Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Vinkona mín býr í borginni. - My female friend lives in the city.

You can put mín before the noun (mín vinkona), but that sounds marked or emphatic, like “my friend (as opposed to someone else’s)” or “dear friend of mine” in a special context. The neutral everyday order is vinkona mín.

What form of “my” is mín, and why this one?

Icelandic possessive pronouns agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

The basic forms of “my” are:

minn – masculine, singular, nominative
mín – feminine, singular, nominative
mitt – neuter, singular, nominative

In vinkona mín býr í borginni:

vinkona is feminine, singular, nominative (it’s the subject).
Therefore the possessive must also be feminine singular nominative → mín.

If the noun changed case or number, the possessive would change too. For example:

Ég sé vinkonu mína. – I see my (female) friend.
- vinkonu: feminine singular accusative
- mína: feminine singular accusative form of “my”

So mín here is exactly the form that matches vinkona as subject.

What is special about the word vinkona? Why not just vinur?

Icelandic often marks natural gender in nouns.

vinur (m.) = friend (grammatically masculine; often male or gender-neutral “friend”)
vinkona (f.) = female friend (literally “friend-woman”)

So vinkona mín explicitly means “my female friend”.

If you wanted to talk about a (possibly male or unspecified) friend, you would say:

Vinur minn býr í borginni. – My (male/unspecified) friend lives in the city.

English “friend” is gender-neutral, but Icelandic has these two common options. Context usually decides which one you use.

What grammatical role and form does vinkona mín have in this sentence?

Vinkona mín is the subject of the sentence: the person who is doing the “living”.

vinkona is:
- feminine
- singular
- nominative (subject case)
mín agrees with vinkona:
- feminine, singular, nominative form of “my”

So grammatically:

Vinkona mín = “my (female) friend” in nominative, functioning as the subject of býr (“lives”).

Why is the verb býr used here, and what verb is it from?

Býr is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb búa, which means “to live, to reside, to dwell” (in the sense of living somewhere).

Present tense forms of búa are:

ég bý – I live
þú býrð – you live (singular)
hann / hún / það býr – he / she / it lives
við búum – we live
þið búið – you live (plural)
þeir / þær / þau búa – they live

In the sentence:

vinkona mín = third person singular (she)
so we use býr: Vinkona mín býr í borginni. – My (female) friend lives in the city.

Does býr mean “lives” or “is living”? How is aspect expressed?

Býr covers both English meanings “lives” and “is living” when talking about residence.

So:

Vinkona mín býr í borginni.
- can be understood as:
  - “My (female) friend lives in the city.” (habitual, long-term)
  - or “My (female) friend is living in the city (at the moment).”

Icelandic normally uses the simple present for both habitual and ongoing actions.
A progressive form like er að búa is not used in this sense of “live somewhere”; you just use býr.

Why is it í borginni and not just í borg? What does the ending -inni do?

The ending -inni on borginni is a definite article plus a case ending.

borg = “city” (indefinite)
borgin = “the city” (definite, nominative)
borginni = “the city” (definite, dative singular)

So:

í borg would mean “in a city” (unspecified)
í borginni means “in the city” (a specific city that speaker/listener have in mind)

English uses a separate word “the”; Icelandic usually attaches the definite article as a suffix:

borg → borgin / borgina / borginni / borgarinnar (depending on case)

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about the city, not just any city, so í borginni is used.

What case is borginni in, and why does the preposition í use that case?

Borginni is in the dative case, singular, definite.

The preposition í (“in, into”) can govern either accusative or dative:

accusative = movement into something
dative = location inside something

In this sentence:

We’re describing where she lives (static location), not movement.
So í takes the dative → í borginni = in the (specific) city.

Contrast:

Hún fer í borgina. – She goes into the city. (movement → accusative: borgina)
Hún býr í borginni. – She lives in the city. (location → dative: borginni)

How would I say “My (female) friends live in the city”? What changes from the original sentence?

You make the subject plural and match the verb and possessive:

Vinkonur mínar búa í borginni.
- vinkonur – plural of vinkona (“female friends”)
- mínar – feminine plural nominative form of “my”
- búa – 3rd person plural present of búa

Comparison:

Singular: Vinkona mín býr í borginni. – My (female) friend lives in the city.
Plural: Vinkonur mínar búa í borginni. – My (female) friends live in the city.

Can I change the word order, like Í borginni býr vinkona mín? Is that still correct?

Yes, Í borginni býr vinkona mín is grammatically correct.

Icelandic main clauses generally follow a “verb in second position” (V2) rule:

One element first (often the subject, but not always),
then the finite verb,
then the rest.

Original:

Vinkona mín (1st element) + býr (2nd: verb) + í borginni (rest)

With fronted prepositional phrase:

Í borginni (1st element) + býr (2nd: verb) + vinkona mín (rest)

Word order change usually adds emphasis or sets the scene:

Í borginni býr vinkona mín. – In the city lives my friend. (maybe contrasting with people living elsewhere).

How do you pronounce Vinkona mín býr í borginni?

Approximate pronunciation (not strict IPA):

Vinkona ≈ “VIN-koh-na”
- vin like English “vin” in “vintage” (short “i”)
- k is strongly aspirated: little puff of air
- stress on the first syllable: VIN-kona
mín ≈ “meen”
- long ee sound like in “machine”
- n clear at the end
býr ≈ something like “beer” (but without an extra schwa at the end)
- vowel like “ee” in “see”
- r is rolled or trilled
í ≈ “ee” in “see” (long and clear)
borginni ≈ “BOR-gin-ni”
- bor like English “bore” but with a shorter vowel
- g clearly pronounced (not silent)
- double nn makes the n longer
- stress on BOR: BOR-gin-ni

Rhythm-wise:
VÍN-koh-na mín BYR í BOR-gin-ni, with the main stresses on VÍN, BYR, and BOR.

Can I leave out mín and just say Vinkona býr í borginni?

You normally cannot just drop mín without changing the meaning.

Vinkona mín býr í borginni.
- “My (female) friend lives in the city.”

If you say:

Vinkona býr í borginni.
- This sounds odd on its own; it’s like saying “A (female) friend lives in the city” but without specifying whose friend or in what context.
- Also, Icelandic has no indefinite article “a”, so bare vinkona already tends to imply “a female friend,” but it will feel incomplete unless the wider context explains whose friend she is.

To say “A (female) friend lives in the city,” you might say, for example:

Ein vinkona býr í borginni. – One / A certain female friend lives in the city.

So mín isn’t optional if you specifically mean “my friend”.

How would the sentence change if I wanted to talk about a male or gender-neutral “friend” instead of a clearly female one?

You would usually use vinur (masculine “friend”) instead of vinkona:

Vinur minn býr í borginni.
- vinur – (male/unspecified) friend, masculine
- minn – masculine singular nominative of “my”
- translation: “My (male/unspecified) friend lives in the city.”

So:

Vinkona mín býr í borginni. – My female friend lives in the city.
Vinur minn býr í borginni. – My (male or unspecified) friend lives in the city.

English doesn’t force you to choose a gendered form of “friend,” but Icelandic often does, with vinur vs vinkona.