Faroese grammar


Faroese grammar is typical of a North Germanic language; Faroese is an inflected language with three grammatical genders and four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.

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. 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:
In the plural you will see that even the numeral tvey is inflected.
If the noun is definite, the adjective inflects weak, and the noun gets a suffix article as in any Scandinavian language.
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 – I, meg – me, mær – me, mín – my
  • 2nd person: tú – you, teg – you, tær – you, tín – your
  • 3rd person masculine: hann – he, him, honum – him, hansara – his
  • 3rd person feminine: hon – she, hana – her, henni – her, hennara – her
  • 3rd person neuter: tað – it, tí – it, tess – its
Plural
  • 1st person: vit – we, okkum – us, okkara – our
  • 2nd person: tit – you, tykkum – you tykkara – your
  • 3rd person masculine: teir ~ – they, them, teimum ~ – them, teirra ~ – their
  • 3rd person feminine: tær – they, them
  • 3rd person neuter: tey – they, them
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
  • tær eru føroyingar – they are Faroese
  • tey eru fólk úr Evropa – they are people from Europe

Verbs

Weak Inflection

There are 4 classes of weak inflection of verbs. E.g.:
  1. stem-final -a, 2–3.pers.sg. -r – kalla!, tú/hann kalla-r
  2. 2–3.pers.sg. -ur – tú/hann selur
  3. 2–3.pers.sg. -ir – tú/hann dømir
  4. 2. pers.sg. -rt – tú rørt. In certain surroundings, skerping occurs: eg rógvi, I row; vs. eg róði, I rowed.

Strong Inflection

These verbs are also referred to as regular. There are 7 classes, 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
  2. ó/ú – ý – ey – u- o; – at bróta – hann brýtur – hann breyt – teir brutu – teir hava brotið
  3. e/i/ø – i – a – u- o/u; – at svimja – hann svimur – hann svam – teir svumu – teir hava svomið
  4. e/o – e – a – ó – o; – at bera – hann ber – hann bar – teir bóru – teir hava borið
  5. *o – e – o – o – o; – at koma – hann kemur – hann kom – teir komu – teir hava komið
  6. e/i – e/i – a/á – ó – i; – at liggja – hann liggur – hann lá – teir lógu – teir hava ligið
  7. a – e – ó – ó – a; – at fara – hann fer – hann fór – teir fóru – teir hava farið
  8. a/á – æ – e – i – i; – at fáa – hann fær – hann fekk – teir fingu – teir hava fingið

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.