Vonandi slekk ég á símanum til þess að sofa betur.

Hopefully I turn off the phone in order to sleep better.

Breakdown of Vonandi slekk ég á símanum til þess að sofa betur.

• ég: I
• sofa: to sleep
• slökkva á: to turn off
• betur: better

Questions & Answers about Vonandi slekk ég á símanum til þess að sofa betur.

What exactly is vonandi, and where can it go in the sentence?

Vonandi is an adverb meaning hopefully. More precisely, it’s a sentence adverb: it comments on the whole sentence, not just one word.

It most often appears at the very beginning:

• Vonandi slekk ég á símanum… – Hopefully I turn off the phone…

But you can also put it after the subject:

• Ég slekk vonandi á símanum…

Putting vonandi first slightly emphasizes the hope itself; putting it later feels a bit more neutral. Grammatically, both are fine as long as the finite verb stays in second position overall (see the word-order question below).

Why is it slekk and not slökkva?

Slökkva is the infinitive form of the verb (to turn off, to extinguish).

In the sentence you need a finite, present-tense, 1st person singular form:

• ég slekk – I turn off

So:

• að slökkva – (to) turn off
• ég slekk – I turn off

This verb is a bit irregular: the stem vowel changes (ö → e) and the ending shortens, giving slekk instead of something like slökkvi. You don’t need to worry about the full paradigm at this stage; just learn að slökkva – ég slekk as a pair.