Wondering how to say ‘hello’ in Icelandic?
This post covers how to greet people in Icelandic and teaches you some essential phrases including ‘hello’, ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’ and ‘good night’ and includes pronunciation.
It also covers some other greeting etiquette such as handshakes.
Hopefully you’ll leave this page knowing some essential Icelandic greetings.
Table of Contents
How Do You Say ‘Hello’ In Icelandic?
If you want to say ‘hello’ to someone in Icelandic then you can do so with the following words and phrases.
Click on the Icelandic word to hear the pronunciation by a native speaker.
- Hello – Halló (Hah-low)
- Hi – Hæ (Hi)
- Good day – Góðan daginn (Go-thah-n dai-in)
- Good day – Góðan dag (Go-than-n dah-g)
The above words and phrases are all common greetings used in Iceland. The most common one is ‘hæ’ which simply means ‘hi’.
This word is often spoken twice when greeting someone e.g. ‘hæ hæ’.
If you want to sound a bit more polite then you can say ‘góðan daginn’ which means ‘good day’.
How To Say Other Greetings In Icelandic e.g. ‘Good Morning’
You may want to use some other greetings in Icelandic such as ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’ and ‘good night’. Check out these other Icelandic greetings below:
How To Say ‘Good Morning’ In Icelandic
To say ‘good morning’ in Icelandic, you can say:
- Good morning – Góðan daginn (Go-thah-n dai-in)
- Good morning – Góðan dag (Go-than-n dah-g)
There’s no specific phrase meaning ‘good morning’ in Icelandic so to say this you would just use the above phrases which literally translate to ‘good day’.
How To Say ‘Good Afternoon’ In Icelandic
To say ‘good afternoon’ in Icelandic, you can say:
- Good afternoon – Góðan daginn (Go-thah-n dai-in)
- Good afternoon – Góðan dag (Go-than-n dah-g)
There’s no specific phrase meaning ‘good afternoon’ in Icelandic so to say this you would just use the above phrases which literally translate to ‘good day’.
How To Say ‘Good Evening’ In Icelandic
To say ‘good evening’ in Icelandic, you can say:
- Good evening – Gott kvöld (Goht kvult)
- Good evening – Góða kvöldið (Goh-tha kvult-is)
How To Say ‘Good Night’ In Icelandic
To say ‘good night’ in Icelandic, you can say:
- Good night – Góða nótt (Goh-tha noht)
For more pronunciation guidance, you can check out the below video where you can hear a native Icelandic speaker pronouncing the words and phrases in this post:
Icelandic Greetings & Gestures
Icelandic people usually shake hands when greeting each other or when saying goodbye.
Icelandic people also generally call each other by their first names rather than their surnames, even in formal situations.
In fact, people are even listed alphabetically by their first names (not their surname) in the telephone directory!
Thanks for reading this post on how to greet someone in Icelandic. Hopefully you now know how to say ‘hello’ in Icelandic and also how to say ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’ and ‘good night’ in Icelandic.
If you haven’t already then make sure to learn the numbers in Icelandic. Everyone should know this essential vocabulary.
You can find out more about the Icelandic language here.
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