Weak neuter body parts (auga, eyra, hjarta, lunga)

Four Special Body Parts

In Icelandic, there is a very small, closed set of weak neuter nouns. They all end in -a in the singular, and they are all body parts: auga (eye), eyra (ear), hjarta (heart), and lunga (lung).

This lesson focuses purely on mastering their irregular plural forms.

Because they form a unique class, they share a very specific plural declension pattern. Here is a summary of all the plural forms, using auga as an example:

Nominative and Accusative Plural

In the plural, these nouns take the ending -u for both the nominative and accusative cases. When you add the definite article, the ending becomes -un.

Remember the U-shift: because of the -u ending, the a in the root of hjarta changes to an ö, making it hjörtu (or hjörtun).

The Dative Plural

Like almost all nouns in Icelandic, the dative plural ends in -um. With the definite article attached, this becomes -unum. The U-shift for hjarta still applies here (hjörtum).

You will frequently see these dative forms when talking about things located inside the eyes or ears, which takes the preposition í plus the dative case.

The Genitive Plural

The genitive plural of these four nouns is completely unique. Instead of the standard -a ending, they take -na. With the definite article, this becomes -nanna.

This gives us the forms augna, eyrna, lungna, and hjartna.

Notice that hjartna reverts to its original a. Because the -u ending is gone, there is nothing left to trigger the U-shift!