Breakdown of Vinurinn ráðleggur honum að hrópa minna og hlusta meira.
Questions & Answers about Vinurinn ráðleggur honum að hrópa minna og hlusta meira.
Vinur means “friend” (indefinite).
Vinurinn means “the friend” (definite).
In Icelandic, the definite article (“the”) is usually added as a suffix to the noun:
- vinur = friend
- vinurinn = the friend
So the sentence literally starts with “The friend advises him …”.
If you wanted “A friend advises him …”, you’d say:
- Vinur ráðleggur honum að hrópa minna og hlusta meira.
Ráðleggur is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb ráðleggja = “to advise, to give advice.”
Basic forms:
- nafnháttur (infinitive): ráðleggja – to advise
- ég ráðlegg – I advise
- þú ráðleggur – you (sg.) advise
- hann/hún/það ráðleggur – he/she/it advises
- við ráðleggjum – we advise
So in the sentence:
- Vinurinn ráðleggur honum … = The friend advises him …
Icelandic pronouns change form according to case:
For “he / him”:
- hann – nominative (subject)
- hans – genitive
- honum – dative
- hann – accusative
The verb ráðleggja normally takes the person who receives the advice in the dative case:
- að ráðleggja einhverjum – to advise someone (dative)
So:
- Vinurinn ráðleggur honum … = The friend advises him (dative form: honum).
You can think of it as “The friend gives advice to him,” and Icelandic marks that “to him” using the dative honum.
Yes. Here að is the infinitive marker, similar to “to” before a verb in English:
- að hrópa – to shout
- að hlusta – to listen
So:
- að hrópa minna og hlusta meira
= to shout less and (to) listen more
This að is not the same as the conjunction að meaning “that” (as in “He says that …”); in this sentence it’s the infinitive marker.
After ráðleggur honum að …, Icelandic often uses an infinitive construction to express what someone is being advised to do:
- ráðleggja einhverjum að + nafnháttur (infinitive)
= to advise someone to do something
So:
- ráðleggur honum að hrópa minna og hlusta meira
= (lit.) advises him to shout less and listen more
You could also say, more explicitly:
- Vinurinn ráðleggur honum að hann hrópi minna og hlusti meira.
(The friend advises him that he should shout less and listen more.)
But the infinitive construction in the original sentence is very natural and common.
Here minna and meira are functioning as comparative adverbs, modifying the verbs hrópa (shout) and hlusta (listen).
- minna – less
- meira – more
Rough origins:
- lítið – little (adverb) → minna – less
- mikið – much/a lot (adverb) → meira – more
So:
- að hrópa minna – to shout less (to shout a smaller amount / not so much)
- að hlusta meira – to listen more (to listen a greater amount / more often or more carefully)
They work very much like English “less” and “more” here.
The full verb is often hlusta á e-ð = “to listen to something”:
- hlusta á tónlist – to listen to music
- hlusta á hann – to listen to him
However, Icelandic also uses hlusta on its own, when you mean “to listen (in general)” or “to pay attention”, without saying exactly to what.
In this sentence:
- hlusta meira suggests “listen more” in a general sense:
listen more to other people, pay more attention, etc.
If you wanted to be more explicit, you could say:
- … að hrópa minna og hlusta meira á aðra.
= “… to shout less and listen more to others.”
The main clause is:
- Vinurinn (subject, nominative)
- ráðleggur (finite verb, 3rd sg. present)
- honum (indirect object, dative)
- að hrópa minna og hlusta meira (infinitive clause: what he’s being advised to do)
This is standard Icelandic S–V–(object) order in a neutral statement:
- Vinurinn ráðleggur honum …
The friend advises him …
You could front some other element for emphasis (especially in spoken language), but then the finite verb typically stays in the second position:
- Honum ráðleggur vinurinn að hrópa minna og hlusta meira.
(To him, the friend advises to shout less and listen more – emphasizes honum.)
The original sentence is the most straightforward, neutral order.
You would make the subject plural and remove the definite ending:
- Vinir ráðleggja honum að hrópa minna og hlusta meira.
= Friends advise him to shout less and listen more.
Changes:
- vinurinn (the friend, sg.) → vinir (friends, pl. nom.)
- ráðleggur (3rd sg.) → ráðleggja (3rd pl.)
Everything else stays the same.
In Icelandic, initial hr-, hl-, hn- are special: the consonant after h is devoiced.
Approximate pronunciations (for an English speaker):
hrópa – roughly like “hro-pa”,
- hr-: a breathy /h/ plus an unvoiced r
- ó: like a long “o” in go
So: [ˈr̥ouːpa] (r̥ = voiceless r; don’t worry too much about perfect r).
hlusta – roughly like “hlus-ta”,
- hl-: a breathy /h/ plus an unvoiced l
- u: like the u in English put, but a bit more rounded
So: [ˈl̥ʏsta].
You usually stress the first syllable: HRÓ-pa, HLUS-ta.
Yes. Ráðleggja specifically carries the meaning of advising, giving recommendations or counsel, not just stating information.
Compare:
Vinurinn segir honum að hrópa minna …
– The friend tells him to shout less … (more neutral, could be just an instruction)Vinurinn ráðleggur honum að hrópa minna …
– The friend advises him to shout less … (suggests friendly advice, trying to help)
So ráðleggur emphasises that this is advice, not a command.