Strong Verb Classes 4-7

The previous page covered the first three ablaut classes; this one finishes the system with Classes 4-7. These are where a lot of the highest-frequency vocabulary in Icelandic lives — bera "carry," gefa "give," fara "go," taka "take," standa "stand," halda "hold," láta "let," ganga "walk," fá "get." If Classes 1-3 felt mechanical, Classes 4-6 are even cleaner (their vowel series are short and tight), while Class 7 is the wild one: it is a grab-bag of verbs whose preterites carry a long é (hélt, lét, féll, grét) that is the fossil of an old reduplicating past. Get comfortable with these and you have covered the entire strong system — every irregular-looking common verb you meet from here is just one of these seven patterns wearing a disguise.

Recap: the four principal parts

Just as before, every strong verb is defined by four principal parts, and the preterite singular and plural usually differ in their vowel:

1. the infinitive (the present stem),
2. the preterite singular (ég / hann _),
3. the preterite plural (þeir _),
4. the supine (the -ið form used in the perfect: ég hef _).

Learn each verb as a four-beat chant — bera – bar – báru – borið — and the class falls straight out of the vowels.

Class 4: e – a – á – o (bera, nema, stela, koma)

Class 4 has e in the infinitive, a in the preterite singular, a long á in the preterite plural, and o in the supine. The model is bera "to carry/bear." The plural's long á is the signature that separates Class 4 from Class 3 (which had a short u plural): bar (sg.) but báru (pl.). Other members: nema "take/learn/study," stela "steal," and — irregularly — koma "come."

Trace the model across the series: bera → bar → báru → borið. The infinitive's e becomes a in the singular (bar), lengthens to á in the plural (báru), and lands on o in the supine (borið). Koma "come" belongs here historically but has worn smooth — its plural is the short komu rather than an expected long vowel — so treat koma as a near-member you simply memorise (it is far too frequent to get wrong).

Class 5: e – a – á – e (gefa, lesa, sjá)

Class 5 is almost identical to Class 4 — e – a – á for the first three parts — but it diverges in the supine, which keeps the e instead of switching to o. So where Class 4 gives borið, Class 5 gives gefið, lesið, etið. The model is gefa "to give." Other members: lesa "read," eta/éta "eat," meta "value/assess," reka "drive/run," and the irregular sjá "see."

The one to watch is the everyday sjá → sá → sáu → séð. Its infinitive has contracted to a single syllable (sjá, not the expected *sjá-something), the singular past is the bare sá (which collides in sound with the demonstrative sá "that one" — context disambiguates), and the supine is séð with a long é, not *sjáð or *séið. This is a top-twenty verb, so learn the chant sjá – sá – sáu – séð by heart.

Class 6: a – ó – ó – a (fara, taka, standa, draga)

Class 6 is the tightest of all: a in the infinitive, a long ó in both preterite forms (singular and plural the same), and a again in the supine. The model is fara "to go/travel." Because the singular and plural past share the same vowel (fór = fór-u), Class 6 spares you the singular/plural split that trips people up elsewhere. Other members: taka "take," standa "stand," draga "drag/pull," aka "drive," grafa "dig," hlæja "laugh."

Two notes. Taka has a supine tekið (with e, by i-umlaut) rather than the expected *takið — a small irregularity in an otherwise model Class 6 verb. Standa loses its n outside the present (stóð, staðið, not *stónd-); the n belongs only to the infinitive and present (stend, stendur, standa). But the vowels obey a → ó → ó → a without exception.

Class 7: the reduplicating remnant (halda, láta, falla, ganga, fá)

Class 7 is not a single vowel series at all — it is a leftover category whose verbs once formed their past by reduplication (repeating the initial consonant, the way Latin cado → cecidi did). Old Norse collapsed that reduplication into a long é (or sometimes e/jó) in the preterite, and modern Icelandic inherited the result. So the unifying clue is: a preterite in long é, with the supine usually echoing the infinitive's vowel. This is where the most irregular-looking everyday verbs hide — and once you know they are all "é-preterite" verbs, they stop looking random.

Notice the pattern in the top four — halda → hélt, láta → lét, falla → féll, gráta → grét — where the preterite is a long é and the supine simply returns to the infinitive's vowel (haldið, látið, fallið, grátið). The bottom two, ganga and fá, are Class 7 by descent but show a different surface shape: ganga → gekk → gengu → gengið and fá → fékk → fengu → fengið, where the é survives only in the singular (gekk has a short e, fékk a long é) and the plurals/supines switch to eng-/eng-. These two are among the commonest verbs in the language, so memorise them outright.

A special note on sjá and fá

Two of the verbs above are worth isolating because they are short, irregular-looking, and extremely frequent. sjá "see" (Class 5) contracts to one syllable and runs sjá – sá – sáu – séð: present ég sé, hann sér; the supine séð has a long é. fá "get" (Class 7) runs fá – fékk – fengu – fengið: present ég fæ, hann fær; the singular past fékk has the é, but the plural and supine switch to feng-. Both are easy to mangle precisely because they are so short — there is no long stem to anchor you — so learn them as fixed chants rather than deriving them.

English vs Icelandic: the é-preterites are your old friends

English kept a handful of these very verbs, just flattened. Fall → fell → fallen is exactly falla → féll → fallið with the same vowel jump; give → gave → given mirrors gefa → gaf → gefið; see → saw → seen tracks sjá → sá → séð; take → took → taken is taka → tók → tekið; stand → stood → stood is standa → stóð → staðið. The difference is that English collapsed its preterite singular and plural into one form centuries ago (it no longer says *we gaven), and it lost the long-vowel symmetry that Icelandic Class 6 still shows (fór = fóru). So when you meet gefa → gaf or falla → féll, you are not learning something alien — you are meeting the fuller, better-preserved version of an irregular verb your own language has been quietly grinding down for a thousand years.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Class 4: e – a – á – o (bera → bar → báru → borið; nema, stela; near-member koma). The long á plural distinguishes it from Class 3.
• Class 5: e – a – á – e (gefa → gaf → gáfu → gefið; lesa, sjá → sá → sáu → séð). Same first three parts as Class 4, but the supine keeps e (gefið, not *gofið).
• Class 6: a – ó – ó – a (fara → fór → fóru → farið; taka → tók → tekið; standa → stóð → staðið; draga). Singular and plural past share the ó, so there is no split to track.
• Class 7 is the reduplicating remnant — its preterites carry a long é (halda → hélt, láta → lét, falla → féll, gráta → grét), with supines that return to the infinitive vowel (haldið, látið, fallið, grátið). ganga → gekk → gengu → gengið and fá → fékk → fengu → fengið belong here too.
• Memorise the short, frequent oddballs as fixed chants: sjá – sá – sáu – séð and fá – fékk – fengu – fengið.
• Don't confuse the present and past of Class 6 fara: fer (now) vs fór (then).