonal with a dative experiencer, the verb does not run through a full person paradigm the way an ordinary verb does. What changes from sentence to sentence is the dative pronoun, while the verb stays in the 3rd singular:
| Dative experiencer | Present | Past | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|---|
| mér (to me) | tekst | tókst | tækist |
| þér (to you) | tekst | tókst | tækist |
| honum / henni / því | tekst | tókst | tækist |
| okkur (to us) | tekst | tókst | tækist |
| ykkur (to you pl.) | tekst | tókst | tækist |
| þeim (to them) | tekst | tókst | tækist |
The whole point of that table is what it shows by not changing: the verb form tekst / tókst is identical down every row. It does not agree with the dative experiencer at all — mér tókst, okkur tókst, þeim tókst all use the same tókst. The grammatical subject slot is filled by an unspoken "it"; the dative does the semantic work. (Beware the accidental overlap: tókst is also the 2nd-person-singular past of active taka, þú tókst "you took" — same spelling, completely different construction. Context disambiguates.)
For completeness, takast does have ordinary middle-voice forms when it is not the impersonal "manage" verb — e.g. takast í hendur "to shake hands" (reciprocal) runs við tökumst í hendur "we shake hands," with a real plural subject. But in its dominant "succeed/manage" sense, the dative-subject 3sg pattern above is what you need.
The core construction: dative + tókst + að + infinitive
The standard "manage to / succeed in doing" frame is: dative experiencer + (3sg) takast + að + infinitive. The thing you managed to do is an að-infinitive clause.
Mér tókst loksins að klára ritgerðina.
I finally managed to finish the essay. — mér (dative) tókst (3sg past) að klára. The achiever 'I' is in the dative, the verb is frozen 3sg.
Tekst þér að mæta klukkan átta?
Will you manage to get there by eight? — þér (dative) tekst (3sg present); a yes/no question, verb-first. 'Are you able to make it'.
Honum tókst að sannfæra alla á fundinum.
He managed to convince everyone at the meeting. — honum dative + tókst + að sannfæra. Not 'hann tókst'.
Okkur tókst það ekki í þetta sinn.
We didn't manage it this time. — okkur (dative) tókst; here the complement is the pronoun 'það' rather than an að-clause. The verb still doesn't agree.
takast without a complement: "to go well / turn out"
takast can also stand alone meaning "to turn out (well/badly)," often of an event, with the thing that turned out as the (nominative) subject and frequently an adverb like vel "well" or illa "badly":
Veislan tókst frábærlega.
The party turned out great. — here veislan 'the party' is the nominative subject and tókst means 'came off / went'. No dative experiencer in this use.
Þetta tókst betur en ég þorði að vona.
This turned out better than I dared hope. — þetta (nom.) tókst 'turned out'; tókst vel/betur is a very common way to evaluate how something went.
Distinguish the two senses by what fills the subject slot: a dative person → "manage to (do)"; a nominative thing + adverb → "(it) turned out (well)."
takast vs taka: middle vs active
The active taka means "to take" and behaves like an ordinary transitive verb with a nominative subject and (usually) an accusative object: ég tek bókina "I take the book," past ég tók. The middle takast has drifted away from "take" into "succeed/manage," and brings the dative-subject syntax with it. They share a stem and a paradigm skeleton, but you must not blend them: the achiever of takast is dative; the taker of taka is nominative.
Ég tók strætó í vinnuna í morgun.
I took the bus to work this morning. — active taka: nominative ég + accusative strætó. Compare the dative-subject takast below.
Mér tókst að ná strætó á síðustu stundu.
I managed to catch the bus at the last moment. — middle takast: dative mér, frozen tókst, að-infinitive. Same root, opposite syntax.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég tókst að klára þetta.
Incorrect — the achiever is NEVER nominative with takast. It must be dative: 'mér tókst að klára þetta'. (And 'ég tókst' would only mean 'I took', from active taka.)
✅ Mér tókst að klára þetta.
I managed to finish this.
The flagship error is nominativising the subject. takast demands a dative experiencer; ég tókst does not mean "I managed."
❌ Okkur tókstum að vinna leikinn.
Incorrect — the verb does NOT agree with the dative; it stays 3sg 'tókst', not '*tókstum'. 'Okkur tókst að vinna leikinn'.
✅ Okkur tókst að vinna leikinn.
We managed to win the game.
There is no plural agreement. However many people succeeded, the verb is frozen at 3sg tekst / tókst.
❌ Mér takaðist að finna lyklana.
Incorrect — takast is a strong middle, not weak; there is no '-aðist'. The past is 'tókst': 'mér tókst að finna lyklana'.
✅ Mér tókst að finna lyklana.
I managed to find the keys.
Don't regularise the preterite. takast inherits the strong past of taka (tók → tókst), not a weak -aðist.
❌ Mér tókst klára verkefnið.
Incorrect — the complement needs the infinitive marker 'að': 'mér tókst að klára verkefnið'.
✅ Mér tókst að klára verkefnið.
I managed to finish the project.
The "what you managed to do" clause is an að-infinitive — don't drop the að.
Key Takeaways
- takast = the lexicalised middle (-st) of taka, meaning "succeed / manage / turn out."
- It is a quirky-subject verb: the achiever is in the DATIVE (mér tókst, honum tókst, okkur tókst), never the nominative.
- The verb stays in the 3rd person singular and does not agree with the dative experiencer: tekst (present), tókst (past), tækist (past subjunctive), tekist (supine).
- Standard frame: dative + takast + að + infinitive ("manage to do"). With a nominative thing + adverb, takast means "turn out (well/badly)": veislan tókst vel.
- Beware: tókst is also the active 2sg past þú tókst "you took" — same spelling, different construction.
- Don't regularise it (*takaðist) and don't drop the að before the infinitive.
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
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- Quirky (Oblique) Subjects: OverviewA2 — Icelandic's flagship feature: a large class of verbs whose logical subject — the experiencer — stands in the accusative, dative, or genitive instead of the nominative, with the verb frozen in 3rd-person singular. mér finnst, mig langar, mér er kalt: why 'I' is so often mér or mig, not ég.
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