Að halda kynningu — structuring a talk

Building a talk

Icelandic presentations and essays are structured with a small closed set of connectors. Learn them as a frame:

slot	Icelandic
firstly	í fyrsta lagi
secondly	í öðru lagi
in addition	auk þess
among other things	meðal annars
finally	að lokum

Firstly, this is too expensive.Í fyrsta lagi er þetta of dýrt.Secondly, we have no time.Í öðru lagi höfum við engan tíma.

Hedging and emphasis

að minnsta kosti — at least: The trip takes at least three days.

Ferðin tekur að minnsta kosti þrjá daga.einungis — only, solely; the formal twin of bara. jafnvel — even, marks the surprising member of a set: Even the teacher did not understand the question.Jafnvel kennarinn skildi ekki spurninguna.