-lega — making adverbs out of adjectives

The rule you have been using without being told

Icelandic builds adverbs from adjectives with -lega, the way English uses -ly. You already know a dozen of them:

adjectiveadverb
öruggur safeörugglegadefinitely
líklegur likelylíklegaprobably
venjulegur usualvenjulegausually
nákvæmur exactnákvæmlegaexactly
nýr newnýlegarecently
skyndilegur suddenskyndilegasuddenly

Take the adjective, drop the masculine -ur, add -lega.

She sings incredibly well.
Hún syngur ótrúlega vel.

Four more

adverb
kærlegadearly, warmly — above all in takk kærlega, thank you very much
rosalegaextremely (colloquial, very common in speech)
ótrúlegaincredibly
sæmilegareasonably, fairly well

rosalega and ótrúlega work like mjög — they intensify an adjective: rosalega góður, ótrúlega dýr.

The food is extremely good.
Maturinn er rosalega góður.

Two that are not -lega

sjálfsagt of course, naturally and einnig also, too — a more written alternative to líka.

She speaks Icelandic and also English.
Hún talar íslensku og einnig ensku.

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