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ICELANDIC · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

en.

how

2 characters1 syllables approx.Íslenska language

Meaning & usage

adv[ɛn][ˈɛːn]
  1. how

    Nei, Elín? En gaman að sjá þig!
Where this word comes from

From Old Norse en. The meanings "than" and "but" developed from originally distinct forms. The comparative "than" is -an in Old Norse and -þan in Proto-Norse, probably related to English then, while the meaning "but" has formed from the augmentative.

conj[ɛn][ˈɛːn]
  1. but

    Ég drekk kaffi en ég drekk ekki te.
    Ég ætla að fá brauð en ekki mjólk.
  2. than (with an adjective in the comparative)

    Ég er betri en bróðir minn.
    Hún er skemmtilegri en ég.
  3. used to join closely linked sentences, similar in English to a semicolon and to then, which is etymologically the same as than

    formal · literary
  4. and (when joining two parallel clauses)

    Sonur hans hét Jón, en dóttir hans Ása.
    Veðrið var ekki gott framan af: rigning á fjallinu, en þoka í byggð.
Where this word comes from

From Old Norse en. The meanings "than" and "but" developed from originally distinct forms. The comparative "than" is -an in Old Norse and -þan in Proto-Norse, probably related to English then, while the meaning "but" has formed from the augmentative.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.