Breakdown of Ráðstefnan er í háskólanum í dag.
Questions & Answers about Ráðstefnan er í háskólanum í dag.
Icelandic usually does not use a separate word for “the”.
Instead, it attaches a definite article ending directly to the noun.
In ráðstefnan er í háskólanum í dag:
- ráðstefna = conference
- ráðstefn
- an → ráðstefnan = the conference (feminine, nominative, singular, definite)
- háskóli = university
- háskóla
- num → háskólanum = the university (masculine, dative, singular, definite)
So the meaning “the conference is at the university today” is expressed without a separate word like English “the”—it is “built into” the noun endings.
The ending -an makes the noun definite and also shows gender, number, and case.
Base noun:
- ráðstefna = a conference (feminine, nominative singular, indefinite)
With the definite ending:
- ráðstefn
- an → ráðstefnan = the conference (feminine, nominative singular, definite)
So:
- ráðstefna = “a conference”
- ráðstefnan = “the conference”
The -an part is the definite article, equivalent to “the”, but attached to the noun.
háskólanum is in the dative case, singular, definite. Its form is determined by:
- The preposition í (“in / at”), and
- The fact that it refers to a specific university (“the university”).
Case:
- The preposition í can take dative or accusative:
- dative for location (where something is)
- accusative for motion into something (where something is going)
In this sentence we talk about where the conference is, not where it is going, so we use dative:
- í háskólanum = in/at the university (location → dative)
- If it were motion, it would be:
- Ég fer í háskólann. = I am going to the university. (motion → accusative háskólann)
Indefinite vs definite:
- í háskóla = in/at a university (dative, indefinite)
- í háskólanum = in/at the university (dative, definite)
So háskólanum encodes both “the” and the dative case.
The preposition í can correspond to English “in” or “at”, depending on context.
Literally:
- í = in, into, at, inside (roughly)
In ráðstefnan er í háskólanum í dag:
- A very literal translation is: “The conference is in the university today.”
- Natural English usually says “at the university” instead, so we translate it that way.
General guideline:
- With buildings/institutions, English often prefers “at” where Icelandic uses í:
- í skólanum → “at school”
- í vinnunni → “at work”
- í háskólanum → “at the university”
So you usually choose the English preposition that sounds most natural, even if í is closer to “in” literally.
Yes, that is correct Icelandic, and it just changes the emphasis slightly.
Both are grammatical:
- Ráðstefnan er í háskólanum í dag.
→ Neutral word order, mild focus on where it is (at the university), with “today” added. - Í dag er ráðstefnan í háskólanum.
→ Puts “Í dag” (today) in first position, emphasizing the time (“As for today, the conference is at the university”).
Icelandic is a verb-second (V2) language:
- The finite verb (er) must be in second position in main clauses.
- You can move í dag to the front, but then er still has to be second:
- Í dag er ráðstefnan í háskólanum. ✅
- Í dag ráðstefnan er í háskólanum. ❌ (wrong order)
Yes, í dag is literally “in day”, but as a fixed expression it simply means “today”.
Breakdown:
- í = in
- dagur = day (noun)
- dag = day (accusative singular form)
- í dag → literally “in (this) day” → idiomatically “today”
It’s always written as two separate words:
- í dag = today
There is also í gær = yesterday (“in yesterday”).
All of these are forms of the verb “to be”, but in different tenses:
er = is / am / are (present tense)
- Ráðstefnan er í háskólanum í dag.
- The conference is at the university today.
var = was / were (past tense)
- Ráðstefnan var í háskólanum í gær.
- The conference was at the university yesterday.
verður = will be (future tense of að verða “to become / to get / to be (in future)”)
- Ráðstefnan verður í háskólanum á morgun.
- The conference will be at the university tomorrow.
In your sentence, er is simply the present tense form meaning “is”.
Approximate pronunciation in English terms:
- ráðstefnan ≈ [ˈrauθˌstɛmnan]
Breakdown:
- rá → raú (like English “row” but with a clearer [au] as in “cow”)
- ð → usually a soft “th” sound (like th in “this”), but:
- Between vowels it’s voiced [ð].
- Here, in ráðstefna, it comes before s and is usually devoiced to [θ], like th in “thing”, and can be quite weak or almost unpronounced in fast speech.
- stef → stef (e as in “bed”)
- nan → nun (short a, like “nut”)
So a rough English-style approximation might be:
- “ROWTH-stev-nan”, with the th like in “thing”.
For í dag:
- í = long ee sound, like in “see”
- dag:
- d like English d
- a like “father” (but short)
- g at the end is often a soft, slightly fricative sound; many learners approximate it as a quiet g/k sound: something like “da(k)”.
Overall: ráðstefnan er í dag would sound roughly like “ROWTH-stev-nan air ee da(k)”.
No. In Icelandic, the accent marks do not indicate stress.
They indicate a different vowel quality, not “where to put the stress”.
Key points:
- Stress in Icelandic is almost always on the first syllable of the word.
- RÁÐ-stef-nan (stress on ráð)
- HÁ-skó-la-num (stress on há)
- The accent over vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, æ, ö) means they are distinct vowels, not just “stressed” versions:
- a vs á are two different sounds.
- i vs í are two different sounds.
So in your sentence:
- ráðstefnan → stress on the first syllable (ráð).
- háskólanum → stress on há.
- í is a long [iː] vowel (like “ee”), but it’s a one-syllable word, so the accent just changes the sound, not the stress pattern.
No. háskóli means “university” or “college”, not “high school”.
Etymology:
- hár / há- = high
- skóli = school
- So literally it’s something like “high school” in the sense of higher learning, i.e. university-level.
Some related terms:
- háskóli = university
- framhaldsskóli = upper secondary school / sixth form / high school (depending on system)
- grunnskóli = primary + lower secondary (compulsory school grades for children)
So í háskólanum translates as “at the university”, not “at high school”.