geta: 'can/be able' (+ Supine) | Icelandic Grammar

geta is the workhorse ability modal of Icelandic — the verb for "can, be able to, manage to," covering physical ability, practical possibility, and permission-in-practice. It is extremely common and mostly well-behaved, but it sets one trap that no other modal in the language sets: geta is followed by a supine, not an infinitive. Where English chains "can" to a bare verb ("can speak, can swim") and where Icelandic's other modals take an infinitive (ég vil tala, ég á að fara), geta takes the supine — the same -ð/-t/-að form you already use after hafa in the perfect. Get that one fact into your bones and you have beaten the only hard thing about this everyday verb.

Conjugation

geta is a preterite-present verb (the same class as English can, may, shall), so its present singular has no personal endings in the way a normal verb would — ég get, not ég geti. The past is strong (Class 5), with the vowel jumping a → á and lengthening in the plural: gat → gátu. Note that acute accent: gátum, gátuð, gátu, never gatum.

Person	Present (nútíð)	Preterite (þátíð)
ég	get	gat
þú	getur	gast
hann / hún / það	getur	gat
við	getum	gátum
þið	getið	gátuð
þeir / þær / þau	geta	gátu

Person	Present subjunctive	Past subjunctive
ég	geti	gæti
þú	getir	gætir
hann / hún / það	geti	gæti
við	getum	gætum
þið	getið	gætuð
þeir / þær / þau	geti	gætu

The supine is getað (ég hef getað "I have been able to"), and there is no everyday imperative — you cannot command someone to "be able."

💡

The past subjunctive gæti (with æ, built on the plural gátu) is one of the most useful forms in spoken Icelandic. It does the work of English "could / might": ég gæti hugsað mér… "I could imagine…", það gæti rignt "it might rain."

The core construction: geta + supine

This is the whole point of the page. The verb that follows geta is the supine — the uninflected -ð/-t/-að form that you also use after hafa. So you pair geta with the supine you already know from the perfect: hef talað → get talað, hef farið → get farið, hef synt → get synt. There is no logical reason an English speaker would guess this; it simply has to be drilled until it is automatic.

Base verb	Supine	With geta
tala (speak)	talað	ég get talað
synda (swim)	synt	hún getur synt
koma (come)	komið	ég get komið
gera (do)	gert	við getum gert það
fara (go)	farið	þú getur farið

Ég get talað íslensku, en ég er enn dálítið feimin að gera það.

I can speak Icelandic, but I'm still a bit shy about doing it. (geta + supine talað)

Hún getur synt heilan kílómetra án þess að stoppa.

She can swim a whole kilometre without stopping. (getur + supine synt)

Getum við gert eitthvað í þessu?

Can we do something about this? (getum + supine gert)

Why a supine, of all things?

It is worth knowing why this oddity exists, because it makes the form easier to trust. Historically geta meant something close to "obtain, get hold of," and what you obtained was the completed result of an action — the done version of it, which is exactly what the supine (a frozen perfect participle) names. "I can speak Icelandic" is, in this older logic, "I get [the] having-spoken of Icelandic" — you have the accomplished act within reach. That fossilised meaning is why geta alone among modals points at the supine rather than the open, uncompleted infinitive. You do not need the etymology to use the verb, but it explains why get talað feels so stubbornly fixed: the supine is not a quirk bolted on, it is the heart of what geta originally meant. English speakers, who never inflect the verb after "can," have no instinct to fall back on here, so the pairing must be learned pair by pair — get talað, get farið, get gert, get synt — until the supine comes out automatically.

Inability: geta + ekki

To say you can't do something, drop ekki in after geta, before the supine: ég get ekki komið "I can't come." This is one of the highest-frequency uses of the verb — declining invitations, explaining limits, apologising.

Ég get ekki komið í kvöld, því miður — ég er á vakt.

I can't come tonight, unfortunately — I'm on shift. (get ekki + supine komið)

Hann getur ekki borðað hnetur, hann er með ofnæmi.

He can't eat nuts, he's allergic. (getur ekki + supine borðað)

The past: 'could / was able to'

The preterite gat / gátu means "could / was able to / managed to" — a one-off ability or success in the past. Remember the accented plural gátum.

Ég gat ekki sofið í alla nótt út af storminum.

I couldn't sleep all night because of the storm. (past gat + supine sofið)

Við gátum loksins keypt íbúð í fyrra.

We were finally able to buy a flat last year. (past plural gátum — note the accent — + supine keypt)

The subjunctive gæti: polite and hypothetical 'could'

The past subjunctive gæti softens geta into "could / might" — for polite requests, tentative possibility, and hypotheticals. Gætir þú…? "could you…?" is the standard polite request frame, gentler than the blunt present getur þú…?

Gætir þú rétt mér saltið?

Could you pass me the salt? (polite request — past subjunctive gætir)

Það gæti orðið kalt í kvöld, taktu með þér peysu.

It might get cold tonight, take a sweater with you. (gæti — tentative possibility)

geta vs the other modals: it stands alone on the supine

Among Icelandic modals, geta is the odd one out. vilja "want", eiga (að) "ought", mega "may", kunna "know how", þurfa (að) "need" — these govern an infinitive (with or without að). Only geta takes a supine. This makes the supine a reliable diagnostic: if the second verb is a supine, the modal is almost certainly geta. Compare:

Modal	Complement	Example
geta	supine	ég get talað
vilja	bare infinitive	ég vil tala
kunna	infinitive + að	ég kann að tala
þurfa	infinitive + að	ég þarf að tala

Ég vil læra að tefla, en ég get ekki spilað vel ennþá.

I want to learn chess, but I can't play well yet. (vilja + infinitive læra vs geta + supine spilað)

💡

Use the supine as a tell. If the verb after the modal is the -ð/-t/-að form you'd put after hafa, you're looking at geta. Every other modal takes an infinitive (tala, að tala), never the supine.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ég get tala íslensku.

Incorrect — geta takes a supine, not the infinitive: get talað, not get tala.

✅ Ég get talað íslensku.

I can speak Icelandic.

This is the number-one geta error. English "can speak" maps the bare infinitive onto tala, but Icelandic demands the supine talað.

❌ Hún getur að synda.

Incorrect — no að after geta, and the verb must be a supine: getur synt.

✅ Hún getur synt.

She can swim.

geta takes neither an að nor an infinitive. It takes the bare supine, directly: getur synt.

❌ Við gatum ekki komið á réttum tíma.

Incorrect — the past plural has an acute accent and long vowel: gátum, not gatum.

✅ Við gátum ekki komið á réttum tíma.

We couldn't come on time.

The strong preterite lengthens a → á in the plural. Gatum (short a) is not a form.

❌ Ég get synt, ég lærði það sem barn.

Wrong verb for a learned skill — that meaning is kunna að synda; geta synt = 'I can swim right now / I'm able to swim'.

✅ Ég kann að synda, ég lærði það sem barn.

I can (know how to) swim, I learned it as a child.

geta is situational ability ("I'm able to, in these circumstances"); a permanent learned skill is kunna + infinitive. See the dedicated geta vs kunna page.

Key Takeaways

geta / get / gat / getað — a preterite-present verb; the present singular ég get has no ending.
It governs a supine, never an infinitive: get talað, getur synt, gátum komið — the same form you use after hafa.
Inability: geta + ekki + supine (ég get ekki komið). Past "could": gat / gátu (mind the accent: gátum).
The past subjunctive gæti = polite/tentative "could, might" (gætir þú…?).
geta is the only modal on a supine; every other modal (vilja, kunna, þurfa, mega, eiga) takes an infinitive — making the supine a reliable diagnostic for geta.

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