Some nouns in Icelandic are always plural. Just like in English, where you have "pants", "scissors", and "glasses", Icelandic has buxur, skæri, and gleraugu.
When taking inventory in a shop, you will often need to count these items:
| I need to count the clothes in the stockroom. | Ég þarf að telja fötin á lagernum. |
Because these words are already plural, you cannot use regular numbers (one, two, three) to count them. Instead, Icelandic uses distributive numerals. Think of these as meaning "one pair of", "two pairs of", etc.
The Distributive Numerals: 1 to 4
Distributive numbers match the noun's gender and case. Since they are only used with plural nouns, they only have plural forms! Here are the forms you need for the subjects (nominative) and objects (accusative) in this lesson:
| Number | Masculine (Nom / Acc) | Feminine (Nom & Acc) | Neuter (Nom & Acc) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | einir / eina | einar | ein |
| 2 | tvennir / tvenna | tvennar | tvenn |
| 3 | þrennir / þrenna | þrennar | þrenn |
| 4 | fernir / ferna | fernar | fern |
Counting Neuter and Feminine "Pairs"
Words like skæri (scissors) and gleraugu (glasses) are neuter plural. Notice how they use the neuter forms ein, tvenn, þrenn, and fern:
| We only have one pair of scissors here. | Við eigum bara ein skæri hér. |
| I have finished counting two pairs of glasses. | Ég er búinn að telja tvenn gleraugu. |
Words for pants, such as gallabuxur (jeans) and sokkabuxur (tights) are feminine plural. They take the feminine forms ending in -ar:
| The customer wants to buy two pairs of jeans. | Viðskiptavinurinn vill kaupa tvennar gallabuxur. |
| She has bought three pairs of tights. | Hún hefur keypt þrennar sokkabuxur. |
Counting Other Pairs (Masculine)
You can also use distributive numerals for things that naturally come in pairs, like shoes (skór) and socks (sokkar). These are masculine, so they use forms ending in -ir for the subject, and -a for the object.
Here, skór is the subject of the sentence, so it uses the nominative þrennir:
| Three pairs of shoes are in the box. | Þrennir skór eru í kassanum. |
But when you need socks (the object receiving the action), you use the accusative ferna:
| We need four pairs of socks. | Okkur vantar ferna sokka. |