Learn Icelandic online with a private tutor

It depends entirely on where you are starting from and what you need Icelandic for. A specific goal — an exam, an interview, a move — is far more useful for planning than a general target.

Each Icelandic teacher decides which lesson lengths they offer and sets a price for each — you see both before booking. Many teachers also sell lesson packages at their own price, usually cheaper per lesson. If you are still choosing, you can top up your wallet instead and spend the balance with any teacher — nothing is tied to one person.

For pronunciation, idiom and register, yes — a native ear catches things a textbook cannot. For grammar explanations early on, a teacher who learned Icelandic as a second language themselves is often clearer, because they remember finding it hard. Many learners use both, and there is no rule against switching.

Yes. Filter for teachers who work with beginners and your first lessons will be run partly in a language you already share, shifting into Icelandic as you gain ground. You do not need to prepare anything beforehand.

We have written guides to Icelandic test for citizenship (The Icelandic language test for applicants for Icelandic citizenship (íslenskupróf fyrir umsækjendur um ríkisborgararétt)), each read on the examining body's own pages.