Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Vonandi verður hún ekki veik á morgun.

Vonandi is an adverb meaning hopefully. More precisely, it’s a sentence adverb: it comments on the whole sentence, not on a single verb or adjective.

Putting vonandi first is very common, because it sets the tone of the statement: As for my hope: she won’t be ill tomorrow.
You can also move it:
- Hún verður vonandi ekki veik á morgun. (Also natural.)
- Hún verður ekki vonandi veik á morgun. (Odd / wrong – vonandi doesn’t fit well inside the verb phrase like this.)

So: vonandi is an indeclinable adverb and is especially natural at the start of the sentence or just after the subject/verb.

Is verður a future tense? I thought Icelandic didn’t have a future tense.

Icelandic technically has no special future tense ending like English will + verb. Instead, it uses the present tense plus context, or certain verbs that can indicate future time.

Here:

verður is the present tense, 3rd person singular of verða (to become; to be (in future), to turn into).
The future meaning comes from:
- the verb verða, which often has a will become / will be sense, and
- the time expression á morgun (tomorrow).

So hún verður … á morgun literally is “she becomes/is (then) tomorrow,” which we naturally translate as “she will not be sick tomorrow.”

What’s the difference between verður and er here?

Both are forms of to be, but they’re not interchangeable:

er = present tense of vera (to be as a state, right now).
- Hún er ekki veik. – She is not sick (now).
verður = present tense of verða, used here as “will be / will become”.
- Hún verður ekki veik á morgun. – She won’t be / won’t get sick tomorrow.

So verður adds a change or future nuance (become, turn out), whereas er is just a current state.

What form is verður, exactly? How is verða conjugated?

Verður is:

verb: verða
tense: present
person/number: 3rd person singular

A brief present-tense paradigm:

ég verð – I become / I will be
þú verður – you (sg.) become / will be
hann/hún/það verður – he/she/it becomes / will be
við verðum – we become / will be
þið verðið – you (pl.) become / will be
þeir/þær/þau verða – they become / will be

In the sentence, hún (she) → hún verður.

Why is it hún and not some other form like henni?

Hún is the nominative form of the 3rd person singular feminine pronoun, and this sentence needs the subject form:

hún – nominative (subject)
hennar – genitive
henni – dative
hana – accusative

Since she is doing / undergoing the action (she is the one that may become sick), Icelandic uses the nominative hún, exactly like English she (not her).

Why is veik and not veikur or veikt used?

Veik(ur) is an adjective meaning sick / ill / weak. Icelandic adjectives have to agree in gender, number, and case with the noun (or pronoun) they describe.

The relevant forms (strong declension, nominative singular):

masculine: veikur
feminine: veik
neuter: veikt

Here, the adjective refers to hún, which is:

feminine
singular
nominative

So you must use veik (feminine nominative singular).
Compare:

Hann verður ekki veikur á morgun. – He will not be sick tomorrow.
Barnið verður ekki veikt á morgun. – The child will not be sick tomorrow.

Why is ekki after verður and not before it?

In Icelandic main clauses, the finite verb usually comes in 2nd position (V2 word order). Negation with ekki normally follows the finite verb:

Vonandi (1st position)
verður (finite verb, 2nd position)
hún (subject)
ekki (negation)
veik á morgun (rest of the predicate)

So the basic pattern is:

[Something] + verb + ekki + (rest…)

You cannot normally say:

✗ Vonandi ekki verður hún veik á morgun. (wrong order)

You can move elements for emphasis, but verður must stay in that 2nd-slot role, and ekki almost always comes right after it (or after the subject if the subject is very short):

Vonandi verður hún ekki veik á morgun.
Vonandi verður hún á morgun ekki veik. (possible but marked / less neutral; focus changes)

What does á morgun literally mean, and why use á here?

Á morgun is a fixed, very common way to say “tomorrow.”

Literally:

á – a preposition meaning on, at, in, among other uses
morgun – morning (here in the accusative singular)

With time expressions, á + accusative often means on/at [a time]:

á morgun – tomorrow
á mánudag – on Monday
á næsta ári – next year

So grammatically it is on-the-morning, but idiomatically it just means tomorrow.

Could you say Hún verður ekki veik, without á morgun?

Yes, that’s grammatically fine, but the meaning changes slightly.

Hún verður ekki veik. – She won’t get sick / won’t become ill (in general / at some contextually understood time).
Hún verður ekki veik á morgun. – She won’t be / won’t get sick *tomorrow (specifically).*

Without á morgun, there is no explicit future time; the future sense would have to come from context. With á morgun, it’s anchored to a specific time.

Can vonandi be replaced by something like ég vona? What’s the difference?

Yes, there is a closely related construction:

Vonandi verður hún ekki veik á morgun.
Ég vona að hún verði ekki veik á morgun.

Differences:

Structure
- vonandi = adverb; it keeps a single clause.
- ég vona að … = full verb phrase “I hope that …” followed by a subordinate clause with verði (subjunctive present).
Explicit subject of hope
- With vonandi, the hoper is unspecified/impersonal – hopefully (one hopes).
- With ég vona, it’s clear that I am the one hoping.

Both are common and natural; vonandi is just shorter and more impersonal.

Could you drop hún like in some languages that don’t always use subject pronouns?

No, not in normal Icelandic. Icelandic is not a “null-subject” language like Spanish or Italian. You normally must state the subject pronoun:

✓ Vonandi verður hún ekki veik á morgun.
✗ Vonandi verður ekki veik á morgun. (sounds incomplete, like “Hopefully will not be sick tomorrow” – missing who.)

The only common exception is with impersonal expressions (e.g. Það rignir “it’s raining”), but here we clearly have a person, so hún must be present.

Does veik always mean “sick,” or can it mean “weak” too?

Veik(ur) can mean both “ill, sick” and “weak.” The exact nuance depends on context:

Hún er veik.
- Most commonly: She is sick / ill.
- Could also be: She is weak (physically/emotionally), depending on what you’re talking about.
Hann er mjög veikur í fótunum. – He is very weak in the legs.

In Vonandi verður hún ekki veik á morgun, the most natural reading is sick/ill, especially with the time reference “tomorrow” (it sounds like talking about health, not character or general strength).