Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég vil bæta heilsuna og orkuna með því að ganga meira og sofa betur. - I want to improve my health and my energy by walking more and sleeping better.

Ég vil literally means “I want”.
- Ég is the subject in the nominative case.
- vil is the verb vilja (to want), used like a normal verb or modal verb.
Mig langar literally means “(it) longs me” / “I feel like (doing something)”.
- mig is accusative, not nominative.
- The grammatical subject is an unspoken það (“it”), so the structure is different.

In this sentence the speaker is expressing a clear intention or decision about their life: “I want to improve my health and energy…”, so Ég vil is the most natural choice.
Mig langar would sound more like “I feel like improving my health and energy”, which is weaker and less goal‑oriented.

What form of the verb is vil, and how does it work in the sentence?

vil is the 1st person singular present tense of the verb vilja (“to want”).

Full infinitive: að vilja – to want
Present: ég vil, þú vilt, hann/hún/það vill, við viljum, þið viljið, þeir/þær/þau vilja

In the sentence:

Ég vil bæta heilsuna og orkuna…
I want to improve the health and the energy…

vil works like a modal verb: it is followed directly by another verb in the infinitive (bæta) without að:

Ég vil bæta… (not Ég vil að bæta…)

What exactly does bæta mean here, and why is there no reflexive pronoun like mig?

að bæta basically means “to improve” or “to make better”.

Structure: bæta + (accusative object)
- bæta heilsuna – improve (the) health
- bæta orkuna – improve (the) energy

We do not need a reflexive pronoun like mig here, because the thing being improved is already expressed explicitly: heilsuna og orkuna.

You might see related forms:

að bæta sig – to improve oneself (as a person, at a sport, etc.)
að bæta við – to add (something)

But in this sentence it’s just bæta + the thing you improve.

Why do heilsuna and orkuna end in -na?

The -na here is part of the definite ending.

Base nouns:
- heils[a] – health (feminine)
- ork[a] – energy (feminine)

Their definite forms in the accusative singular are:

heilsu → heilsuna – the health
orku → orkuna – the energy

Pattern (feminine, -a nouns):

Nominative sg. def.: heilsan, orkan
Accusative sg. def.: heilsuna, orkuna

So -na is not a separate word; it’s the built‑in definite article attached to the noun in the correct case.

Why is the definite form used for “health” and “energy” in Icelandic, when English says just “health and energy” without “the”?

Icelandic often uses the definite form with abstract nouns when you mean your own specific health/energy in your life right now, even if English doesn’t use the.

bæta heilsuna og orkuna
→ literally “improve the health and the energy”
→ understood as “improve my health and my energy”

Using the indefinite forms:

bæta heilsu og orku

is grammatically fine, but it sounds more general or abstract (“improve health and energy” in some broad sense) rather than talking clearly about your own.

In everyday speech about your personal state, the definite forms are more natural here.

What case are heilsuna and orkuna in, and why?

They are both in the accusative singular.

The verb bæta takes a direct object in the accusative:
- bæta [hvað?] – improve what?

So:

heilsuna – accusative singular definite (fem.) of heilsa
orkuna – accusative singular definite (fem.) of orka

The structure is:

Ég (nom.) vil bæta heilsuna og orkuna (acc. objects)

How does með því að work here, and why do we need all three words?

með því að is a very common construction meaning “by (doing something)” or “through (doing something)”.

Breakdown:

með – with / by means of (a preposition)
því – “that”, neuter dative singular pronoun (here it’s a sort of dummy object of með)
að – the infinitive marker before a verb

Literal idea: “with that (of) to walk more and to sleep better”
Natural translation: “by walking more and sleeping better”.

You generally must include því:

✔ með því að ganga meira – by walking more
✘ með að ganga meira – ungrammatical

So think of með því að + infinitive as a fixed pattern: “by doing X”.

What is því grammatically in this phrase?

Grammatically, því is:

the neuter dative singular form of the pronoun hann / hún / það (the “it / that” series)
used here as a kind of formal object of the preposition með

In patterns like:

með því að… – by doing…
í því að… – in doing / in the act of…
áður en því er lokið – before it is finished

the því does not have a concrete meaning like “that thing over there”; it’s more of a grammatical placeholder that allows a clause with að + verb to follow the preposition.

Why are ganga and sofa in this form?

Both ganga and sofa are in the infinitive form because they come after að and are part of the “með því að …” construction.

að ganga – to walk
að sofa – to sleep

In the phrase:

með því að ganga meira og sofa betur

you literally have:

“by to walk more and to sleep better”

In English we just say “by walking and sleeping”, but in Icelandic it uses að + infinitive for this kind of “-ing” meaning.

Is there a difference between ganga and labba for “to walk”?

Yes, there is a nuance:

að ganga
- more neutral / standard / sometimes a bit formal
- can mean “to walk, to go on foot, to hike”
- used in many fixed expressions:
  - ganga í skólann – walk to school
  - ganga í fjöllum – go/hike in the mountains
  - hvernig gengur? – how’s it going?
að labba
- more colloquial / informal
- everyday “walk” in casual speech

In this sentence, ganga meira is a natural choice, especially in a “health and lifestyle” context.
You could say labba meira, but it would sound more conversational.

Why is it meira and not something like meira en núna?

meira is the comparative form of mikið (“much, a lot”) and is used adverbially here:

ganga meira – walk more (than before / than I do now)

The comparison is usually understood from context:

“I want to improve my health and energy by walking more [than I do now].”

If you really want to be explicit, you can say:

ganga meira en núna – walk more than now
ganga meira en ég geri núna – walk more than I do now

But it’s not necessary; meira alone is perfectly natural.

Why is “better” translated as betur and not betri?

Icelandic has two different words for English “better”, depending on what you’re modifying:

betri – adjective “better” (describes nouns)
- betri svefn – better sleep
- betri maður – a better man
betur – adverb “better” (describes verbs)
- sofa betur – sleep better
- gera það betur – do it better

In the sentence:

sofa betur – to sleep better

betur modifies the verb sofa, so the adverb form is required, not the adjective betri.

Could I say Ég vil bæta heilsu og orku instead? Does it change the meaning?

You can say Ég vil bæta heilsu og orku and it is grammatically correct.

However, the nuance changes slightly:

bæta heilsuna og orkuna
- more specific / concrete
- sounds clearly like “my (current) health and my (current) energy”
bæta heilsu og orku
- more general or abstract, like “improve health and energy (in general)”

For a personal resolution about your own lifestyle, the sentence with the definite forms (heilsuna, orkuna) is more idiomatic.

How does the overall word order work in this sentence? Could parts be moved?

Word order is basically:

Subject – Ég
Verb – vil
Infinitive verb – bæta
Object(s) – heilsuna og orkuna
Manner / means phrase – með því að ganga meira og sofa betur

Ég vil bæta heilsuna og orkuna með því að ganga meira og sofa betur.

Key points:

The finite verb (vil) usually goes in 2nd position in a main clause.
You can move the “by walking more and sleeping better” phrase slightly, but you can’t break the basic rule that vil must stay in the verb‑second position.

Examples:

Still okay (stylistic changes):
- Ég vil, með því að ganga meira og sofa betur, bæta heilsuna og orkuna.
  (more formal / written style)
But not:
- ✘ Ég með því að ganga meira og sofa betur vil bæta heilsuna og orkuna.
  (breaks the verb‑second rule)

How do you pronounce the tricky words like bæta, með, því, ganga, and sofa?

Approximate pronunciations (not strict IPA, just helpful for an English speaker):

Ég – like “yeh” with a bit of y and eh blended.
vil – roughly “vil” (short i as in bit).
bæta – “BYE-ta”
- æ like in English “eye”.
- Stress on the first syllable: BÆY‑ta.
með – roughly “mehth”
- short e as in met.
- ð is a soft th like in this (not like thing).
því – roughly “thvee”
- þ = unvoiced th as in thing.
- í = long “ee” like in see.
ganga – roughly “GOWN-ga” but with a more open a.
- gan‑ a bit like gang but with a softer, more open a.
- stress on first syllable: GAN‑ga.
sofa – “SOH-va”
- o like o in boat but shorter.
- stress on SO‑.

The main challenges for English speakers are the æ, ð, and þ sounds; the rest of the word shapes are fairly regular once you’re used to Icelandic vowel lengths and stress.