Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Vinátta sem maður getur treyst á er betri en peningur. - Friendship that one can rely on is better than money.

Icelandic often leaves out articles when talking about things in a general, abstract sense, where English would usually say friendship without an article or might say a friendship.

So Vinátta … er betri en peningur = “Friendship … is better than money”, with both nouns used in a general, generic way.

What does maður mean here? Does it mean “a man” or “one/you”?

In this sentence, maður is the impersonal pronoun meaning “one / you / people in general”, not “a (male) man”.

So:

maður (impersonal) ≈ English generic “you” or “one”:
- Vinátta sem maður getur treyst á ≈ “Friendship that you/one can rely on”.

If you said Vinátta sem maðurinn getur treyst á, with the article -inn, then it would be “the man can rely on”, i.e. a specific male person.

Without the article, here maður is understood as a generic human subject, not gender‑specific.

What kind of word is sem and what is it doing in this sentence?

Sem here is a relative pronoun (or “relative word”), similar to “that” / “which / who” in English.

It introduces a relative clause that describes vinátta:

Vinátta [sem maður getur treyst á]
= “Friendship that one can rely on”

Key points:

sem does not change its form for gender, number, or case. It’s always sem.
Its role (subject, object, etc.) is determined by its function in the clause.
Here, sem is the object of the verb phrase treysta á (“rely on”).

So sem links vinátta with the descriptive clause maður getur treyst á.

Why is á at the end of the clause sem maður getur treyst á? Isn’t the preposition supposed to come before the word it goes with?

This is a common and important pattern in Icelandic.

Normally, with a regular noun:

Ég treysti á vináttuna. – “I rely on the friendship.”

But when the object is a relative pronoun (sem), the preposition is typically “stranded” at the end of the clause:

Vinátta sem maður getur treyst á
literally: “Friendship that one can rely on.”

So the structure is:

[vinátta] [sem maður getur treyst á]
= “[friendship] [that one can rely on]”

You do not normally say *á sem maður getur treyst. The natural Icelandic order is:

sem … [verb] … [preposition]

Other examples:

maðurinn sem ég talaði við – “the man I talked to”
húsið sem við bjuggum í – “the house we lived in”

So having á at the end is normal and correct, just like English “rely on” at the end of “friendship that you can rely on”.

What does treyst á mean exactly, and how is it different from just treysta?

The verb að treysta by itself usually means “to trust” and it takes a dative object:

Ég treysti þér. – “I trust you.” (dative þér)

When you add the preposition á, treysta á means more like “to rely on / to count on”:

Ég treysti á þig. – “I rely on you / I count on you.”

In the sentence:

Vinátta sem maður getur treyst á
= “Friendship that one can rely on.”

So:

treysta [dative] = “trust (someone/something)”
treysta á [accusative] = “rely on (someone/something)”

Here the object (the friendship) is not repeated, because it’s already the antecedent of sem.

Does getur mean “can”? Why not use má or something else?

Getur is the 3rd person singular present of geta, which means “to be able to / can” in the sense of ability or possibility:

maður getur treyst á ≈ “one can (is able to) rely on”

Má (from mega) usually means “may / be allowed to”, expressing permission:

maður má gera það – “one may do that / is allowed to do that”.

In this sentence the idea is about whether it is possible to rely on the friendship, not whether you are allowed to, so geta is the natural verb:

Vinátta sem maður getur treyst á – “Friendship that one can rely on.”

Why is it maður getur treyst á and not þú getur treyst á (“you can rely on”)?

Both are grammatically possible, but they have different nuances:

maður getur treyst á
– Generic “one / you / people in general can rely on”.
– Sounds like a general statement or proverb.
þú getur treyst á
– Addresses a specific “you”, the person you’re talking to.
– Would sound more like advice or reassurance to that person.

Because the whole sentence has a proverbial feel (“Friendship you can rely on is better than money”), the impersonal maður is more natural.

What form is betri? Is it related to góður (“good”)?

Yes. Betri is the comparative form of the adjective góður (“good”):

góður – good
betri – better
bestur – best

In the sentence:

… er betri en peningur – “… is better than money.”

Here betri is used predicatively with the verb er (“is”), comparing friendship to money.

What does en mean in betri en peningur? Is it the same as “and”?

In this context, en means “than”, not “and”.

betri en peningur – “better than money”

So the pattern is:

[comparative adjective] + en + [thing compared]
e.g. stærri en húsið – “bigger than the house”

For “and”, Icelandic uses og, not en:

vinátta og peningar – “friendship and money”

What form is peningur here, and does it mean “a coin” or “money” in general?

Peningur is:

a masculine noun
here: nominative singular, indefinite

Literal meaning: originally “coin”, but it is also used metaphorically for “money” in general, especially in casual speech.

So:

peningur – (a) coin / (some) money (general)
peningar (plural) – “money, funds; coins; sums of money”

In this proverb-like sentence, peningur is understood generically as “money”, not a single physical coin.

Why are vinátta and peningur both without any article? Would Icelandic ever say something like “the friendship is better than the money”?

Here both nouns are used generically, not about specific items:

Vinátta … er betri en peningur.
≈ “Friendship is better than money (in general).”

In Icelandic, generic statements about abstract concepts usually use indefinite singular, without an article:

Kjöt er dýrara en grænmeti. – “Meat is more expensive than vegetables.”
Kunnátta er mikilvæg. – “Knowledge is important.”

You could talk about specific things, for example:

Þessi vinátta er betri en þessi peningur.
– “This friendship is better than this money.”
Vináttan okkar er betri en peningana sem við áttum.
– “Our friendship is better than the money we had.”

But that would change the meaning from a general proverb to a specific situation.

Could the sentence be rephrased, for example with hægt er að treysta á instead of maður getur treyst á?

Yes, a very natural alternative would be:

Vinátta sem hægt er að treysta á er betri en peningur.
≈ “Friendship that it is possible to rely on is better than money.”

Here:

hægt er að = “it is possible to / can” (an impersonal construction)
treysta á – same “rely on” verb phrase.

Both versions are idiomatic:

sem maður getur treyst á – literally “that one can rely on”
sem hægt er að treysta á – literally “that it is possible to rely on”

The meaning and tone (proverbial, general statement) are essentially the same.

How would the basic word order look if we stripped away the relative clause?

If you remove sem maður getur treyst á, the core sentence is:

Vinátta er betri en peningur.
– “Friendship is better than money.”

So the basic word order is:

Subject: Vinátta
Verb: er
Predicative adjective (comparative): betri
Comparative particle + noun: en peningur

The relative clause sem maður getur treyst á is inserted right after the noun it modifies (vinátta), just as in English.