When discussing demographics, statistics, or news, you often need to state where you got your information. To say "according to" in Icelandic, use the preposition samkvæmt.
Reporting Sources with "samkvæmt"
Like many prepositions, samkvæmt dictates the case of the noun that follows it. It always takes the dative case.
| according to | samkvæmt |
Let's look at how this changes the endings of definite nouns. For a neuter noun like manntalið (the census), the definite dative ending is -nu, making it manntalinu.
| According to the census, the majority lives in the city. | Samkvæmt manntalinu býr meirihlutinn í borginni. |
Feminine nouns with the definite article often end in -in in the nominative case, such as tölfræðin (the statistics) or spáin (the forecast). Following samkvæmt, the article changes to the dative -inni or -nni:
- tölfræðin becomes tölfræðinni
- spáin becomes spánni
| According to the statistics, women live longer than men. | Samkvæmt tölfræðinni lifa konur lengur en karlmenn. |
| According to the forecast, there will be a great decrease in the countryside. | Samkvæmt spánni verður mikil fækkun í sveitinni. |
Discussing Demographic Data
Once you have stated your source using samkvæmt, you can describe the trends. Notice how terms like fjölgunin (the increase) and lífslíkurnar (the life expectancy) act as the subject of the sentence in the nominative case, while the source remains in the dative.
| According to the census, life expectancy is good and the increase is fast. | Samkvæmt manntalinu eru lífslíkurnar góðar og fjölgunin hröð. |