Introduction to Declension
Declension is when a nominal (a noun, pronoun, or adjective) changes its form to fit a certain grammatical context or indicate an additional aspect, such as number. For native English speakers, understanding how declension works is often cited as the hardest aspect of Icelandic grammar to master since there is not a great modern English example or phenomenon to compare it to. As a result, English speakers often quickly feel overwhelmed and have difficulty distinguishing when they should use one form of a word in Icelandic versus when they should be using another.
Declension in English
While there are only up to four possible forms for each nominal in English, there are up to sixteen different forms in Icelandic. There are so many more forms because modern Icelandic has maintained a rigid four-case system while modern English has nearly abandoned cases altogether. Fortunately, a remnant of the English case system still exists with some pronouns (words that stand in for nouns. ex: he, she, you), which can be used to draw a good comparison with the Icelandic system.
Consider the following two examples:
Example 1: I talk to you.
Example 2: I talk to he.
While Example 1 is perfectly grammatical, Example 2 is not. Without me telling you, your brain can sense that the word he is what was wrong with the sentence, even if you don't know why. What's more, your brain also probably told you that you have to say him in that second example instead of he.
Before I explain why that is, take a second to ask yourself why he does not work in Example 2, but him would. Don't both words mean exactly the same thing?
The answer is that your brain, even if you don’t realize it, is very good at English grammar and knows that he and him fill different grammatical niches.
The pronoun he, along with a few others such as I, she, and we, fills a certain grammatical niche that him cannot: being used as the subjects (a noun that performs the action of verbs). All pronouns that can fill this niche can be swapped in for one another in nearly any sentence, and that sentence will still make sense grammatically. These pronouns that fill this niche are called the English subject pronouns, and for the sake of comparison to Icelandic, we can think of all these pronouns as being part of one case.
Example 1: We see a horse.
Example 2: She sees a horse.
Example 3: I see a horse.
Notice how in the three sentences above, the highlighted words represent the entities performing the action of the verb. They are the ones doing the seeing, so they are the subjects of the verb.
These pronouns have separate forms, such as me, her, and us, that represent the same basic ideas and nouns as the subject pronouns. However, these versions can not be the subjects of verbs. Instead, they have to be objects (a noun that receives the action of the verb). These are the English object pronouns, and we can think of them as part of a second separate case.
Example 1: A horse sees him.
Example 2: A horse sees her.
Example 3: A horse sees me.
Notice how in the three sentences above, the highlighted words are not performing the action of seeing as before but are rather the things being seen. They are the object of the verb now instead of the subject. What word is acting as the subject?
Even though the two different forms of these words represent the same noun(s), you can never use them interchangeably. That is the heart of declension: different forms are used to represent different ideas in relation to the same noun.
While nouns change for case, they also change for number. Just as you can not use she and her interchangeably, you can not use she and they interchangeably either: the meaning changes again. When you say they, you are no longer talking about one she, instead you are talking about many "She"s all together.
The two criteria we discussed, case and number, form the basis of organizing nouns into declension tables, a way to show the different forms of a word neatly. The vertical axis of declension tables is organized by case, and the horizontal axis by number. To find the form of a word in a specific case and number, simply find the cell at the intersection of the two axes.
Below, see the declension pattern of the pronoun "She." There are two unique forms for singular (one thing) and two separate unique forms for plural (multiple thing).
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Case 1 | she | they |
| Case 2 | her | them |
Similar charts can be made for any nominal in English that we desire. Think about how this chart would look if it were filled in with the pronouns I or he in the top left instead of she. How would the rest of the chart look?
While some pronouns, such as she, have all these unique forms, all nouns and some of the other pronouns, such as you, do not. Typically, there is a slightly different form for the plural instances, but all the singulars and plurals will look exactly like each other. That is why the sentences "You talk to a horse," and "A horse talks to you," are both perfectly grammatical, even though the nominals are swapping positions. The word you and the word horse both use the same form for the role of the subject and the object, cases one and two.
Below, see the declension pattern of the pronoun you and the noun horse.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Case 1 | you | y'all |
| Case 2 | you | y'all |
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Case 1 | horse | horses |
| Case 2 | horse | horses |
Declension in Icelandic
Icelandic has four cases instead of two, and nearly every nominal has a different form in every case and number, not just some pronouns.
Below, see the declension pattern of the word hestur which means horse.
| Hest/ur (-s, ar) | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | hestur | hestar |
| Accusative | hest | hesta |
| Dative | hesti | hestum |
| Genitive | hests | hesta |
The Icelandic cases have recognized names. In English, these are called nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. While it could be tempting to try to derive meanings from the names of these cases, this should not be done; rather, their names should just be taken at face value. The names do not affect anything in themselves; they are simply a way to refer to their respective forms. The cases could be called case 1, case 2, case 3, and case 4, or anything else for that matter, and nothing would functionally change.
Note: It is impossible to write a noun without a case or number. It always has to be in one of each.
Since nouns always have to be in a case and number, the nominative singular form is used to talk about a noun in a non-grammatical context, such as when it appears by itself on a sign, when the word is being discussed in another language, or when the word is written in the dictionary.
In a declension table, the nominative singular form appears a second time in the top left cell. Often, this form has a slash through it. This is done to show what word the table is examining and to help illustrate the declining process. The slash separates the stem of the word, the part that usually stays the same during declension, on the left from the ending, the part that usually changes, on the right.
Because the stem of the word usually stays the same during declension, we can identify the word and thus know what it means despite the changes in the ending. For example, notice how every form of the word hestur contains the stem, hest. Since this is the case, you know that any word starting with hest is going to be some form of the word hestur.
It is worth noting that the same form can repeat within a word paradigm, such as the form hesta appearing both as the plural accusative and genitive.
Why decline in Icelandic?
The reason why Icelandic words need to be in one case as opposed to the other is not as simple as the difference between a subject and an object as it is in English. The later lesson, Introduction to Case-Steering, will discuss the usages of the cases in more detail.
Please note that the ending pattern that hestur follows is only one of the many declension patterns present in Icelandic. This may seem extremely intimidating, especially if you have never encountered declension before, but over time, the patterns can be learned, and the process of declension will become more natural.
The important thing to take away from this lesson is the knowledge that Icelandic nouns are going to change based on grammatical context and that most of these changes will happen in the ending.