Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Lífið gefur okkur minningar, bæði gleði og sorg sem við lærum af. - Life gives us memories, both joy and sorrow that we learn from.

Even though English says “life gives us memories” (no “the”), Icelandic often uses the definite form for general concepts like life, nature, the mind, etc. So Lífið here really means “life (in general)”, even though it literally looks like “the life”.

Why is Lífið the subject of gefur? Shouldn’t life be “it” or something?

In Icelandic, nouns are used very freely as subjects, even for abstract ideas:

Lífið gefur okkur minningar…
Life gives us memories…

The grammar:

Lífið – subject (nominative singular, definite)
gefur – verb “gives”, 3rd person singular present

You could in theory say Það gefur okkur minningar (It gives us memories), but that would be vague. Using Lífið as the subject is completely natural and stylistically better.

What exactly is gefur? How is it conjugated?

Gefa = “to give” (strong verb).

Present tense forms (singular/plural):

ég gef – I give
þú gefur – you (sg.) give
hann / hún / það gefur – he / she / it gives
við gefum – we give
þið gefið – you (pl.) give
þeir / þær / þau gefa – they give

In the sentence:

subject Lífið = “life” → 3rd person singular
so the correct form is gefur.

Structure of the verb with objects:

gefa
- dative (indirect object) + accusative (direct object)
  → gefa einhverjum eitthvað – to give someone something

Here:

okkur (us) = dative → indirect object
minningar, bæði gleði og sorg = accusative → direct object(s)

What does okkur mean exactly, and why not við?

Við and okkur are different cases of the same pronoun.

við = we (nominative, subject form)
okkur = us (dative and accusative form)

Declension of við (we):

Nominative: við – we
Accusative: okkur – us
Dative: okkur – to/for us
Genitive: okkar – of us / our

In the sentence, okkur is the indirect object of gefa:

Lífið gefur okkur minningar
Life gives us memories

Because we are not the subject here (life is), you cannot use við. You must use the object form okkur.

What case is minningar, and why is it plural with no article?

Minningar is the plural of minning (“memory”).

Declension (simplified):

Singular nominative: minning – a memory
Plural nominative: minningar – memories
Plural accusative: minningar – memories (same form)

In the sentence, minningar is a direct object of gefur, so it is in the accusative plural (form identical to nominative).

There is no article:

minningar = (some) memories
minningarnar = the memories

The meaning here is general: “gives us memories”, not “gives us the memories”, so the indefinite plural is used.

How does bæði … og … work? Is it just “both … and …”?

Yes. Bæði … og … = “both … and …”.

In this sentence:

bæði gleði og sorg
= both joy and sorrow

Some patterns:

bæði svart og hvítt – both black and white
bæði hann og hún komu – both he and she came

Word order is straightforward: bæði goes before the first item, og before the second.

What is the role of gleði and sorg in the sentence? Are they just more objects?

Yes. The structure is:

Lífið gefur okkur minningar, bæði gleði og sorg…

You can see it as:

Lífið gefur okkur minningar
og þær minningar eru bæði gleði og sorg

So:

minningar = “memories” – main direct object
bæði gleði og sorg = an explanation/expansion of what kind of memories:
- gleði – joy
- sorg – sorrow, grief

Grammatically, gleði and sorg are also in the accusative as parts of what is being given, but functionally they are in apposition to minningar (they specify what the memories consist of).

What does sem mean here, and what does it refer back to?

Sem is a relative pronoun/conjunction, usually translated as “that / which / who”, depending on context.

In the sentence:

… gleði og sorg sem við lærum af.
→ … joy and sorrow that we learn from.

Here, sem refers back to minningar, bæði gleði og sorg as a group:

the memories, both joy and sorrow, that we learn from

Icelandic sem:

does not change form for gender, number, or case
can be used for people and things alike

So you use sem whether it’s “who”, “which”, or “that” in English. Context tells you which English word to choose.

Why is the preposition af at the very end: sem við lærum af? Could it be somewhere else?

Af means roughly “from / of” here, in the expression læra af einhverju – to learn from something.

In a basic clause, you’d see:

Við lærum af reynslunni. – We learn from the experience.

In a relative clause where the “thing learned from” is omitted (because it’s already mentioned as minningar), Icelandic very often leaves the preposition at the end, just like English:

minningar … sem við lærum af
= memories … that we learn from

You cannot say *af sem við lærum. If you want the preposition before the relative clause, you need a pronoun:

af því sem við lærum – from that which we learn

So in this kind of sentence, sem við lærum af is the natural, idiomatic order.

Could I use frá instead of af in við lærum af?

Usually no – not in this expression.

Both af and frá can translate to “from”, but they are not interchangeable in all uses:

læra af einhverju – to learn from something (correct, idiomatic)
*læra frá einhverju – sounds wrong/foreign

Typical patterns:

læra af mistökum sínum – learn from one’s mistakes
fá bréf frá vini – get a letter from a friend
koma frá Íslandi – come from Iceland

In this fixed expression “learn from (something)”, you should remember af, not frá.

What form is lærum, and how does it relate to við?

Læra = “to learn” (weak verb).

Present tense:

ég læri – I learn
þú lærir – you (sg.) learn
hann / hún / það lærir – he / she / it learns
við lærum – we learn
þið lærið – you (pl.) learn
þeir / þær / þau læra – they learn

In the sentence:

við = we (nominative)
lærum = we learn

So við lærum = “we learn”, a straightforward subject–verb agreement.

Could I say “Lífið gefur minningar okkur” instead of “gefur okkur minningar”?

No, that would be ungrammatical word order in Icelandic.

With gefa (to give), the normal order is:

Subject – Verb – Indirect Object (dative) – Direct Object (accusative)

So:

Lífið gefur okkur minningar.
Life gives us memories.

The pattern:

gefa einhverjum eitthvað
give someone (dat.) something (acc.)

Putting minningar before okkur (*gefur minningar okkur) violates the usual double‑object order and sounds very wrong.

Why is there a comma before bæði gleði og sorg? Is that required?

The comma here:

minningar, bæði gleði og sorg sem við lærum af.

is mostly stylistic. It separates:

the main object: minningar
from an appositive/explanatory phrase: bæði gleði og sorg sem við lærum af

You can think of it as:

minningar — bæði gleði og sorg sem við lærum af

In many cases, Icelandic uses commas similarly to English to set off extra descriptive phrases. The sentence would still be understandable without the comma, but with it, the structure and rhythm are clearer.

How would you paraphrase the sentence in simpler Icelandic while keeping the same idea?

One possible, slightly simpler paraphrase:

Lífið gefur okkur minningar. Við upplifum bæði gleði og sorg og lærum af því.

Word‑for‑word idea:

Life gives us memories.
We experience both joy and sorrow and learn from that.

This keeps the same meaning but breaks it into two shorter sentences and makes the relative clause sem við lærum af more explicit as og lærum af því (“and [we] learn from that”).