Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun.

Notice that Icelandic keeps verb in second position (V2 word order): the first element is kannski, and then the verb förum comes immediately after it.

Why does the verb förum come before við? Why not say Kannski við förum í bíó á morgun like in English?

Icelandic is a V2 language, which means that in a main clause the finite verb almost always comes in second position in the sentence.

The rule is:

First position: one complete element (subject, adverb, object, etc.)
Second position: the finite verb
Then the rest of the sentence.

In your sentence:

First position: kannski (an adverb)
Second position: förum (the verb)
Then: við í bíó á morgun

So Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun is the normal, grammatical order.

Kannski við förum í bíó á morgun breaks the V2 rule and sounds ungrammatical or at least very marked. A native speaker would not say it that way in normal speech.

What exactly is the form förum? What tense and person is it, and what is the infinitive?

The infinitive is fara – to go.
förum is present tense, 1st person plural (we).

Very simplified present tense of fara:

ég fer – I go
þú ferð – you (sg.) go
hann/hún/það fer – he/she/it goes
við förum – we go
þið farið – you (pl.) go
þeir/þær/þau fara – they go

So förum = we go (here used in a “maybe we’ll go” sense, because of kannski and context).

If förum is “we go”, why does the sentence often get translated as Maybe we’ll go to the cinema tomorrow (future) and not Maybe we go…?

Icelandic often uses the present tense for future meaning, especially when there’s a time expression like á morgun (tomorrow).

So:

Förum við í bíó á morgun? – Are we going to the cinema tomorrow? / Shall we go to the cinema tomorrow?
Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun. – Maybe we’ll go to the cinema tomorrow.

English tends to push you toward an explicit future (will, going to) where Icelandic is happy with present tense plus a time expression. The “future” meaning is supplied by context and time words, not by a special tense.

Can I use the future auxiliary munu here? How would that change the sentence?

Yes, you can use munu, which is a future‑like auxiliary, but it changes the nuance slightly.

Examples:

Kannski munum við fara í bíó á morgun.
Literally: Maybe we will go to the cinema tomorrow.
Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun.
Also Maybe we’ll go to the cinema tomorrow, but a bit more neutral and everyday.

Using munu can sound a bit more explicit or sometimes slightly more formal or deliberate. In everyday conversation, Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun is perfectly natural and probably more common.

What does í mean here, and what case does it take in í bíó?

Í is a very common preposition meaning in, into, to, depending on context.

It can take accusative or dative, roughly like this:

accusative: movement into something / direction toward
dative: being inside / at a place

In í bíó we have movement / going to a place, so we expect accusative.

However, bíó is a loanword that is indeclinable in modern usage: its form is the same in all cases in the singular. So you don’t see a case ending change; it just stays bíó.

Functionally, you can think of í bíó here as:
í (+ accusative direction) + bíó (indeclinable noun) → to the movies / to the cinema.

Why is there no definite article like bíóið (the cinema)? Why is it í bíó and not í bíóinu?

In Icelandic, you don’t always use the definite article where English uses the.

The phrase í bíó is a kind of set expression meaning to the cinema / to the movies in general, as an activity, not to one very specific cinema being contrasted with others.

Compare with English:

go to school, go to church, go to bed
(often used without the when you mean the general activity)

Similarly, in Icelandic:

fara í bíó – to go to the cinema (as an activity)
fara í sund – to go swimming / to the swimming pool
fara í búð – to go to the store / shop

You could say í bíóið or í bíóinu if you really mean a specific cinema that has already been identified in context, but the everyday idiom for the activity is simply í bíó.

What exactly does á morgun mean, and how is it different from similar expressions like í fyrramálið or á morgnana?

á morgun
– Literally: on morning
– Idiomatic meaning: tomorrow
í fyrramálið
– Literally: in the early tomorrow‑morning
– Meaning: tomorrow morning (specifically in the morning part of tomorrow)
á morgnana
– Means: in the mornings, every morning (a habitual action)

So:

Förum við í bíó á morgun? – Shall we go to the cinema tomorrow? (any time tomorrow)
Förum við í bíó í fyrramálið? – Shall we go to the cinema tomorrow morning?
Við förum í bíó á morgnana. – We go to the cinema in the mornings (habitual – sounds strange, but grammatically that’s what it would mean).

Can kannski appear in other positions in the sentence, or must it always come first?

Kannski is quite flexible in position. Typical options:

Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun.
– Adverb first, verb in second position (V2). Very natural.
Við förum kannski í bíó á morgun.
– Subject first: við
– Verb in second position: förum
– Then adverb: kannski
Við förum í bíó kannski á morgun.
– Less neutral; can sound a bit more hesitant or like an afterthought: We’ll go to the cinema, maybe tomorrow.

What you cannot do in normal main‑clause word order is move kannski to first and then keep the verb later than second position, e.g.:

✗ Kannski við förum í bíó á morgun. (ungrammatical / very odd)

So kannski is mobile, but the finite verb must stay in second position.

Can við be dropped here? Would Kannski förum í bíó á morgun be acceptable?

Usually, no. In standard Icelandic you do not normally drop subject pronouns the way you might in some other languages.

So:

Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun. – correct
✗ Kannski förum í bíó á morgun. – sounds ungrammatical to a native ear

The -um ending on förum already tells you it’s we, but Icelandic still wants the explicit pronoun við in ordinary speech and writing.

How would I say the same idea in the past tense, like Maybe we went to the cinema tomorrow (if that made sense) or Maybe we went to the cinema yesterday?

To put fara into the past, you use its past tense: fórum (1st person plural).

Kannski fórum við í bíó í gær.
– Maybe we went to the cinema yesterday.

Here:

kannski – maybe
fórum – we went (past)
við – we
í bíó – to the cinema
í gær – yesterday

There’s no sensible way to say maybe we went to the cinema tomorrow in either language, so the natural past‑tense example is with í gær (yesterday) instead of á morgun.

Is kannski the only or the main way to say “maybe / perhaps” in Icelandic? Are there alternatives?

Kannski is by far the most common everyday word for maybe / perhaps.

Other possibilities (less common, more formal or stylistic):

ef til vill – rather formal; often translated as perhaps, possibly.
líklega, sennilega – more like probably.
mögulega – possibly, often a bit more formal or careful.

For a simple, spoken sentence like Maybe we’ll go to the cinema tomorrow, kannski is the natural and default choice:

Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun.

Does Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun sound like a suggestion, a plan, or just a possibility? How would I say a more direct suggestion like “Shall we go to the cinema tomorrow?” in Icelandic?

Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun is usually heard as a tentative possibility:

Maybe we’ll go to the cinema tomorrow
(no clear decision yet; just floating the idea or thinking out loud)

For a direct suggestion / proposal, Icelandic often uses a question with eigum við (shall we / should we), or förum við with questioning intonation:

Eigum við að fara í bíó á morgun?
– Shall we go to the cinema tomorrow?
Förum við í bíó á morgun?
– Are we going to the cinema tomorrow? / Shall we go to the cinema tomorrow? (context and tone decide)

So:

Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun. – maybe / possibly
Eigum við að fara í bíó á morgun? – let’s / shall we? (clear suggestion)

How do you pronounce each word in Kannski förum við í bíó á morgun, roughly using English sounds?

Very rough approximations (not perfect, but helpful):

Kannski – KAHN-ski
- a as in father (shorter), nnsk cluster; final -i like ee.
förum – FUR-um
- ö like the vowel in British fur or like French eu in peur.
- Final -um like oom but shorter and with lips rounded.
við – close to vith
- ð is a voiced th as in this.
í – ee
- Long ee sound.
bíó – BEE-yo
- bí like English bee, ó like oh.
á – ow in cow, but shorter and cleaner.
morgun – roughly MOR-gun
- First syllable like more (without the long English diphthong),
- Final -un is very short, almost like uhn.

Put together, slowly:
KAHN-ski FUR-um vith ee BEE-yo ow MOR-gun.