Faroese grammar

Faroese grammar is related and very similar to that of Icelandic. 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 (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 Plural
 * 1st person: eg – I, meg  – me (acc.), mær  – me (dat.), mín  – my
 * 2nd person: tú – you, teg  – you (acc.), tær  – you (dat.), tín  – your (gen.)
 * 3rd person masculine: hann – he, him (nom., acc.), honum  – him (dat.), hansara  – his (gen.)
 * 3rd person feminine: hon – she, hana  – her (acc.), henni  – her (dat.), hennara  – her (gen.)
 * 3rd person neuter: tað – it (nom., acc.), tí  – it (dat.), tess  – its (gen.)
 * 1st person: vit – we, okkum  – us (acc., dat.), okkara  – our (gen.)
 * 2nd person: tit – you (pl.), tykkum  – you (acc., dat. pl.) tykkara  – your (gen. pl.)
 * 3rd person masculine: teir ~ – they, them (m. nom., acc.), teimum ~ – them (dat.), teirra ~ – their (gen.)
 * 3rd person feminine: tær – they, them (f. nom., acc.)
 * 3rd person neuter: tey – 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, I row; vs. eg róði , 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:

Note, that vera and verða are homonyms.
 * at vera – to be
 * at hava – to have
 * at verða – to be, become
 * at blíva – to be, become

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.