Frá

Frá is a preposition used in Icelandic and Faroese to mean from or away from. It marks origin, source, or the starting point of movement, and it can denote spatial distance as well as temporal beginnings. In North Germanic languages, cognates exist in other languages such as Danish fra, Norwegian fra (and frå in some dialects), and Swedish från.

In Icelandic, frá governs the dative case and is commonly used with places or people to express origin. It also appears in phrases that indicate the starting point of a time interval or distance, and it forms common ranges together with til meaning "from … to …," as in frá kl. 9 til kl. 17 (from 9 o’clock to 5 o’clock). A typical example is Ég er frá Íslandi (I am from Iceland).

Etymology traces frá to Proto-Germanic *fra- meaning “from, away.” The form is attested in Old Norse as frā, and survives in modern Icelandic and Faroese as frá. Related languages show cognate prepositions with similar meanings, such as fra in Danish and Norwegian, and från in Swedish, reflecting a shared Germanic origin.

Frá is contrasted with other directional prepositions that express motion toward or into, while combining with til to describe ranges or opposites (from … to). Its use is a standard feature of Icelandic syntax and is taught as part of basic spatial and temporal expressions.