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Faroese grammar

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Faroese grammar is related and very similar to that of Icelandic and, to less extent, Elfdalian. Faroese is an inflected language with three grammatical genders and four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.

Contents

Noun inflection

Below is a representation of three grammatical genders, two numbers and four cases in the nominal inflection. This is just an overview to give a general idea of how the grammar works. Faroese actually has even more declensions. In modern Faroese the genitive has a very limited use (and possession is mostly expressed with various prepositional phrases instead). For most native speakers, the Genitive is a learned and somewhat stilted form as opposed to the other cases which are learned naturally in regular colloquial situations.

Read:

  • hvør, hvat? interrogative pronoun "who, what?"
  • ein indefinite article "a"
  • stórur adjective "big"
  • bátur noun "boat"
  • ein stórur bátur - a big boat (m.)
  • ein vøkur genta - a beautiful girl (f.)
  • eitt gott barn - a good child (n.)

    • In the plural you will see that even the numeral tvey (2) is inflected.

    If the noun is definite, the adjective inflects weak, and the noun gets a suffix article as in any Scandinavian language (although Icelandic does not generally need a pre-posed definite article in this construction).

    The interrogative pronoun is the same as above. In the plural, the plural form of the definite article is used.

    Read:

  • tann stóri báturin - the big boat-the
  • tann vakra gentan - the beautiful girl-the
  • tað góða barnið - the good child-the

    • Personal Pronouns

    The personal pronouns of Faroese are:

    Singular

  • 1st person: eg [eː] - I, meg [meː] - me (acc.), mær [mɛaɹ] - me (dat.), mín [mʊin] - my
  • 2nd person: tú [tʉu] - you, teg [teː] - you (acc.), tær [tɛaɹ] - you (dat.), tín [tʊin] - your (gen.)
  • 3rd person masculine: hann [hanː] - he, him (nom., acc.), honum [ˈhoːnʊn] - him (dat.), hansara [ˈhansaɹa] - his (gen.)
  • 3rd person feminine: hon [hoːn] - she, hana [ˈhɛana] - her (acc.), henni [hɛnːɪ] - her (dat.), hennara [ˈhɛnːaɹa] - her (gen.)
  • 3rd person neuter: tað [tɛa] - it (nom., acc.), tí [tʊi] - it (dat.), tess [tɛsː] - its (gen.)

    • Plural

  • 1st person: vit [viːt] - we, okkum [ɔʰkːʊn] - us (acc., dat.), okkara [ˈɔʰkːaɹa] - our (gen.)
  • 2nd person: tit [tiːt] - you (pl.), tykkum [ˈtɪʰkːʊn] - you (acc., dat. pl.) tykkara [ˈtɪʰkːaɹa] - your (gen. pl.)
  • 3rd person masculine: teir [taiɹ]~[tɔiɹ] - they, them (m. nom., acc.), teimum [ˈtaimʊn]~[ˈtɔimʊn] - them (dat.), teirra [ˈtaiɹːa]~[ˈtɔiɹːa] - their (gen.)
  • 3rd person feminine: tær [tɛaɹ] - they, them (f. nom., acc.)
  • 3rd person neuter: tey [tɛi] - they, them (n. nom., acc.)

    • The 3rd person plural neuter tey will be used in all cases when both genders are meant, as in:

  • teir eru onglendingar - they are Englishmen (about males)
  • tær eru føroyingar - they are Faroese (about females)
  • tey eru fólk úr Evropa - they are people from Europe (both sexes)

    • Weak Inflection

    There are 4 classes of weak inflection of verbs (with some underclasses). E.g.:

    1. stem-final -a, 2-3.pers.sg. -r - kalla! (imperative), tú/hann kalla-r (you/he call(s))
    2. 2-3.pers.sg. -ur - tú/hann selur (you/he sell(s))
    3. 2-3.pers.sg. -ir - tú/hann dømir (you/he judge(s))
    4. 2. pers.sg. -rt - tú rørt (you row). In certain surroundings, skerping occurs: eg rógvi [eː ɹɛɡvɪ], I row; vs. eg róði [eː ɹɔuwɪ], I rowed.

    Strong Inflection

    These verbs are also referred to as regular. There are 7 classes (with underclasses), distinguished by the variations of the stem-vowel:

    1. í - í - ei - i- i; - at bíta - hann bítur - hann beit - teir bitu - teir hava bitið (bite)
    2. ó/ú - ý - ey - u- o; - at bróta - hann brýtur - hann breyt - teir brutu - teir hava brotið (break)
    3. e/i/ø - i - a - u- o/u; - at svimja - hann svimur - hann svam - teir svumu - teir hava svomið (swim)
    4. e/o - e - a - ó - o; - at bera - hann ber - hann bar - teir bóru - teir hava borið (bear)
    5. o - e - o - o - o; - at koma - hann kemur - hann kom - teir komu - teir hava komið (come)
    6. e/i - e/i - a/á - ó - i; - at liggja - hann liggur - hann lá - teir lógu - teir hava ligið (lie)
    7. a - e - ó - ó - a; - at fara - hann fer - hann fór - teir fóru - teir hava farið (go)
    8. a/á - æ - e - i - i; - at fáa - hann fær - hann fekk - teir fingu - teir hava fingið (get)

    Auxiliary verbs

    The auxiliary verbs in Faroese are:

  • at vera - to be
  • at hava - to have
  • at verða - to be, become
  • at blíva - to be, become

    • Note, that vera and verða are homonyms.

    Preterite-present verbs

    The preterite-present verbs in Faroese are the following:

  • at kunna - to be able to
  • at munna - to want
  • at mega - to be allowed to
  • at skula - shall
  • at vita - to know
  • at vilja - to want

    • Adjectives

    Most adjectives inflect for gender, number, case and definitiveness, and for positive, comparative and superlative.

    Adverbs

    Many adverbs inflect in positive, comparative and superlative.

    References

    Faroese grammar Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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