Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Við eigum lítinn hóp vina sem talar bara íslensku saman. - We have a small group of friends who speak only Icelandic together.

að eiga – literally “to own, to possess,” but also used for relationships you have, like friends, family, a house, etc.
að hafa – “to have,” “to hold,” often more neutral or temporary.

In Við eigum lítinn hóp vina, eiga is more natural because:

A hóp vina (group of friends) is something you have in the sense of a more permanent or personal relationship.
Using höfum (við höfum lítinn hóp vina) is possible, but it sounds a bit more neutral and less idiomatic in this context.

So eigum emphasizes “this is our group of friends (that we ‘own/possess’ in a relational sense)” rather than just “we happen to have a group right now.”

Why is it lítinn hóp and not lítill hópur?

This is about case and word order.

The basic (dictionary) form is lítill hópur:
- lítill = small (masculine, nominative singular)
- hópur = group (masculine, nominative singular)

But in the sentence, hóp is the direct object of eigum (“we have a small group”), so it must be in the accusative case:

Nominative: lítill hópur
Accusative: lítinn hóp

The adjective lítill has to agree with hóp in:

gender (masc.)
number (singular)
case (accusative)

So it becomes lítinn hóp, not lítill hópur, once it’s an object of the verb.

What is the structure hóp vina? Why vina and not vinir?

hóp vina literally means “group of friends”.

hóp = “group” (accusative singular of hópur)
vina = “of friends” (genitive plural of vinur)

The pattern is:

vinur – a friend (nom. sing.)
vinir – friends (nom. plural)
vina – of friends (genitive plural)

Icelandic often uses the genitive to express “of X”:

hópur barna – a group of children
glas vatns – a glass of water
hóp vina – a group of friends

So we cannot say hóp vinir; we need the genitive form: vina.

Does sem here mean “who” or “that”? What exactly is it doing?

sem is a relative pronoun, like English “who, that, which”.

In ...hóp vina sem talar bara íslensku saman:

sem refers back to hóp (“group”).
It introduces a relative clause: sem talar bara íslensku saman = “that speaks only Icelandic together.”

In English you could translate it either as:

“a small group of friends who speak only Icelandic together,” or
“a small group of friends that speak only Icelandic together.”

In Icelandic, you just use sem for this function; you don’t distinguish “who/that/which” like in English.

Why is it sem talar (singular) and not sem tala (plural), since we’re talking about friends?

Grammatically, sem is referring to hóp (“group”), which is singular:

hópur – group (singular noun)
→ so the verb agrees with hópur, not directly with vina (“friends”).

Hence:

hópur sem talar – a group that speaks (singular) not
hópur sem tala – a group that speak (ungrammatical in standard Icelandic)

If you wanted the friends themselves to be the grammatical subject, you would structure it differently, for example:

Við eigum vini sem tala bara íslensku saman.
“We have friends who only speak Icelandic together.”

Here vinir (friends, plural) → tala (3rd person plural).

What does bara do here, and can it be placed somewhere else?

bara means “only, just” (here: only).

In sem talar bara íslensku saman it modifies íslensku:

talar bara íslensku = “speaks only Icelandic.”

Word‐order is fairly flexible; you might occasionally see things like:

sem bara talar íslensku saman – focuses more on the speaking as restricted
sem talar íslensku bara saman – sounds odd; usually bara stays close to what it limits.

The most natural and neutral place is usually right before the word it restricts:

bara íslensku – only Icelandic.

Why is it íslensku and not íslenska?

The noun for the language is:

íslenska – Icelandic (language), nominative singular (dictionary form)

In this sentence it is the object of tala (“to speak”), so it appears in an oblique case (traditionally taken as accusative here):

Nominative: íslenska
Accusative: íslensku
Dative: íslensku
Genitive: íslensku

So talar bara íslensku = “speaks only Icelandic.”

Note: íslensku happens to be the same form in several cases, but you can remember it simply as “the form used when you say to speak [a language].”

What does saman add to the meaning? Is it necessary?

saman means “together.”

talar bara íslensku = “(he/she/it) speaks only Icelandic”
talar bara íslensku saman = “(they) speak only Icelandic together”

So saman emphasizes that when these people are with each other, they speak Icelandic (as a group activity).

Is it necessary?

Grammatically, no. You could say:
- Við eigum lítinn hóp vina sem talar bara íslensku.
But adding saman makes it explicit that this is their shared group behavior, not just a general fact that each individual speaks Icelandic.

Could I say Við eigum lítinn vinahóp instead of lítinn hóp vina? Is there any difference?

Yes, you can say:

Við eigum lítinn vinahóp sem talar bara íslensku saman.

vinahóp is a compound noun:

vina- (genitive plural of vinur, “friends”)
-hóp (“group”)

So:

lítinn hóp vina – “a small group of friends”
lítinn vinahóp – literally “a small friend-group”

Meaning:

They’re very close in meaning, both fully natural.
vinahóp is slightly more compact and feels like a set phrase (“friend group”).
hóp vina is a bit more transparent as “group of friends.”

In everyday speech, vinahópur / vinahóp is very common for “friend group.”

What does Við eigum literally mean, and how is við used?

við = “we” (nominative plural personal pronoun)
eigum = 1st person plural present of eiga (“to own, to have”)

So Við eigum literally = “We own / we have.”

Paradigm of eiga (present tense, indicative):

ég á – I have
þú átt – you (sg.) have
hann/hún/það á – he/she/it has
við eigum – we have
þið eigiþ – you (pl.) have
þeir/þær/þau eiga – they have

So the pattern pronoun in nominative + finite verb is very normal:

Við eigum ... – We have ...
Við tölum ... – We speak ...
Við förum ... – We go ...

How would the sentence change if I made it past tense?

You mainly need to change eigum → áttum (“we had”):

Við áttum lítinn hóp vina sem talar bara íslensku saman.
(mixed tenses: “We had a small group of friends that speaks only Icelandic together” – present habit of that group)

If you want the entire sentence clearly in the past, you change the relative clause too:

Við áttum lítinn hóp vina sem talaði bara íslensku saman.
“We had a small group of friends who only spoke Icelandic together.”

Changes:

eigum → áttum (past of eiga, 1st person plural)
talar → talaði (past of tala, 3rd person singular)

How would I change this if the group were big and not small?

Replace lítinn (“small”) with the appropriate form of stór (“big”).

You need:

masculine
singular
accusative

For stór (“big”), that form is stóran:

Við eigum stóran hóp vina sem talar bara íslensku saman.
“We have a big group of friends that speaks only Icelandic together.”

So:

lítinn hóp → stóran hóp.