Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Við lesum saman í viku.

Við – we (1st person plural pronoun).
lesum – read (present tense, we read).
saman – together.
í – most often in, but in this time expression it corresponds to English for.
viku – week (the noun vika, here in a case form used for time).

So the natural English equivalent is “We read together for a week.” Even though í literally often means in, in this kind of time phrase it’s best translated as for (duration).

What grammatical form is lesum?

Lesum is:

the present tense
1st person plural form
of the verb að lesa (to read).

A small part of the present tense paradigm:

ég les – I read
þú lest – you (sg.) read
hann/hún/það les – he/she/it reads
við lesum – we read
þið lesið – you (pl.) read
þeir/þær/þau lesa – they read

So lesum specifically means “we read” or “we are reading”, depending on context.

Why is it present tense (lesum) and not a special future form?

Icelandic doesn’t have a separate, obligatory future tense like will + verb in English. The present tense is very often used for:

present, ongoing actions
- Við lesum saman í viku núna. – We are reading together for a week now.
planned or scheduled future
- Næsta sumar lesum við saman í viku. – Next summer we’ll read together for a week.

If you want to make the future extra clear, you can add munu:

Við munum lesa saman í viku. – We will read together for a week.

But Við lesum saman í viku can already be understood as future if the context points that way (e.g. talking about next week’s plan).

Does í viku mean “for a week” or “in a week”? How do I say each?

In this sentence, í viku means “for a week” (duration: how long something lasts).

To distinguish the common meanings:

í viku – usually for a week (duration)
- Við lesum saman í viku. – We read together for a week.

To say “in a week (from now)” – a point in time in the future – you normally use eftir:

Við lesum saman eftir viku. – We’ll read together in a week (one week from now).

Another useful one:

fyrir viku – a week ago
- Við lásum saman fyrir viku. – We read together a week ago.

So:

í viku → for a week (duration)
eftir viku → in a week (from now)
fyrir viku → a week ago

Why is there no separate word for “for” before “week”? Why not something like fyrir viku?

English likes to mark duration with for:
for a week, for three days, etc.

In Icelandic, duration is very often expressed with:

a preposition + case, or
just a bare time expression in the accusative.

In this sentence, í + viku is the pattern used:

í viku – for a week
í þrjár vikur – for three weeks

You do not normally use fyrir for duration here, because fyrir viku has a different meaning:

fyrir viku – a week ago, not for a week.

So í viku is the natural way to say for a week in this context.

Why is it viku and not vika?

The base form of the noun is vika (a week).

Icelandic is a case language, and nouns change form depending on their grammatical role. Here, viku is used because time expressions like “for X time” use a case form that for vika looks like viku.

Very simplified singular forms of vika:

Nominative: vika (subject form)
Accusative: viku
Dative: viku
Genitive: viku

In the phrase í viku (“for a week”), viku is in the form used for duration, which coincides in shape with both the accusative and dative. You don’t say í vika; í viku is the correct idiomatic form.

What exactly does saman mean here, and can it move to another position?

Saman means together, in the sense of doing something jointly.

In Við lesum saman í viku it modifies lesum (we read), indicating you are reading together, not separately.

It can move a bit in the sentence, though Við lesum saman í viku is the most neutral:

Við lesum í viku saman. – also possible; saman sounds a bit more like a tag at the end, but it’s still fine.
Við lesum saman í eina viku. – We read together for one (whole) week.

You usually keep saman relatively close to the verb it modifies (here: lesum). Putting it far away is possible but starts to sound marked or poetic.

Can I drop við and just say Lesum saman í viku?

Not as a normal statement.

In Icelandic, you normally must include the subject pronoun (unlike in languages like Spanish or Italian). So:

Við lesum saman í viku. – correct (We read together for a week).
Lesum saman í viku. – sounds like an imperative suggestion: Let’s read together for a week.

So Lesum saman í viku is more like saying “Let’s read together for a week”, not a neutral statement about what “we” do.

Why isn’t there a word for “a” before viku? How do you say “a week” in Icelandic?

Icelandic has no indefinite article (no separate word for English a/an).

So:

vika by itself can mean a week or week in general.
In this time expression, viku covers a week; you don’t add anything like a.

If you want to be more explicit about one week (as opposed to several), you can use the numeral einn:

í eina viku – for one week / for a whole week (a bit more emphatic).

But in many contexts, simple í viku already naturally translates as for a week.

How would I say “We have been reading together for a week” (up to now), as opposed to just “We read together for a week”?

To express an action that started in the past and continues up to now, Icelandic typically uses the present perfect:

Við höfum lesið saman í viku.

This corresponds well to English “We have (been) reading together for a week.”

Compare:

Við lesum saman í viku.
- Can be a plan (future) or a kind of general description of what happens when you read together.
Við höfum lesið saman í viku.
- Means: you started reading together a week ago and you are still doing it now (or have just stopped).

So for the ongoing‑up‑to‑now sense, höfum lesið is the more precise form.

Is Í viku lesum við saman also correct, and what changes if I put í viku first?

Yes, Í viku lesum við saman is grammatically correct.

Icelandic is a V2 language: the finite verb (here: lesum) normally appears in second position in main clauses. You can move different elements to the front for emphasis, as long as the verb stays second.

So:

Við lesum saman í viku. – neutral, subject‑first word order.
Í viku lesum við saman. – puts emphasis on “for a week”; roughly like English “For a week, we read together.”

Both are fine; the second just foregrounds the time span a bit more.

How do you pronounce Við lesum saman í viku?

Approximate pronunciation (not strict IPA):

Við – like vith, where th is as in this (voiced). The i is short, like in bit.
lesum – first syllable le like le in let but a bit longer; sum with u similar to the u in pull.
saman – SAH-man, stress on sa-, with a as in father.
í – a long ee sound, like ee in see, but longer.
viku – VEE-ku, stress on ví- (long ee), and -ku with u like oo in book, but shorter.

Very rough IPA: /vɪð lɛːsʏm ˈsaːman iː ˈvɪːkʏ/

Main points:

Stress is on the first syllable of each content word: LES‑um, SA‑man, VÍ‑ku.
ð in Við is the soft th sound as in this, not like think.