þú

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See also: þu and -þu

Icelandic

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old Norse þú, from Proto-Germanic *þū, from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂. Cognate with English thou, German du.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /θu/, [θ̠uː]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -uː

Pronoun

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þú

  1. (personal, in the singular) you, thou
    Ertu nemandi?
    Are you a student?

Usage notes

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After verbs, the pronoun þú is either separated:

  • ert þúare you
  • borðar þúdo you eat
  • kom þúcome!

or suffixed and changed into -ðu, -du, or -u:

  • ertuare you
  • borðarðudo you eat
  • komducome!

If the verb ends in a "t", -u is used. If it ends in a "m" or "n", -du is used. Otherwise -ðu is used.

The suffixed version is almost always used except when the speaker wants to emphasize "þú" or sound more formal.

Many younger speakers will write borðaru instead of borðarðu.

Declension

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Synonyms

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  • (singular you): þér (formal, archaic)

Derived terms

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Old Norse

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-Germanic *þū (you; thou), from Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ (you; thou).

Pronunciation

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Pronoun

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þú

  1. (in the singular) you (thou)
    • 900s-1000s, Hávamál, verse 112
      Ráðum'k þér, Loddfáfnir, / at þú ráð nemir,
      njóta mundu ef þú nemr,
      þér munu góð ef þú getr:
      Nótt þú rís-at / nema á njósn sér
      eða þú leitir þér innan út staðar.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

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It may become enclitic when after a verb, that is, be appended to the preceding word as either -du, -ðu or -tu depending on the consonant cluster. The rules for this are the same as for the past tense dental suffixes of the class 1 weak verbs. This may happen more often in Old Norse, as the personal pronoun is often used with the singular imperative. This is not to say, however, that whenever þú comes after a verb, it will always take an enclitic form. It could well stay separate for the sake of emphasis. With the clitics, this is how it ends up looking.

Note, as seen in the last two examples, that this does not cause u-umlaut.

Declension

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Descendants

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  • Icelandic: þú, -du, -ðu, -tu
  • Faroese:
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: du
  • Norwegian Bokmål: du
  • Jamtish:
  • Elfdalian: du
  • Old Swedish: þū
  • Old Danish: thu
    • Danish: du

The enclitic use lives on in modern Icelandic þú. See there for more.

See also

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  • þinn (possessive pronoun)