Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég hata vondan mat og ég hata kalda súpu.

vondur matur = bad food in the nominative (used for subjects).
In the sentence Ég hata vondan mat, mat is the direct object of hata (“I hate food”), so it must be in the accusative case.
The accusative of matur is mat, and the adjective has to match the noun in gender, number and case:
- matur is masculine singular
- accusative masculine singular of vondur is vondan

So:

nominative: vondur matur – “(the) bad food” (as a subject)
accusative: vondan mat – “(the) bad food” as an object, as in Ég hata vondan mat

What case are mat and súpu, and why do they use that case?

Both mat and súpu are in the accusative singular.

Ég is the subject → nominative case.
hata is a transitive verb (“to hate”) that takes a direct object.
In Icelandic, direct objects are usually in the accusative.

So:

mat = accusative singular of matur (“food”)
- nominative: matur
- accusative: mat
súpu = accusative singular of súpa (“soup”)
- nominative: súpa
- accusative: súpu

Both are objects of hata, so both are accusative.

Why is it kalda súpu and not köld súpa?

Again, you’re seeing the difference between nominative (dictionary form) and accusative (object form), plus gender agreement.

The basic adjective is kaldur = “cold”.
- Feminine nominative singular: köld
- Feminine accusative singular: kalda
súpa (“soup”) is feminine singular.
In the sentence, súpu is a direct object, so it’s in the accusative: súpu.
The adjective must match that: feminine + singular + accusative = kalda.

So:

köld súpa – “cold soup” as a subject (nominative)
kalda súpu – “cold soup” as an object, like in Ég hata kalda súpu

Why is Ég capitalized? Is ég always written with a capital letter like English I?

No. In Icelandic, ég is not normally capitalized the way I is in English.

Icelandic capitalizes the first word of a sentence, proper names, etc.
So Ég is capitalized here only because it’s the first word.
Inside a sentence, it would be ég, for example:
- Stundum er ég svangur. – “Sometimes I am hungry.”

So:

start of sentence: Ég
elsewhere: ég

Why is it Ég hata and not Ég hatar?

This is subject–verb agreement.

The verb að hata (“to hate”) in the present tense:

ég hata – I hate
þú hatar – you (sg.) hate
hann / hún / það hatar – he / she / it hates

So:

With ég you use hata (no -r).
hatar is the form used with þú, hann, hún, það (2nd and 3rd person singular), not with ég.

That’s why Ég hata, not Ég hatar.

Why is ég hata repeated? Could I just say Ég hata vondan mat og kalda súpu?

Both versions are possible:

Ég hata vondan mat og kalda súpu.
- You say ég hata once, then list two objects joined by og.
- Very natural and common: “I hate bad food and cold soup.”
Ég hata vondan mat og ég hata kalda súpu.
- Repeating ég hata gives a bit more rhythm and emphasis.
- It can sound slightly stronger or more dramatic in some contexts.

Grammatically, both are fine; the shorter one is what you’d normally use in everyday speech.

What does og do here, and does it work like English and?

og is the normal Icelandic coordinating conjunction meaning “and”.

In this sentence it is:

joining two clauses in the full form:
- Ég hata vondan mat
- (og) ég hata kalda súpu
or, if you omit the second ég hata, it joins two direct objects:
- vondan mat
- (og) kalda súpu

Functionally, it works very much like English and:

Ég borða brauð og ost. – “I eat bread and cheese.”
Ég hata vondan mat og kalda súpu. – “I hate bad food and cold soup.”

Is the word order fixed here? Could I say something like Ég vondan mat hata?

In normal Icelandic main clauses:

The finite verb (here hata) comes in second position (the so‑called “V2” rule).
The basic order is: Subject – Verb – Object(s)

So:

Ég hata vondan mat og (ég hata) kalda súpu. ✅
Ég vondan mat hata … ❌ (ungrammatical in normal speech)

You can move other elements for emphasis (especially to the very front), but the verb still tends to stay in second position, for example:

Vondan mat hata ég. – “Bad food, I hate.” (emphatic, stylised)
Kalda súpu hata ég líka. – “Cold soup I also hate.”

For a learner, keeping to Subject–Verb–Object as in the original sentence is safest.

Why are the adjectives before the nouns, like vondan mat and kalda súpu? Can they come after the noun?

The normal word order for adjectives in Icelandic is:

Adjective + Noun

So:

vondan mat – bad food
kalda súpu – cold soup
stórt hús – big house

Putting the descriptive adjective after the noun (mat vondan, súpu kalda) is not standard and would normally be wrong or only appear in very marked, poetic, or archaic styles.

There are some special cases where adjectives come after the noun (e.g. in fixed expressions or when they behave more like predicates), but for simple descriptions like this, always use Adjective + Noun.

Why isn’t there any word like “the” or “a” for mat and súpu?

Icelandic handles definiteness differently from English:

No separate word for “a/an”
- There’s no dedicated indefinite article.
- Bare nouns can often mean “a/some …”:
  - Ég borða súpu. – “I’m eating soup / some soup.”
“The” is usually a suffix
- The definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun:
  - matur → maturinn = “the food”
  - súpa → súpan = “the soup”
- In the accusative (as in this sentence), it would be:
  - matinn – “the food” (object)
  - súpuna – “the soup” (object)

So your sentence without any article:

Ég hata vondan mat og ég hata kalda súpu.
can be understood as:
- “I hate bad food and I hate cold soup.” / “I hate bad food and cold soup in general.”

If you wanted to talk about specific the food and the soup, you would say:

Ég hata vondan matinn og ég hata köldu súpuna. – “I hate the bad food and I hate the cold soup.”