Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið. - I have finished reading the document.

„er“ describes your current state (right now you are in a "finished" state).
The past action (reading) is expressed by the combination of búinn (a past participle functioning like an adjective) + að lesa (infinitive “to read”).

So the tense is present because you’re talking about your present result/state, not narrating the past event itself. This is similar to English “I’m done reading the document” or “I have finished reading the document.”

What is the difference between „Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið“ and „Ég hef lesið skjalið“?

Both can be translated as something like “I have read the document”, but they differ in nuance:

Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið
- Focuses on completion and your current state: you’re now done.
- Very close to “I’ve finished reading the document” / “I’m done reading the document.”
- Often used when this completion is practically relevant now (e.g. “You can have it now,” “Now we can move on,” etc.).
Ég hef lesið skjalið
- Is the straightforward present perfect: “I have read the document (at some point before now).”
- It states that the reading has happened but does not emphasize “having just finished” or being “done” as strongly.

In many contexts they can both be used, but „er búinn að + infinitive“ is more explicitly resultative/completive.

What does búinn literally mean, and what verb does it come from?

Búinn is originally the past participle of the verb búa, which among other meanings can mean “to prepare” or “to make ready.”

Over time, in the expression „vera búinn að + infinitive“, búinn has become a kind of adjectival form meaning roughly “finished / done” (with a task or activity).

So „Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið“ is literally something like:

“I am prepared/finished, having read the document.”
In everyday speech, you can think of búinn here simply as “done/finished (with)”.

Why is it búinn and not búin in this sentence?

Because búinn behaves like an adjective and must agree with the subject in gender, number and case.

Ég = “I”
- If the speaker is male, ég is grammatically masculine → búinn.
- If the speaker is female, ég is grammatically feminine → búin.

In your sentence, búinn assumes a masculine first-person singular speaker. The form changes with the grammatical gender of the person speaking.

How does the sentence change if a woman is speaking?

Only the form of búinn changes to agree with a feminine speaker:

Masculine speaker:
- Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið.
Feminine speaker:
- Ég er búin að lesa skjalið.

Everything else (er, að lesa, skjalið) stays the same.

How does this construction look in the plural, e.g. “We have finished reading the document”?

The participle búinn must agree with the number and gender of the subject:

Mixed group or group including men (masculine plural):
- Við erum búnir að lesa skjalið. – “We are done reading the document.”
Group of only women (feminine plural):
- Við erum búnar að lesa skjalið.
Group of neuter things (rare for people, natural for objects):
- Þau eru búin að lesa skjalið.

So the pattern is:
[plural subject] + erum/eru + búnir/búnar/búin + að + infinitive.

What is the role of að before lesa? Is it like the English “to”?

Yes. In „að lesa“, að is the infinitive marker, very similar to English “to” in “to read.”

In the construction „vera búinn að + infinitive“:

að + infinitive (here að lesa) expresses the action you are finished with.
You must include að; you can’t say „Ég er búinn lesa skjalið“ in standard Icelandic.

So:

að lesa = to read
vera búinn að lesa = to be finished (with) reading

What case is skjalið, and what does the ending -ið mean?

Skjalið is:

the definite form of skjal (“document”),
neuter singular accusative.

Breakdown:

skjal – neuter noun: “document.”
-ið – ending marking “the” for neuter singular (here in accusative).

Because „lesa“ (“to read”) takes its direct object in the accusative case, „skjal“ appears as „skjalið“ (accusative, definite, neuter singular):

að lesa skjalið – to read the document.

How would I say “I had finished reading the document” (past perfect)?

The most direct equivalent using this construction is:

Ég var búinn að lesa skjalið. (masculine speaker)
Ég var búin að lesa skjalið. (feminine speaker)

This is past tense of vera (“to be”) + búinn/búin + að lesa, and it expresses a completed action before some other point in the past, very close to English “I had finished reading the document.”

You can also use the standard past perfect without búinn:

Ég hafði lesið skjalið. – “I had read the document.”

Again, the „var búinn að …“ version emphasizes the resulting state (I was in the state of having finished) more strongly.

Can „Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið“ mean “I have been reading the document” (without implying that I’ve finished)?

No. „Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið“ clearly implies that the reading is completed. It’s about being done, not about ongoing activity.

For ongoing or recent activity without implying completion, Icelandic uses different constructions:

Ég er að lesa skjalið.
- “I am reading the document (right now).”
Ég hef verið að lesa skjalið.
- “I have been reading the document.” (ongoing or repeated activity, not necessarily finished)

So:

„er búinn að“ → completed action.
„er að“ / „hef verið að“ → ongoing action.

Is „vera búinn að + infinitive“ used only with actions you can “finish”?

Mostly, yes: it’s used with things that are naturally thought of as tasks or activities that can be completed:

Ég er búinn að borða. – I’m done eating.
Hún er búin að læra. – She’s finished studying.
Við erum búnir að vinna. – We’re done working.

It’s not normally used for pure states that don’t have a natural endpoint (like knowing, liking, being tall). For those, you would just use ordinary tenses (present, past, etc.), not „vera búinn að“.

What is the difference between „Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið“ and „Ég er búinn með skjalið“?

Both imply you’re “done,” but they focus on slightly different things:

Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið.
- Focus on the action of reading being finished.
- Literally: “I am finished (with) having read the document.”
Ég er búinn með skjalið.
- Focus on being done with the object itself.
- Can mean you’re done using the document in some way: maybe reading it, editing it, working on it, etc. The activity is implied but not specified.

If you specifically want to say you’ve finished reading, „búinn að lesa“ is clearer and more explicit.

Is the word order fixed? Could I say something like „Ég er búinn að skjalið lesa“?

In this simple sentence, the word order is essentially fixed:

Correct: Ég er búinn að lesa skjalið.
- Subject – verb – participle – að – infinitive – object.

You cannot normally split „að lesa“ like this:

✗ Ég er búinn að skjalið lesa.

In more complex sentences, Icelandic allows some movement for emphasis or in subordinate clauses, but the basic pattern „vera búinn að + infinitive + object“ is the standard and safest order you should use.