Ég skrifa glósur.

I write notes.

Breakdown of Ég skrifa glósur.

• ég: I
• skrifa: to write
• glósa: the note

Questions & Answers about Ég skrifa glósur.

Why isn’t there an indefinite article before glósur?

Icelandic has no indefinite article like English “a” or “some.” Indefinite nouns simply appear without any article. So glósur alone means “notes” in a general, indefinite sense. If you really want “some notes,” you could say einhverjar glósur, but it’s often dropped in normal usage.

What grammatical case is glósur in, since it’s the object?

glósa is a feminine noun whose nominative and accusative plural forms are both glósur. Here it’s accusative (direct object), but looks identical to the nominative plural form.

Why is glósur plural? Could I use the singular glósa?

When talking about class or lecture notes, speakers almost always use the plural glósur (“notes”). The singular ein glósa (“one note”) exists but sounds odd in this context, because you normally take multiple notes.

How is the verb skrifa conjugated in the present tense?

Present‐tense forms of skrifa (“to write”) are:

• ég skrifa (I write)
• þú skrifar (you write)
• hann/hún skrifar (he/she writes)
• við skrifum (we write)
• þið skrifið (you pl. write)
• þeir/þær/þau skrifa (they write)

Why is the pronoun ég used here? Can it be omitted?

Icelandic verbs show person/number in their endings, so you can drop ég and just say skrifa glósur to mean “I write notes.” However, subject pronouns are often kept for clarity or emphasis, especially in writing or more formal speech.

How do I express “I am writing notes” to emphasize the ongoing action?

There is no separate continuous tense in Icelandic. Ég skrifa glósur can mean either “I write notes” or “I am writing notes,” depending on context. To stress that it’s happening right now, you can use the periphrastic construction Ég er að skrifa glósur (literally “I am at writing notes”).

How would I say “I wrote notes” or “I will write notes”?

Past tense: Ég skrifaði glósur (“I wrote notes”).
Future tense: Ég mun skrifa glósur (“I will write notes”) or informally Ég ætla að skrifa glósur (“I’m going to write notes”).

How is Ég skrifa glósur pronounced?

In IPA: [jɛː ˈskriː.va ˈkloː.sʏr].
Roughly: Yeh skree‐va GLOH‐sur. The ó is like English “oh,” and the u in -ur is similar to the vowel in “fur” (without the final r sound).