hefur

Hefur is the present tense, third-person singular form of the Icelandic verb hafa, which means to have. It functions as the auxiliary verb in the present perfect construction, where it is combined with the past participle of the main verb to express actions that have relevance to the present or occurred at an unspecified time.

In present perfect constructions, hafa carries the grammatical meaning of “have” and the main verb’s past participle provides the substantive meaning. For example, Hann hefur lesið bókina means “He has read the book,” and Hún hefur borðað means “She has eaten.” The present perfect can also emphasize recent events or experiences, similarly to its use in English, but Icelandic forms it with the same auxiliary verb regardless of person.

The full present-tense paradigm of hafa is: ég hef, þú hefur, hann hefur, við höfum, þið hafið, þeir hafa. The form þú hefur and hann hefur are the most common appearances of the auxiliary in everyday speech, while hafið and höfum are used for second-person plural and first-person plural, respectively.

Etymologically, hafa descends from Old Norse and is cognate with related forms in other Germanic languages. The word and its derivatives are highly frequent in Icelandic, appearing in a wide range of tenses and constructions beyond the present perfect, including expressions of obligation, permission, and hypothetical situations when paired with other auxiliary forms.