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Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég les kennslubók í kvöld. - I read a textbook tonight.

Hardcore Icelandic
/Lesson 22
/Ég les kennslubók í kvöld.

Ég les kennslubók í kvöld.

Word

Ég les kennslubók í kvöld.

Meaning

I read a textbook tonight.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Icelandic

Lesson

Breakdown of Ég les kennslubók í kvöld.

Questions & Answers about Ég les kennslubók í kvöld.

Why is the verb les used here instead of lesa?

Lesa is the infinitive form (to read).
In Icelandic, you have to conjugate the verb to match the subject.

The verb að lesa (to read), present tense, looks like this:

ég les – I read
þú lest – you (singular) read
hann / hún / það les – he / she / it reads
við lesum – we read
þið lesið – you (plural) read
þeir / þær / þau lesa – they read

Since the subject is ég (I), the correct form is les, not lesa.

Why does the present tense les translate like a future action (“I’m going to read tonight”)?

Icelandic often uses the simple present tense together with a time expression to talk about the near future.

Ég les kennslubók í kvöld is literally I read a textbook tonight, but it naturally means I’m going to read / I will be reading a textbook tonight, just like English uses I’m reading a textbook tonight for a planned future action.

If you want to make the idea of intention very explicit, you can also say:

Ég ætla að lesa kennslubók í kvöld. – I intend to read / I’m going to read a textbook tonight.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” before kennslubók?

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Icelandic does not have a separate word for the indefinite article a/an, and the definite article the is usually attached to the end of the noun.

kennslubók – a textbook / textbook (indefinite)
kennslubókin – the textbook (definite)

In Ég les kennslubók í kvöld, the meaning is indefinite: a textbook (not a specific, previously known one).
If you wanted to say I am reading the textbook tonight, you’d say:

Ég les kennslubókina í kvöld.

What does kennslubók literally mean, and how is it formed?

Kennslubók is a compound noun:

kennsla – teaching, instruction
bók – book

When you combine them, you get kennslubók – literally teaching-book, i.e. a textbook.
Compounding like this is very common in Icelandic.

What case is kennslubók in, and why?

Kennslubók is in the accusative singular.

Reason: it is the direct object of the verb les (the thing being read). In Icelandic, direct objects of most verbs take the accusative.

For this particular word, the nominative and accusative singular have the same form (kennslubók), so you only know it’s accusative because of its role in the sentence (object of les).

What does í kvöld mean exactly? Is it “in the evening” or “tonight”?

Í kvöld is an idiomatic time expression that means this evening / tonight, i.e. later today, in the evening.

It does not usually mean some generic “in the evening” (as a habit). For habitual meaning, you’d use something like:

á kvöldin – in the evenings (generally)

What is going on grammatically in í kvöld? Which case is kvöld in?

The preposition í normally takes either accusative or dative, depending on the meaning.

In time expressions like í kvöld, í sumar (this summer), í vetur (this winter), it uses the accusative to mean this [time period].

The noun kvöld is a neuter noun where the nominative and accusative singular look the same: kvöld. The dative would be kvöldi.
So in í kvöld, the form tells you it’s not dative; it’s (formally) accusative.

Can the word order be changed, for example to Í kvöld les ég kennslubók?

Yes. Both are correct:

Ég les kennslubók í kvöld.
Í kvöld les ég kennslubók.

Icelandic is a verb-second (V2) language: the finite verb (here: les) usually comes in second position in main clauses.
You can move the time phrase í kvöld to the front for emphasis, but the verb still stays second:

Í kvöld – first element
les – verb (second position)
ég – subject
kennslubók – object

Why is Ég capitalized only here? Is ég always capital like English I?

Unlike English, the pronoun ég (I) is not normally capitalized in the middle of a sentence. It’s only capitalized at the start of a sentence because of normal sentence-capitalization rules.

So:

At the beginning: Ég les kennslubók í kvöld.
In the middle: Í kvöld les ég kennslubók.

How is Ég les kennslubók í kvöld pronounced?

Approximate pronunciation (using English-friendly hints):

Ég – often like “yeh” with a soft g at the end, something between yeg and yeh: [jɛːɣ] or [jɛːk] depending on dialect.
les – like “less” but with a clearer e: [lɛːs].
kennslubók – kenn as in “ken”, slu like “sly” but with u [ʏ] (short), bók like “boke” with a long o: [ˈcʰɛnstlʏˌpouːk]. (The nnsl cluster simplifies a bit in actual speech.)
í – like a long “ee”: [iː].
kvöld – roughly “kvehlt”: [kʰvœlt]. The ð is voiced like a soft th or often very weak / almost silent, and the vowel is like French eu.

You don’t need perfect phonetics at first, but it helps to know that many consonant clusters get simplified and some consonants (like ð) are very soft.

Why doesn’t Icelandic use a special “-ing” form like “am reading” here?

Icelandic does not have a separate progressive tense like English am reading / is reading.

The simple present covers both meanings:

Ég les kennslubók. – I read a textbook / I am reading a textbook.

To make it clear that it’s happening now, you can add an adverb:

Ég les kennslubók núna. – I am reading a textbook now.

To make it future with a plan, you add a future time expression:

Ég les kennslubók í kvöld. – I am going to read a textbook tonight.

How would I say “I am reading the textbook tonight” or “I am reading my textbook tonight”?

You make the noun definite and/or add a possessive:

Ég les kennslubókina í kvöld.
– I am reading the textbook tonight.
Ég les kennslubókina mína í kvöld.
– I am reading my textbook tonight.

Notice:

kennslubók → kennslubókina (accusative definite form)
mína agrees in gender, number, and case with kennslubókina (feminine, singular, accusative).

How would the verb change if the subject weren’t ég but “we” or “they”?

The verb að lesa in the present tense with different subjects:

ég les – I read
við lesum – we read
þeir / þær / þau lesa – they read

So you could say:

Við lesum kennslubók í kvöld. – We are going to read a textbook tonight.
Þau lesa kennslubók í kvöld. – They are going to read a textbook tonight.

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