Pronouns are essential building blocks for forming sentences in Icelandic.

They replace nouns so you don’t have to repeat the same words over and over.

In this guide, I’ll explain exactly how Icelandic personal and possessive pronouns work.

You’ll learn the different forms, how they change depending on grammatical case, and how to use them in everyday conversations.

Personal pronouns in Icelandic

Personal pronouns represent specific people or things.

In English, these are words like I, you, he, she, it, we, and they.

Icelandic has similar pronouns, but they’re highly specific when it comes to gender.

The biggest difference you’ll notice is with the word “they”.

In Icelandic, there are three different ways to say “they” depending on the gender of the people or objects you’re talking about.

You use þeir for a group of entirely males.

You use þær for a group of entirely females.

You use þau for a mixed-gender group, or a group of neuter nouns.

Here are the basic Icelandic personal pronouns in the nominative (subject) form.

How personal pronouns change by case

Icelandic uses a grammatical case system.

This means that words change their spelling depending on their role in a sentence.

Personal pronouns change depending on whether they’re the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, or showing possession.

There are four cases in Icelandic: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive.

You must memorize these pronoun declensions to speak Icelandic correctly.

Here’s the complete chart for singular personal pronouns.

Here’s the complete chart for plural personal pronouns.

Let’s look at a few examples of these pronouns in action.

Possessive pronouns in Icelandic

Possessive pronouns indicate ownership, like my, your, his, her, and our.

In Icelandic, possessive pronouns behave like adjectives.

This means they must agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun being owned.

The two main possessive pronouns are minn (my/mine) and þinn (your/yours).

Here’s how minn and þinn look in their basic nominative forms.

When you want to say “his”, “her”, or “their”, you don’t use a separate adjective.

Instead, you simply use the genitive case of the personal pronoun.

These words are hans (his), hennar (her), þess (its), and þeirra (their).

Because these are already in the genitive case, they never change to match the noun.

The reflexive possessive pronoun sinn

Icelandic has a very specific rule for third-person ownership.

When a person owns the object they’re interacting with, you must use the reflexive possessive pronoun sinn.

This word translates to “his own”, “her own”, “its own”, or “their own”.

Just like minn and þinn, the word sinn must match the gender, number, and case of the object being owned.

This distinction is extremely important for clarity in Icelandic.

If you use hans instead of sinn, you completely change the meaning of the sentence.

In the first example, the man loves his own wife.

In the second example, the man loves a different man’s wife.

Always pay close attention to who’s performing the action to know if you need to use sinn.