Joyful and blessed

I have now been learning Icelandic for a couple of weeks, and am still on Lesson 1 in Colloquial Icelandic. I’m in no hurry, and just want to learn the basics, at least at first, so my lack of progress doesn’t worry me.

There seem to be quite a few ways to greet people in Icelandic. These include:

– Halló
– Góðan dag(inn) = Good day
– Komdu sæll og blessaður (>m) = “Come joyful and blesed”
– Komdu sæl og blessað (>f) = “Come joyful and blessed”
– Komdu sæll (>m), Komdu sæl (>f)
– Sæll (>m), Sæl (>f)
– Sæll vertu (>m), Sæl vertu (>f)
– Blessaður (>m), Blessað (>f)

Goodbyes include:

– Vertu blessaður (>m), Vertu blessuð (>f) = “Be blessed”
– Vertu sæll (>m), Vertu sæl (>f) = “Be joyful”
– Bless á meðan = “Bye as long as”
– Bless bless = Bye bye
– Bless = Bye
– Við sjáumst = “We (will) see each other again”
– Sjáumst síðar = See you later

>m = said to males, >f = said to females

You can hear recordings of some of these on my Icelandic phrases page.

Are these all commonly-used?

Do other languages have gender-specific greetings?

One thought on “Joyful and blessed

  1. In italian we say “benvenuto” (m) and “benvenuta” (f) for “welcome”, and is the same for all greetings that are formed with an adjective or a past participle in -o (m) and -a (f)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *