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. 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:
The personal pronouns of Faroese are:
Singular
Plural
The 3rd person plural neuter tey will be used in all cases when both genders are meant, as in:

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:
Note, that vera and verða are homonyms.

Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs in Faroese are the following:
Most adjectives inflect for gender, number, case and definitiveness, and for positive, comparative and superlative.

Adverbs

Many adverbs inflect in positive, comparative and superlative.