Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt.

In Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt, it links two objects: bæði grænmeti og kjöt = both vegetables and meat.
Bæði usually goes right before the first item, and og stands before the second item.

You can also use bæði … og with:

adjectives:
- Hún er bæði klár og dugleg. – She is both smart and hardworking.
verbs or verb phrases:
- Ég bæði læri og vinn. – I both study and work.

So it’s a general “both … and” construction, not restricted to nouns.

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” before grænmeti and kjöt?

Icelandic does not have a separate word for “the” like English. Instead, definiteness is usually shown by adding a suffix to the noun:

grænmeti – vegetables (in general)
grænmetið – the vegetables
kjöt – meat (in general)
kjötið – the meat

Also, Icelandic has no separate word for “a/an”. So grænmeti and kjöt without a suffix can cover meanings like:

vegetables / some vegetables
meat / some meat

In this sentence, grænmeti and kjöt are understood generally: “I eat vegetables and meat (in general).”

What form of the verb is borða, and how would it change with other subjects?

In Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt, borða is:

present tense
1st person singular (I)
the verb’s finite form here

Borða is a regular (weak) verb. Present tense forms:

ég borða – I eat
þú borðar – you (sing.) eat
hann / hún / það borðar – he / she / it eats
við borðum – we eat
þið borðið – you (pl.) eat
þeir / þær / þau borða – they eat

The infinitive (dictionary form) is að borða – to eat.

Is there any difference between borða and another Icelandic verb for “eat”?

Yes. The two common verbs are:

borða – neutral, everyday “to eat” (used in all contexts; this is the safest choice).
éta – also “to eat,” but can sound more animal-like, messy, or informal, often used about animals or rude eating; among friends it can simply be more colloquial.

So Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt is neutral and standard.
Ég ét bæði grænmeti og kjöt would sound more informal or a bit rough, depending on context.

What case are grænmeti and kjöt in, and why don’t they change form?

They are in the accusative case as direct objects of borða:

subject: Ég (nominative)
verb: borða
direct objects: grænmeti and kjöt (accusative)

However, both grænmeti and kjöt are neuter mass nouns whose accusative singular looks the same as the nominative singular. That’s why you don’t see any visible case ending here.

So even though no change is visible, grammatically they are accusative.

What grammatical gender do grænmeti and kjöt have, and does it matter here?

Both grænmeti and kjöt are neuter nouns:

(það) grænmeti – neuter
(það) kjöt – neuter

In this specific sentence, the gender doesn’t visibly affect their form, because:

They are singular, neuter,
and in neuter singular, nominative and accusative are identical: grænmeti, kjöt.

Gender will matter more when you:

add definite suffixes: grænmetið, kjötið,
use adjectives: ferskt grænmeti, hrátt kjöt,
refer back with pronouns: Það er gott. – It is good.

Could the word order be different, like Ég bæði borða grænmeti og kjöt?

Normally, no. The standard and natural word order is:

Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt.
(subject – verb – bæði – object1 – og – object2)

Bæði usually comes right before the first element it’s pairing with og. So you place it before grænmeti, not before borða.

Other acceptable placements (with a nuance change) could be:

Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt á hverjum degi.
Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt, en bróðir minn borðar bara kjöt.

But Ég bæði borða grænmeti og kjöt sounds unnatural in Icelandic.

How is Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt pronounced, especially Ég, ð, æ, and kj?

Approximate pronunciation (using English-like hints):

Ég – often like “yeh” or “yei” with a soft gh sound at the end in many dialects. The é is like a long “yeh”, and the final g can be a soft fricative.
borða – bor-tha
- ð is usually a soft voiced “th” (as in “this”).
bæði – roughly “bye-thi”
- æ like English “eye”
- ð again like “th” in “this”
- final i like “i” in “bit” (short).
grænmeti – roughly “grine-meh-ti”
- æ again like “eye”.
og – typically pronounced close to “og” or “ok”; in fluent speech it can be quite short.
kjöt – roughly “kyut”
- kj is a palatal sound, something like “ky” said with more air.
- ö is like German ö: between “e” in her and “u” in burn, but with rounded lips.

Real Icelandic pronunciation is more precise than these approximations, but this should help you get close.

Why is Ég capitalized, and is the pronoun “I” always capitalized in Icelandic like in English?

Ég is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence.

Unlike English, Icelandic does not capitalize the 1st person singular pronoun in the middle of a sentence. So:

Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt. – at the start of a sentence: capital E.
Stundum er ég svöng. – ég is in the middle of the sentence, so it’s lowercase.

So the rule is: capitalize the first word of the sentence, not the pronoun itself as a special case.

How would I say “I don’t eat vegetables or meat” in Icelandic? Do I still use bæði … og?

You would typically not use bæði … og in a negated “or” sentence. You’d say:

Ég borða ekki grænmeti eða kjöt.
– I don’t eat vegetables or meat.

Notes:

ekki = “not”, and it normally comes right after the verb: borða ekki.
eða = “or”.

If you wanted to strongly emphasize “both” under negation, you might use a different structure, but the natural everyday way is simply grænmeti eða kjöt with ekki.

How would I say “I eat either vegetables or meat (but not both)”?

To express “either … or (but not both)”, use annaðhvort … eða:

Ég borða annaðhvort grænmeti eða kjöt.
– I eat either vegetables or meat.

Compare:

Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt. – I eat both vegetables and meat.
Ég borða annaðhvort grænmeti eða kjöt. – I eat either vegetables or meat (one of the two, not both).

Can grænmeti and kjöt be plural? How would that change the meaning?

Both are basically mass nouns, usually used in the singular to refer to the substance in general.

grænmeti – vegetables as a category, or vegetable food in general.
kjöt – meat as a category.

In practice:

Grænmeti is almost always singular mass; if you want to talk about different kinds, you might use another construction, like
- mismunandi tegundir af grænmeti – different kinds of vegetables.
Kjöt can have a plural form kjöt (same spelling) in some paradigms, but it’s rare and limited; more idiomatic is to talk about kinds of meat with another word:
- kjöttegundir – kinds of meat.

For everyday speech about diet, you’ll nearly always use the singular mass forms: grænmeti, kjöt.

Does Ég borða mean “I eat” or “I am eating”? How do you distinguish between general and right-now meaning?

Ég borða can mean both:

I eat (in general / habitually)
- Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt. – I (normally) eat vegetables and meat.
I am eating (right now)
- If the context is clearly about the present moment, Ég borða can be understood as “I am eating”.

To make the progressive (“I am eating right now”) meaning more explicit, Icelandic often uses:

Ég er að borða. – I am eating (right now).
Ég er að borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt. – I am (currently) eating both vegetables and meat.

So:

Ég borða – simple present, can be general/habitual or contextually present.
Ég er að borða – explicitly ongoing action.

Could I say Ég er að borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt instead? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct, and it does change the aspect slightly:

Ég borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt.
– Focus on your general eating habits or typical behavior.
Ég er að borða bæði grænmeti og kjöt.
– Focus on what you are doing right now (I am in the process of eating both vegetables and meat).

So you choose between them depending on whether you want to talk about a habit / general preference or a current ongoing action.