Questions & Answers about Ég á son.
Icelandic has no indefinite article like English “a / an”.
So:
- son = a son or one son or just son
- maður = a man or one man
If you want to make it very clear you mean exactly one, you can add einn (one):
- Ég á einn son. = I have one son.
But for the normal “I have a son”, Ég á son is the natural, correct way.
The dictionary form of the word is sonur (nominative singular), but in Ég á son, the word son is in the accusative case.
- The subject is Ég (I) – nominative case.
- The object of the verb á (have / own) is son – accusative case.
For this noun:
- Nominative singular: sonur (used when it’s the subject)
- Accusative singular: son (used when it’s the direct object, as here)
So Ég á son literally has “son” in the object form, which is why the -ur ending disappears.
Á is the first person singular present tense of the verb að eiga, which mainly means “to own, to have”.
- að eiga = to own / to have
- ég á = I have / I own
So Ég á son literally means “I own a son”, but in natural English we just say “I have a son.”
Að eiga is irregular in the present tense. The present forms are:
- ég á – I have
- þú átt – you (sg.) have
- hann / hún / það á – he / she / it has
- við eigum – we have
- þið eigið – you (pl.) have
- þeir / þær / þau eiga – they have
You will notice vowel changes (á / átt / eig- / eiga), which is why it’s considered irregular.
Icelandic can express “have” in several ways, and they are not always interchangeable:
að eiga (ég á)
- Used for ownership / family relations / stable possessions.
- Ég á son. – I have a son.
- Hún á bíl. – She has a car.
að hafa (ég hef)
- Often used for abstract possession or temporary situations, especially in fixed expressions.
- Ég hef tíma. – I have time.
- Hefurðu áhuga? – Do you have interest?
að vera með (ég er með)
- Literally “I am with …”, often used for things you are currently carrying / temporarily have with you / currently experiencing.
- Ég er með penna. – I have a pen (on me).
- Ég er með hausverk. – I have a headache.
For family members, you normally use á:
✅ Ég á son.
❌ Ég hef son. (sounds wrong)
❌ Ég er með son. (only used in odd or joking contexts)
A careful phonetic approximation in IPA is:
- Ég ≈ [jɛiːɣ] (often sounds close to “yayg”)
- á ≈ [auː] (like “ow” in cow, but longer)
- son ≈ [sɔːn] (similar to English “son”, but with a slightly more open vowel and longer)
So the whole sentence:
Ég á son. ≈ [jɛiːɣ auː sɔːn]
Main points:
- Stress is on Ég and son (every Icelandic word has initial stress).
- The g in Ég is a soft, fricative sound [ɣ], not a hard “g” like in go.
- á is a long diphthong [auː].
Icelandic main clauses are generally S–V–O (Subject–Verb–Object), very similar to English:
- Ég (subject)
- á (verb)
- son (object)
So Ég á son = Subject – Verb – Object, just like I have a son.
Icelandic does have a verb-second (V2) rule in many types of clauses (especially when something else is in first position), but in a simple neutral statement like this, subject first, then verb, then object is the normal order.
Ég son á is ungrammatical.
Sonur is a masculine noun and declines like this in the singular:
- Nominative (subject): sonur – Sonur minn er fimm ára. – My son is five years old.
- Accusative (direct object): son – Ég á son. – I have a son.
- Dative (indirect object): syni – Ég gef syni mínum gjöf. – I give my son a gift.
- Genitive (possession): sonar – húsið sonar míns – my son’s house
Knowing that son is the accusative helps you recognize similar patterns with other masculine nouns ending in -ur.
For two sons:
- Ég á tvo syni. – I have two sons.
- tvo = accusative masculine of “two”
- syni = accusative plural of sonur
For a daughter:
- Ég á dóttur. – I have a daughter.
- Dictionary form: dóttir (nominative)
- Accusative singular: dóttur (as object of á)
So the pattern Ég á + [accusative object] stays the same; you just change number and noun form.
You negate the verb á with ekki:
- Ég á ekki son. – I don’t have a son.
Word order:
- Ég – subject
- á – verb
- ekki – negation
- son – object
You can also say Ég á engan son. – I have no son / I don’t have any son at all, which sounds a bit stronger.
Here engan is the accusative masculine form of enginn (“no, none”).
Use ertu / ertu með? / átt þú? etc., but with að eiga the most natural is:
- Áttu son? – Do you have a son?
Here:
- áttu = á (have) + -ttu, the usual spoken form of átt þú
- Subject “you” (þú) moves to follow the verb.
A slightly more formal or very clear version:
- Átt þú son? – Do you have a son?
Both are understood; Áttu son? is more common in normal speech.
Ég á son is neutral and standard; it works in almost any context:
- Everyday conversation
- Talking to a doctor or teacher
- Filling in a basic personal-information statement (spoken)
If you needed to be extra formal in writing, you might give more detail (e.g. Ég á einn son, fæddan árið …), but the basic sentence Ég á son itself is neither slangy nor especially formal—just normal, correct Icelandic.
In Icelandic, stress is almost always on the first syllable of each word:
- Ég – stressed (it’s a single-syllable word)
- á – stressed (also single-syllable)
- son – stressed (single-syllable)
In a full sentence, you naturally emphasize the important information, often the last content word:
- Neutral: Ég á SON. (emphasis on son)
- If you contrast with someone else: ÉG á son. (I, as opposed to someone else)
Stress patterns don’t normally change the basic grammatical meaning in Icelandic the way they sometimes can in English (e.g. ‘record vs re‘cord), but they do affect focus and emphasis in the sentence.