When discussing survey results, polling data, or crowd sizes at public events, you will often need to quantify groups using words like "many", "several", and "few". In Icelandic, these quantifiers function like adjectives and decline to match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe.
Nominative Plural Quantifiers
When the quantified group is the subject of the sentence (nominative case), use the plural nominative forms of margur (many), nokkur (several), and fár (few).
| Meaning | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|
| many | margir | margar | mörg |
| several | nokkrir | nokkrar | nokkur |
| few | fáir | fáar | fá |
Notice that quantifiers for masculine nouns take an -ir ending.
For a neuter noun like börn (children), use the neuter plural form:
Accusative Plural Quantifiers
When the group is the direct object of a verb, the quantifier takes the accusative case.
In the plural, feminine and neuter quantifiers are identical in the nominative and accusative. Only masculine forms change:
| Meaning | Masculine Nominative | Masculine Accusative |
|---|
| many | margir | marga |
| several | nokkrir | nokkra |
| few | fáir | fáa |
Notice how the quantifiers for masculine nouns like kjósendur (voters) and þátttakendur (participants) take the -a ending in the accusative.
Meanwhile, quantifiers for feminine nouns like spurningar (questions) remain identical in the accusative.
Describing the Total Number
When summarizing a crowd or group's size as a single unit, you can use the masculine noun fjöldinn (the number / the crowd). Because it represents a singular concept, you describe it using singular adjectives, such as mikill (great/large) or lítill (small).