When pitching a business idea or concluding an argument, you need a strong way to summarize your points. In Icelandic, you can wrap things up neatly and professionally with a key discourse marker.
Summarizing with "Í stuttu máli"
Í stuttu máli translates to "in short" or "briefly."
It is most commonly placed at the beginning of a sentence to deliver your main takeaway. Because Icelandic is a V2 (verb-second) language, starting your sentence with í stuttu máli means the conjugated verb must come immediately after it, before the subject.
| in short | í stuttu máli |
| In short, this is a new startup. | Í stuttu máli er þetta nýtt sprotafyrirtæki. |
| In short, the business model is very effective. | Í stuttu máli er viðskiptalíkanið mjög árangursríkt. |
Building Your Pitch
To sell your idea to an investor, you will need convincing vocabulary to explain your business model and target audience before you deliver your final summary.
| The target group is large and our uniqueness is clear. | Markhópurinn er stór og sérstaðan okkar er skýr. |
| It is easy to make the startup profitable. | Það er auðvelt að gera sprotafyrirtækið arðbært. |
| The business model works well because the target group is large. | Viðskiptalíkanið virkar vel af því að markhópurinn er stór. |
Bringing It All Together
Once you have laid out your arguments, use í stuttu máli to deliver a confident concluding statement about your uniqueness, profitability, or funding needs.
| In short, our uniqueness is very convincing. | Í stuttu máli er sérstaðan okkar mjög sannfærandi. |
| In short, the idea is profitable, but we need the seed money. | Í stuttu máli er hugmyndin arðbær en við þurfum stofnféð. |
Notice in the following example that the verb-second rule still applies even with an impersonal verb like vanta (to need/lack). The verb vantar immediately follows the marker, pushing the pronoun okkur to the third position.
| In short, we need the seed capital today. | Í stuttu máli vantar okkur stofnféð í dag. |
