Compound Words

Icelandic uses compounds words quite heavily. Here are examples:

Skákfélag (skák-félag)

Chess club

Skákfélagsformaður (skák-félags-formaður)

Chess club president

Leshæfnipróf (les-hæfni-próf)

Reading capability test

Óðaverðbólguáhættumat (óða-verðbólgu-áhættu-mat)

Hyper inflation risk assessment

In compound words, you generally have all the included words, except the last, in genetive, indicating that they belong to the last word.

For example, knowing that the preposition um takes accusative (þolfall, þf for short) and the preposition til takes genetive (þágufall, þgf for short)

Þetta er um skæri (þf)

This is about scissors

Þetta er til skæra (þgf)

This is to scissors

Þetta er um safnara (þf)

This is about collectors

Þetta er til safnara (þgf)

This is to collectors

Þetta er um klúbb (þf)

This is about a club

Þetta er til klúbbs (þgf)

This is to a club

So notice how:

Þetta er um skærasafnaraklúbb (Þetta er um skæra(þgf)-safnara(þgf)-klúbb(þf))

This is about a scissors collectors club