r/learnIcelandic

Hi everyone!

I started learning Icelandic a few years ago and recently picked it up again because I visited Iceland and bought some new materials. During my first phase of learning, I bought the book Icelandic for Beginners and started Icelandic Online. Along with these, I methodically filled up 3 vocabulary notebooks and 6 regular notebooks.

I also bought the Íslenska fyrir alla book series and have just finished the second volume. They are useful books, but I feel like they just throw information at you without actually helping it sink in.

I’ve also been studying with AI for that reason, I usually ask for wordlists for conjugation and doing sentence translations that systematically make me practice grammar points like the conjugation in past and present tense, dative/accusative cases and the definite article. I just can't find enough practice materials for these.

Right now, I'm trying to find usable materials that cover fixed prepositional phrases and structures. Unfortunately, the AI regularly sends me incorrect information, and I'm tired of it constantly mixing up the accusative and dative cases, creating non-existing structures or providing example sentences that don't match the given structure, or having inaccurate translations. I also have Stefan Drabek's Icelandic Step by Step, which helps, but it doesn't explain the rules either. Íslenska fyrir alla 3–4 reinforces the A2 level, but doesn't go any further and I think I am above that A2- level for a long time.

I would like to reach B1, but I feel like at this rate it will take forever, and I’ve completely lost my motivation to study.

So what should I do? I don't want to give up just like that.. I know I might need a teacher, but apart from that...

Can anyone help me giving advice or send me some useful materials for self-study?

I am mostly a visual learner, and gaining grammatical confidence is essential for me before I start speaking.

Thank you for your help!

I wonder about these two sentences regarding efsta stig sterk og veik

Læknirinn hjálpaði veikustum sjúklingi fyrst.

Læknirinn hjálpaði veikasta sjúklingnum fyrst.

There are 3 questions essentialy:

1. Are both grammatically correct?
2. If so, what's the difference in meaning? If any.
3. Is one more common than the other?

Great thanks to all!

I have a writing project (novel) and I have created spells for the story (dark urban fantasy). I was in a writing slump and played around with music generators, to hear how the spells would sound when if turned into a song to get private mood music/inspiration for the project.

Of course I am not a good evaluator of well it pronounces the Icelandic parts. (I am Finnish, so creating the spells in Icelandic/old norse and English, to fit the galdralag was.. a challenge on its own though).

I would appreciate if someone could evaluate how bad/good the accent/pronunciation is. I am purist like that.

I get many people are against creating music with AI, but this is (for me at least) purely testing a concept, themes and moods.

https://voca.ro/12YGX6U2nABr

Sounds like "(Já, og heita) Sól slær silfri á voga". Right?

Good day everybody,

This is my first post in this sub-Reddit.

I'm a native English speaker (British) and I'm learning German. I'm currently A2 in German.

I started learning German because I have fallen in love with the country, culture, and language.

I'm also feeling that way about Icelandic, however I have a problem: German has masses of resources for learning, whereas Icelandic has barely any at all!

I understand why: there are only ~400,000 native Icelanders.

But it still presents a problem for people like me interested in learning the language.

I've found that, for me, focusing on speaking/listening works best and reading/writing follows. So for German I've been using resources such as Pimsleur, Paul Noble, Easy German, etc.

But Pimsleur only has 1 level for Icelandic (German has 5).

To be honest, I'll probably try to get my German to at least B1 before I take on another language and learn simultaneously.

But can anyone help - where can I learn Icelandic in a way that would suit me, focusing on speaking/listening first?

Thanks for your help.