Ég drekk venjulega kalt vatn.

I usually drink cold water.

Breakdown of Ég drekk venjulega kalt vatn.

• ég: I
• drekka: to drink
• vatn: the water
• kaldur: cold
• venjulega: usually

Questions & Answers about Ég drekk venjulega kalt vatn.

Why is the verb drekk used here instead of something like drikk, and how do you conjugate drekka in the present tense?

The infinitive is drekka (“to drink”). To form the present tense for the singular you drop -a and use these forms:
• ég drekk (I drink)
• þú drekkur (you drink)
• hann/hún/það drekkur (he/she/it drinks)

For completeness, the full present is:
við drekka(m) (we drink), þið drekkið (you pl. drink), þeir/þær/þau drekka (they drink).

Icelandic strong verbs like drekka don’t insert an extra i as English “drink” does.

Why is venjulega placed after drekk instead of before it?

Icelandic main clauses follow the V2 (verb-second) rule: the finite verb must be the second element. Here Ég is first, drekk is second, so the adverb venjulega comes third. You could front the adverb—Venjulega drekk ég kalt vatn—but drekk still stays in second position.

What does venjulega mean? Can I use different words to say “usually”?

venjulega means “usually.” Other common adverbs of frequency are:
• oft = “often”
• oftast = “most often”/“usually”
• vanalega = colloquial for “usually”

Each has a slightly different shade of meaning: oft is “frequently,” oftast is “in the majority of cases,” and venjulega is the neutral “usually.”

How are adverbs like venjulega formed from adjectives?

Most Icelandic adverbs come from adjectives by replacing -ur with -lega. For example:
• venjulegur → venjulega (“usual” → “usually”)
• alvarlegur → alvarlega (“serious” → “seriously”)

Why is the adjective kalt used instead of kaldur in kalt vatn?

Adjectives in Icelandic agree with the noun’s gender, number and case. vatn is a neuter noun in the accusative singular (direct object). The adjective kaldur (“cold”) in neuter nominative/accusative singular takes -t, so kaldur → kalt.

What case is kalt vatn, and why doesn’t vatn change its form?

Here vatn is accusative singular (object). vatn is a neuter noun whose accusative singular is identical to its nominative (vatn), so you see no change on the noun itself—only the adjective kalt marks neuter accusative.

Why is there no “a” or “the” before kalt vatn?

Icelandic has no indefinite article (“a/an”). kalt vatn simply means “cold water” or “some cold water.” To make it definite (“the cold water”), you add a definite suffix to the noun: kalt vatnið.

How do I ask “What do you usually drink?” in Icelandic?

Use Hvað drekkur þú venjulega?
• Hvað = “what”
• drekkur þú = “do you drink”
• venjulega = “usually”

Why is kalt spelled with lt instead of ld like in kaldur?

A regular historical sound change in Icelandic turns the -ld- cluster into -lt- in the neuter singular form. Thus kaldur (with ld) becomes kalt (with lt). This cluster shift appears in several Icelandic words.