Learning Icelandic words and phrases

When traveling in Iceland, you will find out that nearly everyone speaks perfect English. Especially people working in tourism. So communicating in English is no problem at all. But it is of course nice to be able to say a few things in Icelandic. So here are the most important ones.

Useful Icelandic phrases / words

Good Day = Góðan daginn

Hello = Helló / Hæ (pronounced as hi)

My name is = Ég heiti

Yes / No = Já / Nei

Thank you = Takk fyrir

Thanks = Takk

Goodbye = Bless Bless (pronounced the same as in "bless you")

It will all work out in the end = Þetta reddast

Some of my personal favorite Icelandic words

Frábært = Amazing (I just like the sound of it and people use it a lot)

Smásjá = literal meaning: small see = microscope

Bergmál = literal meaning: rock language = echo

Ljósmóðir = literal meaning: light mother =

Kaka = literal meaning: cake = cake (but it sounds like something else...)

Hugmynd = literal meaning: mind picture = idea

Icelandic filler words

Most Icelanders' English is great. But you might notice that they sometimes throw in some Icelandic words while speaking English. Here are the most used ones and their meaning. But most of them are just filler words, so their meaning does not matter so much in that case.

Hérna = here (this is in my opinion the most used one. Instead or "errrr" Icelanders use this one).

Bara = Only / just

Svona = like (this / that)

Sko = I don't think there's a real clear meaning, mainly just a filler word.

Heyrðu = Listen

Useless Icelandic words

In case you want to learn some useless words, we can also do that!

Satellite disk = Gervihnattadiskur (this was a word I learned in one of the first Icelandic classes and is completely useless because no one has these anymore)

Thunder and Lightning = Þrumur og eldingar (this very rarely happens in Iceland)

Train = Lest (they don't have trains in Iceland)

Army = Her (they don't have an army in Iceland)

The key ring to the tool work shed in the road works of Mount Vaðlaheiði = Vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúrslyklakippu hringurinn (the longest word you'll never use)

If you want to learn some more Icelandic online before your trip, you can check out this website.

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