Persónuupplýsingar — ID number, email, home country

The kennitala

Every person in Iceland has a kennitala — a ten-digit identity number. It is the first thing you are asked for at the doctor's, the bank and the shop, so you will hear the question Hver er kennitalan þín? constantly.

Notice the word order: the possessive follows the noun — kennitalan mín, my ID number — exactly like bókin mín.

Where you are from, what you speak

heimalandið is the home country, the word used on every form. Two more languages join íslenska and enska, and like them they take the accusative after tala:

Danish is not a foreign curiosity here: it is taught in every Icelandic school.

Everyday places and things

netfangið the email address, orðabókin the dictionary, bensínstöðin the petrol station, sumarfríið the summer holiday.