Letter from Iceland

Letter from Iceland

Letter from Iceland #99

The Little Book of Icelandic "useful phrases" edition

Alda Sigmundsdóttir's avatar
Alda Sigmundsdóttir
Oct 12, 2024
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Góðan daginn!

I hope you are well and having a delightful Saturday morning. 😊

In today’s installment from the Little Book of Icelandic we’ll take a look at some useful sayings in Icelandic.

Photo from Flatey, by Einar H. Reynis on Unsplash

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Useful phrases

Here are a handful of phrases that may come in handy at some point if you’re hanging out with Icelanders. They tend to use these a lot.

Takk fyrir síðast

Verbatim translation: Thank you for the last time

Usage: What two Icelanders say to each other after having spent an enjoyable time the last time they met up. “Hæ! Takk fyrir síðast!” one Icelander might say to the other when they meet on the street, to which the most common reply will be: Sömuleiðis! meaning “Same to you!” Mind you, this presumes that they actually did have fun the last time they met - or at least that they are pretending they did.

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