Until (til)

Validity and Expiration

When dealing with official documents like passports, certificates, or contracts, you will often need to discuss deadlines. A document might be valid (gildur) or expired (útrunninn), requiring you to extend (framlengja) or renew (endurnýja) it.

Until: "til" + Genitive Case

To set a deadline or express "until" a certain time, use the preposition til. In Icelandic, prepositions dictate the grammatical case of the noun that follows them. The preposition til always requires the genitive case.

Here are a few common time markers you will use with til and their genitive forms:

• miðnætti (midnight) becomes miðnættis
• mánaðamót (turn of the month) becomes mánaðamóta
• áramót (the New Year) becomes áramóta

Notice how these genitive endings look in action:

Adding "Next" (næstur)

When you want to say "until next [time]", the adjective næstur must also match the noun in the genitive case.

• For masculine and neuter singular nouns, use næsta.
• For plural nouns (like the neuter plurals mánaðamót or áramót), use næstu.

Before: "fyrir" + Accusative Case

Sometimes you need to act before a deadline. To say "before" in a temporal sense, use the preposition fyrir.

Be careful: unlike til, the preposition fyrir requires the accusative case when setting a point in time. For many neuter nouns like miðnætti and áramót, the accusative form is exactly the same as the dictionary form.