einhvers

Einhvers is a word found in Icelandic grammar that functions primarily as the genitive form of the indefinite pronoun einhver, meaning “some” or “someone.” In practice, einhvers appears in two common roles: to indicate possession or relation in genitive phrases, and in fixed expressions such as einhvers konar, which means “some kind of” or “a kind of.” The form is typically used in written Icelandic and in more formal speech.

As a genitive form, einhvers precedes a noun in a possessive construction. For example, einhvers manns bíll can be translated as “some man’s car” (literally, “a car of some man”). This usage conveys indefiniteness about the possessor while naming the head noun. Another example is einhvers konu hlutur, a phrasing that can convey “the thing of some woman” in contexts where the exact owner is not specified. In everyday speech, speakers may instead use other constructions, but einhvers remains productive in literary and formal language.

In addition to possession, einhvers appears in the fixed expression einhvers konar, meaning “some kind of.” This construction precedes a noun such as hlutur (thing) or athöfn (activity) to express general, non-specific variety. The phrase is common in written Icelandic and appears in dictionaries and grammar references as part of standard language.

Etymology traces einhvers to the stem einh- related to einn, meaning “one,” combined with the genitive marker -vers, forming a form that expresses indefiniteness within possessive or classificatory phrases. See also bæði entspricht einhver and the broader use of genitive determiners in Icelandic.