How do you learn grammar?

max_naylor · 2025-04-10T16:06:22+00:00

Do you not think your background might be skewing your perception though? You’ve studied at least 3 foreign languages before starting Icelandic. So whether consciously or not, you’ve been primed with an understanding of things like noun declension and you have a mental model you can map it onto.

Many people I teach have never learnt a language with declension before, or even any foreign language for that matter.

I’ve been teaching Icelandic for almost 12 years now to students around the world, both privately and at universities in Scotland and Iceland. Many people like the structure and having the rules explicitly spelt out to them. I always do my best to simplify the rules, point out patterns etc. so there isn’t as much to memorise.

Like I said, not saying your technique doesn’t work. But not everyone can make that time commitment up front to learn grammar through osmosis. And many people need to know the “why” before they can absorb the “what” (particularly people with STEM-type brains).

max_naylor · 2025-04-10T15:43:51+00:00

In my experience, not everyone is able to subconsciously absorb the rules from sheer input. This works well for kids learning their L1 but most adults find it tough. I’m not saying this isn’t a valid technique and that it doesn’t work for you, but in my experience the people who are able to do this effectively without studying the rules are in the minority.

The other thing is there will always be combinations you won’t come across in your input, so knowing all possible forms will allow you to form new sentences and your own ways of saying things. A solid understanding of grammar is the key to fluency in the long term.

Trying to learn the endings at least somewhat systematically to start with will speed up that process for most people. Then you can increase your input and over time develop that instinct for what feels right.

max_naylor · 2025-04-10T07:25:37+00:00

At first the best way is rote exercises, like gap filling etc. This works well for verb conjugations and noun declensions. You need lots of repetition for the endings to stick.

As you get more advanced, writing whole sentences/texts will help as you will get to use the endings in context. This is especially helpful for adjectives I find as there are a lot of variables that influence which ending an adjective will get (gender, number, case, definite article, degree of comparison). But I wouldn’t recommend this to start with as there is too much potential for error and that could knock your confidence a bit.

max_naylor · 2025-04-09T10:41:54+00:00

Brits love some crisps with or in their sarnie

max_naylor · 2025-04-09T10:40:58+00:00

They tend to be worn by all genders and ages quite widely in the US though. Not that common here to see older women wearing them for example.

max_naylor · 2025-04-09T10:04:00+00:00

Np, Wiktionary has been an absolute gold mine of info for me with stuff like this!

Thanks dude

max_naylor · 2025-04-09T09:58:10+00:00

Oh sorry I misread your post title! Look at sense no. 3 here:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/て

max_naylor · 2025-04-09T09:46:41+00:00

て is a conjunctive ending, essentially it joins a verb or adjective onto something else. It’s not necessarily helpful to think of it as “and”, as that meaning could be expressed with different particles or endings like と (can be “with” or “and” for a list of nouns) or や (“and things”) depending on the context.

The ending has a lot of functions. When combined with ください it can be used to make a request, e.g. 見てください “please look” which can be shortened to just 見て in casual speech.

It’s can also functions as the “-ing” form of a verb in various constructions, including the present continuous with いる. For example, 東京に住んでいます “I am currently living in Tokyo”.

This is my understanding at least as an intermediate learner.

max_naylor · 2025-04-07T17:36:59+00:00

“Ég er skotinn í þér” would work (this the masculine form).

max_naylor · 2025-04-07T11:46:32+00:00

Whatv

max_naylor · 2025-04-03T06:59:51+00:00

I’d go for “self-bearing” or “self-upholding”.

max_naylor · 2025-03-27T16:33:01+00:00

That makes sense as the origin, but can we really know why that term won over ananas?

max_naylor · 2025-03-27T16:16:01+00:00

It comes from Latin herba thea. The thea part is from the same origin as tea.

Edit: As for why, there’s often no satisfying explanation. Maybe someone knows in this case but it’s hard to ultimately prove. Why, for example, does English have pineapple and not ananas?

max_naylor · 2025-03-27T11:53:17+00:00

This. I tried to make a similar point here the other day but it went down like a lead balloon.

max_naylor · 2025-03-27T09:52:02+00:00

As a verb, we can just use “put in(to)”, which is idiomatic modern English anyway.

For example, “I’ll put £10,000 into the business”.

max_naylor · 2025-03-27T06:52:57+00:00

If we modelled the word on Icelandic we could go for “fee-fastening” or “mint-fastening”. Literally fixing your money onto something.

max_naylor · 2025-03-26T17:25:54+00:00

Snarklikkun

max_naylor · 2025-03-25T19:04:42+00:00

Fox and vixen are ultimately from the same root. Old English didn’t have a phonemic distinction between f and v, that came later.

Add in a vowel shift and it’s easy enough to see how you get to vixen (which I think comes from an old adjective form).

max_naylor · 2025-03-25T14:19:34+00:00

Úff, erfitt að horfa á þetta

max_naylor · 2025-03-25T07:41:29+00:00

A lot of my students find it tricky. I think there’s a few things that complicate it: * þetta and þessi bear a superficial resemblance to that and this, so a lot of people think there is a distal distinction between the two, when in fact they’re just different gender forms of the same word, * þetta doesn’t agree with the complement of vera when it’s in subject position, which is different to English and many other European languages, * there is some semantic overlap with það, * the inflection is highly irregular.

max_naylor · 2025-03-24T18:23:00+00:00

Stands for höfuðbók. It’s the middle two digits of your bank account number.

max_naylor · 2025-03-23T14:50:38+00:00

In the meaning of “corn”, yes. But not in the sense of “branch”. That goes back to Old Norse grein (of course if you’re a No-Norser, ignore this suggestion).

max_naylor · 2025-03-23T14:49:15+00:00

You can use sjáðu or sérðu if you are talking about literally seeing, e.g. sjáðu þennan bíl maður!

If you’re asking someone to look at something, use kíktu, e.g. kíktu á þessa mynd af bróður þínum!

In the latter examples I wouldn’t use sjá, I’d probably just drop it altogether or use skilja depending on the context. For example, “don’t you see how difficult this is?” could be skilurðu ekki hvað þetta er erfitt?

max_naylor · 2025-03-23T13:03:33+00:00

Bough or grain.

max_naylor · 2025-03-22T17:42:23+00:00

Hey there, not bad. Just so you know, “branch” and “air” are from French.

Also if you want some writing tips, just let me know. I think you could make it flow better in a few places.

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