annað

Annað is an Icelandic word used as an adjective, pronoun, or adverb meaning “the other,” “another,” or “else,” and it is often used to refer to something different from what has already been mentioned or to indicate an additional item. It can also appear in fixed expressions such as “annað hvort … eða …,” meaning “either … or ….”

In grammar, annað is the neuter singular form of the adjective annarr, which has gendered forms for masculine and feminine: annarr (masculine) and önnur (feminine). When describing a neuter noun, or functioning as a predicative pronoun, the neuter form annað/annað is used, for example “annað hús” (another/another house) or “Það er annað.” The word can function as a determiner before a noun (“annað hús”) or as a pronoun by itself (“Ég vil annað”). Its meaning contrasts with hitt, another common word for “the other,” though the two can be used in related senses in discourse.

Usage notes: أنت uses of annað are frequent with neuter nouns and in contexts where one item is being distinguished from another. For masculine or feminine referents, the corresponding forms annarr or önnur are used. The term appears widely in everyday language as well as in formal writing, and it remains one of the core ways Icelandic speakers express alternatives, additions, or differences.

Etymology: annað derives from the Old Norse form annarr, with the neuter form evolving to annað in modern Icelandic.