Questions & Answers about Ég elska allt.
Word by word:
- Ég = I (first‑person singular subject pronoun)
- elska = love (verb, present tense, I love)
- allt = everything / all (of it) (neuter pronoun, from the adjective allur = all)
So the sentence is literally I love everything or I love it all (depending on context).
A careful learner pronunciation that Icelanders will understand is roughly:
- Ég ≈ [jɛː] – like English yeah but held a bit longer
- elska ≈ [ˈɛlska] – EL-ska, stress on the first syllable
- allt ≈ [aht] ~ [alt] – short a like in cup but a bit more open, then a hard t; the ll+t cluster is special and often sounds like aht / alt
Sentence-level: [jɛː ˈɛlska aht] is a good approximation.
Stress in Icelandic is almost always on the first syllable of each word, so Ég and EL‑ in elska carry the main stress.
Icelandic treats é as a separate letter from e:
- e is usually pronounced roughly like [ɛ] (similar to bed).
- é is pronounced roughly [jɛ] / [je] – it includes a y‑sound at the start.
So Ég starts with a y-type sound (like yeh), not just a plain eh. That is why ég sounds more like yeh than like egg.
Yes. Icelandic uses case forms instead of changing the word (I / me / my) in the same way English does:
- ég – nominative (subject) → I
- mig – accusative (direct object) → me (as in They see me)
- mér – dative (indirect object) → to/for me (as in They gave me a book)
- mín – genitive (of me) → used in possessive forms (mín, mínn, mitt, etc.)
In Ég elska allt, Ég is the subject, so it must be in the nominative, not mig or mér.
Að is the infinitive marker, used when the verb is in its infinitive form:
- að elska = to love
In Ég elska allt, the verb is finite (it is conjugated for person and tense):
- ég elska = I love
You only use að with the infinitive, for example:
- Mig langar að elska = I want to love
- Ég vil að þú elski mig (different structure, but note the að before a verb clause)
So you drop að when you actually conjugate the verb for the subject.
Present tense of að elska (to love):
- ég elska – I love
- þú elskar – you (singular) love
- hann / hún / það elskar – he / she / it loves
- við elskum – we love
- þið elskið – you (plural) love
- þeir / þær / þau elska – they love
In Ég elska allt, the form elska matches ég (first person singular).
Elska is usually a strong word, like English to love:
- Ég elska þig = I love you (very strong)
- Ég elska íslensku = I love Icelandic (I like it very much)
For ordinary liking, Icelandic often uses other verbs:
- Mér líkar þetta = I like this
- Mér finnst þetta gott = I think this is good / I like this
So:
- elska ≈ love (strong feeling)
- líka / mér líkar ≈ like
In Ég elska allt, it sounds like a very strong or exaggerated statement: I love everything / I love it all.
The base adjective is allur = all, every. It changes form for gender, number, and case.
Key nominative forms:
- allur – masculine singular
- öll – feminine singular
- allt – neuter singular
In this sentence, allt is the neuter singular form.
Icelandic often uses neuter singular to talk about things in general / everything as a mass, so allt works as a pronoun meaning everything / all (of it).
So Ég elska allt literally uses the neuter singular “all” to mean I love everything.
In Ég elska allt:
- Gender/number: neuter singular (form of allur)
- Case: accusative
Reason:
- Elska takes its direct object in the accusative case.
- allt is the direct object (the thing loved), so it must be accusative.
- For neuter nouns/adjectives, nominative and accusative are the same form: allt.
So grammatically, allt here is neuter singular accusative, functioning as a pronoun meaning everything.
Yes. Allt can mean:
everything in a general sense
- Ég veit allt = I know everything
all of it / the whole thing referring to a specific thing or set
- (Looking at a cake) Ég borðaði allt = I ate all of it / I ate the whole thing
Context tells you which is meant.
So Ég elska allt could be:
- General: I love everything (in general).
- Specific: I love all of it (for example, all the songs on an album, all of the place you are visiting, etc.).
The neutral word order is very similar to English: Subject – Verb – Object:
- Ég elska allt = I love everything
However, Icelandic is also a verb‑second (V2) language, especially in main clauses:
- In statements with a normal subject at the start:
Ég (subject) elska (verb) allt (object) – same as English. - If you move something else to the front for emphasis, the verb still comes second:
- Allt elska ég = Everything, I love / I love everything (emphasizing everything)
- Í dag elska ég allt = Today I love everything
So the basic order here matches English, but Icelandic allows reordering for emphasis while keeping the finite verb in second position.
Using Ég elska allt as the base:
I don’t love everything
→ Ég elska ekki allt.
(ekki is the normal negation word and usually comes right after the verb.)Do you love everything? (talking to one person)
→ Elskar þú allt?
Icelandic forms yes/no questions mainly by putting the verb first, without adding a word like do.
Similarly:
- Do I love everything?
→ Elska ég allt?
These are all forms of allur = all, but they are used differently:
allt – neuter singular (nom/acc)
- Often means everything / all of it
- Ég elska allt = I love everything
allir – masculine plural nominative
- Often all (masculine group) / everyone (masc or mixed group)
- Allir koma = Everyone (they all) is coming
allar – feminine plural nominative
- all (feminine group)
- Allar stelpurnar = All the girls
öll – neuter plural nominative
- all (neuter plural things or mixed groups of neuter nouns)
- Öll börnin = All the children
So:
- Use allt when you mean everything / all of it in a general or neuter sense.
- Use allir / allar / öll when you mean all of them / everyone, and you choose the form according to gender and number of what you are talking about.