Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.

In Icelandic main clauses, the finite verb (the one that’s conjugated for person/tense) normally comes in second position, and ekki usually comes right after that verb:

Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.
Subject – finite verb – ekki – infinitive – object

Putting ekki before the finite verb (Ég ekki vil…) is wrong in normal prose and sounds either ungrammatical or highly poetic/archaic. So:

Correct: Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.
Incorrect in normal speech: Ég ekki vil missa lykilinn.

What is the role of vil and why is there another verb missa after it?

Vil is the present tense, 1st person singular form of the verb vilja (to want).
In this sentence, vilja works much like an English modal / semi-modal verb:

English: I want to lose the key.
Icelandic: Ég vil missa lykilinn.

After vil (and some other verbs like geta, skulu, munu), the next verb stays in the infinitive (the dictionary form), without að:

Ég vil missa lykilinn. – I want to lose the key.
Ég get lesið bókina. – I can read the book.
Hann mun koma. – He will come.

So vil is the conjugated verb that shows person/tense, and missa is the action you want to do (in infinitive form).

Why is it missa and not some other form like missi or missað?

Because after vil (and similar “modal” verbs), Icelandic uses the bare infinitive:

Infinitive: missa – to lose
Present indicative: ég missi, þú missir, hann missir…
Past participle: missa› (spelled missað)

In the pattern Ég vil + [verb], the [verb] must be the infinitive:

Ég vil missa lykilinn. – I want to lose the key.
Ég vil borða. – I want to eat.
Ég vil sofa. – I want to sleep.

So missi and missað would be the wrong forms in this grammatical slot.

What case is lykilinn in, and why?

Lykilinn is in the accusative singular.

Reason:

Missa is a verb that takes its direct object in the accusative.
The thing being lost (the key) is the direct object.

Base (indefinite) forms of lykill (key):

Nominative: lykill – (subject) a key
Accusative: lykil – (object) a key
Dative: lykli
Genitive: lykils

In Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn, the key is the object of missa, so we need the accusative: lykil.
Then we add the definite ending (see next question), giving lykilinn.

How does the definite ending in lykilinn work?

Icelandic usually attaches the definite article as an ending instead of a separate word like English the.

For masculine singular nouns, the accusative definite ending is -inn (or a variant of it).

Here:

Indefinite accusative: lykil – a key (object)
Definite accusative: lykilinn – the key (object)

Compare:

Ég vil ekki missa lykil. – I don’t want to lose a key (any key).
Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn. – I don’t want to lose the key (a specific one we both know about).

So lykilinn is lykil (accusative) + -inn (definite article).

Why is it spelled lykilinn and not lykillinn?

The base nominative form is lykill. When you decline it, the stem changes slightly:

Nominative sg.: lykill
Accusative sg.: lykil
Definite accusative sg.: lykilinn

So:

The double -ll at the end of lykill doesn’t stay the same in all forms.
In the accusative, the stem becomes lykil-, and then you add -inn, giving lykilinn.

This kind of stem change is common with Icelandic nouns ending in -ill, -ull, -nn, etc. It’s not arbitrary spelling; it reflects the regular declension pattern of lykill.

Could I say Ég vil ekki að missa lykilinn, like English “I don’t want to lose the key”?

No. With vilja (to want) followed directly by another verb, Icelandic does not use að:

Correct: Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.
Incorrect: Ég vil ekki að missa lykilinn.

You do use að when you have a full subordinate clause with its own conjugated verb, for example:

Ég vil ekki að ég missi lykilinn.
I don’t want that I lose the key.
(Grammatically possible but usually unnecessarily heavy; natives normally just say Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.)

So: vilja + infinitive → no að in this construction.

What’s the difference between missa and týna?

Both can be translated as to lose, but the nuance is different:

missa – to lose something (or someone) in a more general sense; also “to drop”, “to let go of”:
- missa lykilinn – lose/drop the key
- missa vinnuna – lose your job
- missa af strætónum – miss the bus
týna – to misplace something, lose track of where it is:
- týna lyklinum – misplace the key, can’t find it

In everyday speech about keys, both can appear, but:

missa lykilinn often suggests physically dropping or otherwise losing it.
týna lyklinum emphasizes having put it somewhere and now not knowing where.

Your sentence Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn is perfectly natural and idiomatic.

Can I move ekki later, like Ég vil missa ekki lykilinn?

For neutral, standard word order, no. The normal place for ekki is right after the finite verb:

Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.

Putting ekki after missa and before the object is at best very marked, and usually just sounds wrong:

?Ég vil missa ekki lykilinn. – feels ungrammatical/very strange.

You might see ekki after the object or at the end of the clause for special emphasis, but that’s more about rhetoric or poetry than everyday grammar, and even then the pattern is different. For a learner, stick with:

subject – finite verb – ekki – rest of the sentence

How do you conjugate vilja with different subjects?

Present tense of vilja (to want):

Ég vil – I want
Þú vilt – You (sg.) want
Hann / hún / það vill – He / she / it wants
Við viljum – We want
Þið viljið – You (pl.) want
Þeir / þær / þau vilja – They want

Examples:

Þú vilt ekki missa lykilinn. – You don’t want to lose the key.
Við viljum ekki missa lykilinn. – We don’t want to lose the key.
Þau vilja ekki missa lykilinn. – They don’t want to lose the key.

How would I say “I never want to lose the key” in Icelandic?

Use aldrei for never:

Ég vil aldrei missa lykilinn.

Word order is the same pattern: subject – finite verb – adverb (aldrei in this case) – infinitive – object.

You could also say, for a slightly different nuance:

Ég vil ekki nokkurn tíma missa lykilinn. – I don’t ever want to lose the key.
but Ég vil aldrei missa lykilinn is the most straightforward equivalent.

How is Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn pronounced?

Approximate pronunciation (IPA-like, simplified):

Ég – [jɛːɣ]
- é is like ye in yes but longer; final g is a soft fricative [ɣ].
vil – [vɪl]
- Short i like in English bit.
ekki – [ˈɛhcɪ]
- Stress on the first syllable; kk is an aspirated k, often written [kʰ] or [hc].
missa – [ˈmɪsa]
- Double ss is voiceless [s]; stress on the first syllable.
lykilinn – [ˈlɪːcɪlɪn] (approx.)
- y is pronounced like i in bit;
- k before i becomes a palatal [c];
- stress on the first syllable.

Spoken naturally, the sentence flows roughly as:

[jɛːɣ vɪl ˈɛhcɪ ˈmɪsa ˈlɪːcɪlɪn]

Don’t worry about getting every detail perfect at first; focusing on vowel length and stress (usually on the first syllable of each word) will already make you sound much more natural.