The Icelandic language – difficult, beautiful and surprisingly familiar

Writer: Helena Bergström

Updated: August 2026 | Icelandic is a Nordic language that is in many ways closer to Old Norse than today's Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. For us Swedes, the language may seem almost incomprehensible at first – but if you look closer, a surprisingly large number of familiar words appear. And although the grammar is complicated, the pronunciation is actually more regular than you might think.

My relationship with the Icelandic language

I was 17 when I moved to Iceland as an exchange student. I lived in the Westman Islands for a whole year and attended Icelandic high school – and somewhere along the way I also learned to speak Icelandic.

When I returned to Sweden, my interest in languages continued. I studied Icelandic for a semester at Uppsala University and later taught a little of the language myself at the Adult Education Center. Since then, I have returned to Iceland many times.

Today, my Icelandic is considerably more rusty than it once was. Languages are perishable, and without regular practice, both words and grammar disappear surprisingly quickly. But much still remains – and every time I come back to Iceland it feels like the language is slowly coming back to life. So how difficult is Icelandic really? And how much can you understand as a Swede?

Icelandic – a Nordic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language, just like Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Faroese. But while the Scandinavian languages have changed a lot over the centuries, Icelandic has preserved much more of its old grammar and vocabulary.

Therefore, at first glance, the language can seem almost incomprehensible to a Swede – while at the same time you suddenly come across words that feel strangely familiar. House is house, table is table, horseback riding is a horse and fish watch is fish. And if you know a little Swedish, Norwegian or other Germanic languages, there are lots of little clues like that.

Is Icelandic difficult to learn?

I usually say that Icelandic is both difficult and easy. The difficult part is mainly the grammar. Icelandic has four cases – nominative, accusative, dative and genitive – and three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Nouns and adjectives are inflected and even personal names can take different forms depending on how they are used in the sentence.

Verbs are also conjugated according to person and there are significantly more grammatical forms to keep track of than in modern Swedish. In other words, it can get quite complicated.

At the same time, there is a big advantage for us Swedes: a lot of the vocabulary feels familiar. The more Icelandic you learn, the more kinship with Swedish words you begin to discover.

Icelandic words – tv, tölva and kamera

One of the things I like most about Icelandic is how new words have been created. Instead of automatically borrowing international words, new words have often been built from parts that already exist in the language.

Television means television and can be roughly understood as "viewing". Camera, camera, consists of words for image and machine. Psychology, psychology, is roughly ”soul knowledge”.

One of the most famous examples is toll, computer. The word was created in the 1960s through a combination of speak, which means number, and völva, a fortune teller or fortune teller from Old Norse tradition. A computer thus became, somewhat simplified, a "teller". Isn't that wonderful?

Can a Swede understand Icelandic?

When you see Icelandic in writing, you can often figure out more than you first think. A simple example is: I have a house. I am I, á is has/owns and house is house. Or: He drinks water. He drinks water.

But when an Icelander starts speaking at a normal speed, it becomes significantly more difficult. The pronunciation is very different from Swedish and of course there are lots of words used that are not immediately recognizable.

For me, it gradually changed when I lived in Iceland. At first, I had to concentrate on every word. After a while, the language started to work more automatically – just like it usually does when you really live in the middle of a new language.

How is Icelandic pronounced?

Icelandic may seem difficult to pronounce, not least because the alphabet contains letters that þ and ð. But the pronunciation is actually quite regular once you learn the rules.

A practical thing to know is that the stress is generally always on the first syllable of the word. The letter þ pronounced roughly like th in English thing, while ð is closer th i this.

And so we have oh, which sounds roughly like "øj". Therefore, there is also a logic behind red means red – when you say the word out loud, the relationship suddenly starts to feel a little clearer.

And then there was Eyjafjallajökull...

When the volcano beneath Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010, television reporters around the world were faced with a new problem: How to pronounce seventeen. Eyjafjallajökull?

For an Icelander, the name is of course not particularly remarkable. It also consists of completely ordinary words: island has to do with islands, mountain with mountains and glacier means glacier.

The name thus roughly refers to ”the mountain glacier of the islands” – the islands in this case are the Westman Islands, which lie off the coast. And the Westman Islands happen to be the place where I myself once started learning Icelandic.

A language I still carry with me

Today I wouldn't say that I speak Icelandic as fluently as I did when I lived in Iceland. I use the language far too rarely and have forgotten both words and grammatical forms. But the strange thing about languages you once knew quite well is that they don't seem to disappear completely.

When I get back to Iceland, words and expressions start to appear again. I hear more than I thought I would understand and after a few days I dare to talk a little more. Somewhere in there is still the 17-year-old who tried to keep up with the teaching at an Icelandic high school.

And maybe that's why Icelandic is still a little extra close to my heart.

Our best tips for Iceland

Want more tips about Icelandic culture and places to discover in the country? Here you will find more reading and more tips:

• Facts about Iceland
• There are 13 Santas in Iceland
• What do you eat in Iceland?
• Things to do in Iceland – our best tips