This is the conjugation reference for vera, "to be" — the most frequent verb in Icelandic and also the most irregular. It is suppletive: its forms come from historically different roots, so no single stem generates them. Unlike most Icelandic verbs, vera changes for every person in the present, so you cannot lean on a tidy pattern — these are forms to memorise as a block. The payoff is huge: once vera is solid, you have the copula, the perfect auxiliary, and the passive auxiliary all in one verb.
Conjugation
The four principal parts — infinitive, 3rd-person present, 3rd-person past, and supine — are vera / er / var / verið. Note the u-umlaut that turns a into o in the plural past (vorum, voruð, voru) and the é of the subjunctive sé.
| Principal part | Form |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að vera |
| Present (3sg) | er |
| Past (3sg) | var |
| Supine | verið |
Indicative — present and past:
| Person | Present | Past |
|---|---|---|
| ég (I) | er | var |
| þú (you sg.) | ert | varst |
| hann / hún / það (he/she/it) | er | var |
| við (we) | erum | vorum |
| þið (you pl.) | eruð | voruð |
| þeir / þær / þau (they) | eru | voru |
Subjunctive, imperative, non-finite:
| Form | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present subjunctive | sé, sért (séir), sé, séum, séuð, séu |
| Past subjunctive | væri, værir, væri, værum, væruð, væru |
| Imperative (sg / pl) | vertu / verið |
| Supine | verið |
| Present participle | verandi |
Vera has no everyday middle-voice (-st) form of its own; the reciprocal "see you" sjáumst belongs to sjá, not to vera.
vera as the copula: identity, location, state
Like English "be," vera links a subject to a description. Whatever follows it — a noun, an adjective — agrees in gender, number, and case with the subject.
Hún er kennari.
She's a teacher. (identity)
Bíllinn er fyrir utan.
The car is outside. (location)
Þau eru þreytt eftir ferðina.
They're tired after the trip. (state — note þreytt agreeing with the neuter plural þau)
That agreement is the key difference from English: in þau eru þreytt, the adjective þreytt takes a neuter-plural ending to match þau. English "be" leaves the adjective untouched; Icelandic never does.
vera as the perfect auxiliary (motion / change of state)
Here is where Icelandic parts company with English. For a set of verbs describing motion or a change of state — koma (come), fara (go), verða (become), byrja (begin) — the perfect ("have done") is built with vera plus a past participle that agrees with the subject, not with the invariant supine.
Ég er kominn.
I've arrived / I'm here. (said by a man — kominn agrees with a masculine subject)
Hún er farin.
She's gone / she has left. (farin agrees with a feminine subject)
Strætó er farinn.
The bus has left. (farinn, masculine)
Read those literally and they look like English "I am come," "she is gone" — an older English pattern that survives only in fossils ("the time is come"). In Icelandic it is alive and obligatory for these verbs. Contrast it with the hafa-perfect used for most other verbs (covered fully under verbs/perfect-overview).
vera as the passive auxiliary
Vera + a past participle also forms the passive, again with the participle agreeing with the subject.
Húsið var byggt árið 1920.
The house was built in 1920. (byggt, neuter, agreeing with húsið)
Bækurnar eru seldar í búðinni.
The books are sold in the shop. (seldar, feminine plural)
The subjunctive: sé and væri
You meet the subjunctive of vera early, because it powers polite and hypothetical speech. Sé (present subjunctive) appears in reported speech and after certain conjunctions; væri (past subjunctive) carries "would be" and softened wishes.
Ef ég væri ríkur, myndi ég ferðast meira.
If I were rich, I'd travel more. (væri — the irrealis past subjunctive)
Hann segir að það sé í lagi.
He says it's fine. (sé in reported speech)
The imperative: vertu
The singular command is vertu — the stem ver- with the -tu "you" ending fused on. It is everywhere in everyday phrases.
Vertu rólegur.
Take it easy / calm down. (said to a man — rólegur agrees)
Vertu sæl!
Goodbye! (literally 'be happy' — said to a woman)
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég hef komið.
Incorrect for 'I've arrived' — koma takes the vera-perfect, not hafa.
✅ Ég er kominn.
I've arrived. (vera + agreeing participle for a motion verb)
❌ Hún er farinn.
Incorrect — the participle must agree; for a feminine subject it is farin, not farinn.
✅ Hún er farin.
She's gone.
❌ Við erum þreytt og hann er þreytt.
Incorrect — þreytt must agree; a masculine singular subject takes þreyttur.
✅ Við erum þreytt og hann er þreyttur.
We're tired and he's tired.
❌ Ef ég er ríkur, myndi ég ferðast.
Incorrect — a contrary-to-fact 'if' needs the past subjunctive væri, not the indicative er.
✅ Ef ég væri ríkur, myndi ég ferðast.
If I were rich, I'd travel.
Key Takeaways
- vera is suppletive: learn vera / er / var / verið plus the subjunctives sé and væri as a block.
- The present does change for person: er / ert / er / erum / eruð / eru. The plural past umlauts to o: vorum / voruð / voru.
- As a copula and a passive/perfect auxiliary, vera takes a participle that agrees with the subject in gender, number, and case — this is the constant difference from English.
- It is the perfect auxiliary only for motion and change-of-state verbs (ég er kominn); for everything else the perfect uses hafa (ég hef gert).
- The imperative is vertu; vertu sæl/sæll is an everyday goodbye.
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