Breakdown of Hún hatar þegar kaffið er kalt og gamalt.
Questions & Answers about Hún hatar þegar kaffið er kalt og gamalt.
Kaffið is “the coffee”, while kaffi is just “coffee” (no article).
Icelandic usually doesn’t use a separate word for “the”. Instead, it attaches a definite article ending to the noun:
- kaffi = coffee (in general / some coffee)
- kaffið = the coffee (a specific coffee that both speakers know about)
So in „þegar kaffið er kalt og gamalt“, she’s talking about the coffee she has (e.g. the cup in front of her), not coffee in general.
In English we say “when it is cold”, but in Icelandic the subject is already there: kaffið.
- English: when the coffee is cold = when it is cold
- Icelandic: þegar kaffið er kalt (literally: when the coffee is cold)
You don’t add an extra “it” (það) as a dummy subject the way you often do in English.
You’d only use það if you were referring back to something already mentioned without naming it again, e.g.:
- Hún hatar það þegar kaffið er kalt.
= She hates it when the coffee is cold.
Here, það refers to the whole situation “when the coffee is cold,” not to “coffee” itself.
Both kalt and gamalt are adjectives describing kaffið (the coffee).
- kaffið is a neuter noun (grammatical gender: neuter, hvorugkyn).
- In Icelandic, adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe.
- The nominative singular neuter form of many adjectives ends in -t.
Base forms (masculine vs. neuter vs. feminine, nominative singular):
- kaldur (m.), kalt (n.), köld (f.) = cold
- gamall (m.), gamalt (n.), gömul (f.) = old
Since kaffið is neuter, you must say:
- kaffið er kalt og gamalt,
not „kaffið er kaldur og gamall“ (those would be masculine forms).
In Icelandic there is a difference between:
- attributive adjectives: the cold coffee
- predicative adjectives: the coffee is cold
Definite forms mainly show up in attributive position (in front of the noun):
- hið kalda kaffi / kalda kaffið = the cold coffee (adjective is in a definite/“weak” form)
But in predicative position (after “to be”), you normally use the regular “strong” form, even if the noun is definite:
- Kaffið er kalt. = The coffee is cold.
- Stelpan er þreytt. = The girl is tired.
So it’s perfectly correct to have:
- kaffið (definite noun)
- er kalt og gamalt (adjectives in neuter singular, but not marked as definite)
Yes, gamalt literally means “old”, but with coffee it usually implies “old / stale / has been sitting for a while”.
In context:
- kalt = cold
- gamalt = old (i.e. made long ago, has been left standing → stale, not fresh)
So you can understand „kalt og gamalt kaffi“ as “cold and stale coffee” in natural English. Icelandic just uses the ordinary word gamall/gamalt for this idea.
The infinitive is að hata = to hate. Present tense:
- ég hata = I hate
- þú hatar = you (sing.) hate
- hann / hún / það hatar = he / she / it hates
- við hötum = we hate
- þið hatið = you (pl.) hate
- þeir / þær / þau hata = they hate
In the sentence:
- Hún hatar… = She hates… → 3rd person singular ⇒ hatar
So hatar is just the normal present tense form for hún (she).
You can say that, but there’s a nuance difference:
Hún hatar þegar kaffið er kalt og gamalt.
- Focuses on the situation: she hates the situation when the coffee (that she has) is cold and old.
- kaffið suggests specific coffee in a given context (e.g. at home, at a café).
Hún hatar kaffi þegar það er kalt og gamalt.
- Here, kaffi is the direct object (“she hates coffee”)
- það refers back to that coffee: “when it is cold and old.”
- This sounds more like she generally hates coffee when it’s cold and old, not just “she hates when the coffee is cold.”
The first sentence (your original) is more naturally interpreted as hating the situation of having cold, old coffee.
The alternative shifts the structure and feels more like a statement about her general attitude to coffee under certain conditions.
Yes, you can front the þegar-clause. For example:
- Þegar kaffið er kalt og gamalt, hatar hún það.
Notes:
- When you move the subordinate clause first, you usually put a comma after it in writing.
- If you include það, it clarifies that hatar is taking “it” (the situation) as its object.
- Without það, Icelandic speakers will still understand, but „hatar hún“ tends to want an object, so adding það often sounds more natural in this fronted version.
Your original word order:
- Hún hatar þegar kaffið er kalt og gamalt.
is also completely normal and probably more common in speech.
þegar = when (time), for real or typical situations
- present, past, or future: “when(ever) this happens in time”
ef = if (condition), for hypothetical / conditional situations
Your sentence is a habitual, real situation (she does encounter cold, old coffee), so þegar is the natural choice:
- Hún hatar þegar kaffið er kalt og gamalt.
= She hates it when the coffee is cold and old.
If you say:
- Hún hatar ef kaffið er kalt og gamalt.
it sounds more like a conditional rule (“she hates it if the coffee is cold and old”), and is much less idiomatic here. Native speakers will usually choose þegar for this kind of everyday, recurring situation.
Approximate pronunciation (not strict IPA):
- þegar ≈ THEH-gar
- þ like th in thing
- g is soft, almost like an English y in many accents: THEH-yar / THEH-gar
- kaffið ≈ KAHF-fith
- ff is a long f sound
- ð like th in this, but very soft at the end
- er ≈ ehr (like “air” with a trilled/flapped r)
- kalt ≈ kalt
- k strongly aspirated (a bit of a puff of air)
- og ≈ og / ok (often sounds closer to ok in fast speech)
- gamalt ≈ GAH-mahlt
- g as in “go”
- lt pronounced clearly at the end
So the whole sentence might sound roughly like:
THEH-yar KAHF-fith ehr kalt og GAH-mahlt
with rolled or tapped r and soft th-sounds for þ and ð.