Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.

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Breakdown of Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.

• ekki: not
• vilja: to want
• lykillinn: the key

Questions & Answers about Ég vil ekki missa lykilinn.

Why does ekki come after vil and not before it?

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).