I've noticed there is some interest in a list with a compilation of online resourcers for beginning and intermediate learners. If anything is missing or if you have other suggestions, please don't hesitate to message me or reply to this post, because the more complete this list is, the better : ) Also please help me by reporting dead links.

My previous post seems to have been deleted or is not visible, so I'm trying again. Hopefully everyone will be able to see this.

Dictionaries

  • BÍN - a website that has all declension and inflection tables of all Icelandic words listed (BÍN stands for Beygingarlýsing Íslensks Nútímamáls, or Database of modern Icelandic inflection). A guide can be found here (click to download .pdf).
  • Íslensk nútímamálsorðabók - (Icelandic Modern Dictionary) Only Icelandic, but it is free, up to date and reliable.
  • ÍSLEX - Icelandic to and from Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Faroese.
  • M.is - (Work in progress) dictionary Icelandic-English/English-Icelandic with machine translation incorporated. Not yet fully functioning but quite a nice addition to the other free dictionaries.
  • Snara - a dictionary that translates Icelandic to and from English, Danish, Polish, German, Spanish, French and Italian. I use this extensively, it is a good resource for beginners but I have also found it to be a bit unreliable sometimes. It is a paid service costing 740 ISK or €5/5 USD per month.
  • Wiktionary - doesn't find any declined/inflected versions of words, but it has some declension tables and translations of words (bottom of the page).
  • Málið - Icelandic dictionary that is basically a compilation of other dictionaries. Might be helpful if you're looking for e.g. the etymology of a word.
  • Wisconsin dictionary - Only Icelandic to English, but very beginner-friendly.
  • Ensk.is - A free dictionary English - Icelandic.
  • Glosbe - A user compiled dictionary, not very reliable for that reason but has e.g. slang words.
  • Honourable mention: The Old Icelandic dictionary, helpful if you're reading the old sagas.

Grammar

Online courses

  • Icelandic Online - a website that is tailored to absolute beginners with some interactive exercises.
  • Íslenska fyrir alla (Icelandic for everybody) - four free books with exercises and texts (and also audio files), very beginner-friendly.
  • TVÍK - an app that teaches you the basics of the Icelandic language in a playful, story-based way, developed by people who have learned the language themselves.
  • Memrise - has many flashcard packs, the one linked has the 250 most commonly used Icelandic words (click here for all Icelandic packs/courses).
  • Íslenzka - a website with some flashcard games, helpful if you want to practice declensions and inflections.
  • Online MP3 course - made by Alaric Hall, you'll find many other helpful links on his homepage.

Books and text

  • Árstíðir - Book by Karítas Hrundar Pálsdóttir with short stories (1-2 pages) in simple to intermediate-level Icelandic. There is also an exercise book, see here and a follow-up, see here.*
  • Icelandic-English and Icelandic readings - University of Wisconsin webpage, some are quite accessible to beginners, esp. section 1.
  • Sagnasyrpa - A book with some accessible texts (going from easy to hard) with exercises and a glossary per text.
  • Íslenska fyrir útlendinga - Hardcore book with a very thorough overview of Icelandic grammar, everything is in Icelandic.
  • Carry on Icelandic

Newspapers and websites:

  • RÚV - National broadcasting/news agency; click 'hlusta' on any article to get an automated audio version. Also has pages in English and Polish.
  • Reykjavík Grapevine - English-language website/magazine about life in Iceland, focusing on culture and daily life. Have some helpful information for immigrants as well.
  • Iceland Review - English-language website/magazine with news from Iceland, more focused on news than the Grapevine, they also do longer features. Paid service but they have an informative (free) podcast too.
  • Vísir
  • Fréttablaðið
  • Morgunblaðið
  • DV
  • Vísindavefurinn - A website with a question-and-answer format. There are many interesting articles about Icelandic as well, see here and here.
  • Tímarit - Website that has (older) articles in Icelandic newspapers. NB: especially the older papers have many mistakes in the conversion from image to webtext, so it's best to click 'JPG' in the left column.

Audio

  • Forvo - Gives you the pronunciation of an Icelandic word.
  • RÚV national radio - Listen live or select a previous programme (click here for children's programmes).
  • Hljóðbók - A collection of audiobooks.
  • Hljóðbókasafn Íslands (Icelandic audio book library) - Has some free audiobooks, click 'Hljóðbókaleit' and then 'Opnar bækur'.
  • Tungumálatorg - A website with some simple phrases with pronunciation.

Video

Games

  • Word tango (for Android and iPhone) - A word puzzle game useful for practicing vocabulary
  • Drops (for Android and iPhone) - An interactive game that teaches you vocabulary from all sorts of categories
  • Orðagull (for Android and iPhone) - A game tailored to Icelandic children which allows you to do exercises while fully immersing yourself in the language

Shops * Sigvaldi ships internationally and has books from Icelandic literature to books about the sagas, nature etc. Also helpful: you can pay with PayPal. * Forlagið allows orders from abroad but you do need a creditcard. Do keep in mind that shipping costs and customs/import fees may be quite high. * Nammi.is has a selection of candy, drinks, beauty products and wool. Ships to most countries.

Misc.

  • The Discord link is expired. :( Think you could post a new, infinite life, link for future users to join?

    parent

    I'm actually no longer in the group, sadly... If anyone else could DM me such a link I'll use it in the post above.

    Edit: I see that it's in one of the other comments - I changed the link in my post!

    parent root

  • Thank you for this list.
    2021 Day1 - starting my long journey to learn this stunning language.
    Nice to meet you all of IS fans 👋

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  • Hello,

    maybe you could also add WORD TANGO to your list. It is a free word puzzle game completely in Icelandic (and some other languages). It is a fun way to practise Icelandic vocabulary , and it is totally free.

    Google Play: bit.ly/2A4KbRI App Store: http://apple.co/2LrcNst

    I think for smaller languages it is important to have enough media available, like games, thats why i released Word Tango in Icelandic and f.a. Faroese. Maybe you could add a catagory "Games" to your list :-)

    Kind regards,

    Remco

    parent

    Will do that :) Thanks for the suggestion of adding "Games"!

    parent root

  • LingQ recently added Icelandic as a "beta" language. There is a somewhat limited free tier, and they have the interesting approach of using existing material (movies, TV shows, newspaper stories) as content for learning the language. I don't really know how well that works for beginners, though.

    parent

    LingQ is the best resource on the internet imo. It works like magic.

    parent root

  • Label Icelandic is a whole course (app)

    parent

    ah, it looks pretty nice, have you tried it yourself?

    parent root

    Yes! Icelandic is super hard but this made my life quite easier

    parent root

    I'll add it then!

    parent root

    so i know this is from two years ago but it is now $4

    parent root

    Pretty inexpensive for a course, although it's up to 5 USD. I spent the money and bought the course. It seems to have been updated but is still a little rough. I do like it overall. It is introducing the concepts of Icelandic in pretty rapid succession. Amazing that I've only had it a few days, and the posts in this subreddit are already making a lot more sense to me. Thanks for the recommendation!

    parent root

  • Mango Languages has what I think is the best app to learn Icelandic. Available on App Store. Learn Icelandic Online introduces too many concepts at once for me.

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  • Anki would be really a valuable addition to this list! It's super useful for helping memorize those words which you can't seem to remember for some reason. I wish I knew it when I was trying to learn icelandic for the first time, it would have helped me push through and not give up. There aren't that many icelandic decks available online, but you can create your own flashcards with only the stuff you can't remember, so it shouldn't be too much work creating nor using flashcards.

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  • You’re a saint! Thank you!

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  • I have checked the books and there are several different options to start. With wich book should I start?

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    More books and resources that I’ve found incredibly useful:

    Free online resources:

    ylhyra.is

    Books:

    Árstíðir - Karítas Hrundur Pálsdóttir

    (Available in paperback, e-book, and audio)

    Dagatal - Karítas Hrundur Pálsdóttir

    (Paperback only.)

    parent root

    thx! i always think it is a better way to learn vocabulary while reading instead of reciting one aloud again and again!

    parent root
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  • This is absolutely epic. Thank you so much, OP, for making this list!

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  • Just made a post then saw your post. Takk!

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  • The discord expired again. Could you please post a new link?

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    parent root

    I'm late 3 years, and this one doesn't seem to work anymore either... :( Any chance you're able to post a new one, if you're still in the server? Thank you!

    parent root

    weird, I checked that link with my other account and it worked

    parent root

    Oh. It works now! Weird, but if you tweaked something - thanks!

    parent root
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  • Anyway to get access to the newer second edition of colloquial icelandic?

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  • Greetings! I have found an amazing resource which I would like to share. An android application "Icelanic - English Dictionary" made by AllDict, which works literally like Context Reverso, but with Icelandic.

    This developer has a lot of similar apps (like German-Greek, Serbian-English, Russian-Armenian, Uzbek-English, Norwegian-Polish, Mongolian-Thai, Hebrew-Japanese, Korean-Portuguese and lots of others), which work basically similar, almost as if they are made by some sort of a template, but most importantly - it WORKS. So, you write a word, a combination, a phrase, and then you get lots of examples of usage, lots of sentences. For such a rare language this corpus might be a real treasure, I believe.

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  • Bara tala is a good app

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  • Hæ allir.

    I was wondering if someone of ye could add some games I have found on play store, just to improve the list!

    Barna Biblían (site to learn Bible for children) Biblía (Site for reading whole books in a language of your choice for free) Orða Safn (escape from a prison completing riddles in Icelandic) Word Search Explorer (similar) OrðaSnakk (similar)

    Kveðja, fólk!

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  • Tvík AI app it’s a lot of fun to use and with a lot of content.

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  • http://islenskunaman.is/ - Many free resources (as well as some that cost)

    Also many helpful posts and videos regarding pronunciations on social media.

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  • Another resource worth mentioning: samheiti.is, an open access, high-quality Icelandic thesaurus.

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  • There's a podcast called "Icelandic Immersion", available on Spotify, Deezer and about umpteen other audio platforms. Highly recommended!

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  • Thank you very much - especially for the folder with grammar resources. Finally I've photocopies worth printing. You're a kind person.

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  • Is there a list/source of pronunciation rules?

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    Wikipedia has a very comprehensive and mostly accurate description of orthography vs pronunciation in icelandic, but you need to know how to read IPA for that.

    parent root

  • Hey all! I am going on a spur-of-the moment vacation next week and I’ll be staying in Iceland for three days. Normally I’d have more time to prepare. What is a good resource for travelers for learning some basic words and phrases and anything else a visitor might need? Thanks.

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  • There's a good mp3 course by Alaric Hall that I've not seen mentioned here. It takes the format of two students being taught icelandic, with you learning along with them. It focuses on covering grammar and pronunciation and teaching you to form sentences, using some of the most common vocab to do so.

    It's about 16 hours total, I've not finished it but would really recommend to anyone starting out and hoping to learn lots.

    https://alarichall.org.uk/teaching/modern_icelandic.php

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  • Hi, you think there is any way to learn it from French or it'll be easier if I start from english directly ? thanks for all the links btw

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    Most of the material will use English as a reference, but for example the Íslenska fyrir alla books (free) are Icelandic only, even for beginners.

    That being said, Lexia is a good Icelandic-French dictionary.

    parent root