I received an email from a reader with the following and I thought I’d share here in case other new learners might be wondering something similar:

I’m using both Beginner’s Icelandic and Pimsleur. I like them both, but am focused on Pimsleur. However, I’ve found there are some words in Pimsleur, I can’t find anywhere. For example, “gladly”. I looked it up in my trusty dictionary and it’s not what they use in Pimsleur. What I hear is “enteleya”, but as you know, everywhere else, “gladly” is “gladlega”. Do you have any suggestions? Takk! M.

I relate to your Pimsleur frustrations, M. It’s a wonderful resource (one I still use for practice on my way to work), but I think it’s really best for casual learners who just want to know basics (without having to learn any grammar etc.).

I encountered a similar thing M is describing. I remember asking an Icelandic friend something similar last year. I described it to her as sounding like ant-ee-lega. 🙂 She informed me that endilega is the correct word, which does mean gladly—and she noted that you can also be glaðleg (cheerful).

I do understand the confusion, though, as Google Translate says:

• endilega = please
• gladly = gjarna

And if you look here, it says endilega means “absolutely” or “by all means.” Íslensk nútímamálsorðabók also shows endilega as meaning “fyrir alla muni,” aka “by all means.”

I hope this is helpful! These little pieced together definitions should give you a sense as to how it’s used. 🙂

-S