Faroese prepositions

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If we write í ánni (in the river), then we have written a prepositional conjunction, which is composed of a preposition í and a governed word ánni.

Prepositions are small words that are placed in front of or behind other words, most often nouns and pronouns.

The preposition governs the word it is placed with. Sometimes it governs the accusative:

Tíðindini gingu um bygdina. - The news went around the village.

Sometimes the dative:

Hon býr hjá okkum. - She lives with us.

And sometimes the genitive:

Teir fóru til skips. - They (masc.) went to sea. (literally, to ship, meaning on a ship)

Sometimes, the same preposition can govern two cases, either accusative and dative or accusative and genitive. No preposition governs the nominative. Prepositions are not conjugated.

Faroese prepositions controlling akkusativ
Faroese prepositions controlling dativ
Faroese prepositions controlling akkusativ and dativ
Faroese prepositions controlling akkusativ and genitiv

Prepositions are often used as adverbs:

Tey hugdu seg um. - They looked around.
Einki er at fara upp til. - There's nothing to get up to.
Hvussu bert tú teg at?. - How do you do it?

Note that no preposition is used to say on a certain day. Instead, the day being referred to is just made definite:

Eg fari heim sunnudagin = I'm going home on Sunday.

The same applies to the time:

Filmurin byrjar kl. 22. = The movie starts at 10 o'clock.

However, this is not the case with seasons:

Hann fer til Danmarkar um summarið. = He goes to Denmark in the summers.

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