fyrir

Fyrir is a versatile preposition in Icelandic with several related meanings. It most commonly translates as “for,” indicating benefit, purpose, or a recipient (for example, paying or acting on someone’s behalf). It also conveys spatial relations, roughly corresponding to “in front of” or “before” in certain contexts, and it can denote time in the sense of “before.” Additionally, it is used in expressions of price or exchange, meaning “in return for” or “at the cost of.”

In practical use, fyrir links a noun or pronoun to the sense of benefit or purpose. Examples include: Ég vinn fyrir peninga (I work for money); Ég kaupi þetta fyrir þig (I buy this for you); Hann talaði fyrir mig (He spoke on my behalf). It can also express the price of something: Þetta kostar fimm þúsund krónur (This costs five thousand krona), with the sense extended by placing the amount after fyrir. In temporal phrases, fyrir can mean “before,” as in statements about time (for example, “við verðum fyrir klukkan níu,” meaning before nine o’clock).

Grammatically, fyrir governs the accusative case in the following noun or pronoun (mig, þig, þig, etc.). It is a common, productive preposition in everyday Icelandic and forms part of many idiomatic expressions and collocations. Etymologically, it derives from Old Norse fyr ir and is cognate with related forms in other Scandinavian languages, reflecting its long-standing role as a general preposition of benefit, exchange, and temporal or spatial relation.