Ég skil barnavagninn eftir við innganginn.

Because the full expression is að skilja eftir, which means to leave behind / leave somewhere.

In Icelandic, this kind of verb often works like a verb + particle combination. When the verb is conjugated, the particle eftir can be separated from it:

• infinitive: að skilja eftir
• present: ég skil ... eftir

So in this sentence, skil is the finite verb and eftir is the particle that completes the meaning.

This is a bit like English phrasal verbs:

• pick up the bag
• leave the stroller behind

So Ég skil barnavagninn eftir is a normal Icelandic structure.

Yes, it can.

The verb skilja has more than one meaning, and context matters:

• ég skil = I understand
• ég skil barnavagninn eftir = I leave the stroller behind / I leave the stroller there

The particle eftir changes the meaning. So once you see skilja eftir, you should read it as a single expression meaning leave behind rather than understand.

Barnavagninn is a compound noun.

It breaks down like this:

• barn = child
• vagn = wagon, cart, carriage
• barnavagn = stroller / pram
• barnavagninn = the stroller / pram

Icelandic makes lots of compound nouns, much like German. Instead of writing something like child wagon, Icelandic joins the parts into one word.

A useful rule: in a compound, the definite article gets attached to the whole compound at the end, not to the first part.

Because Icelandic usually puts the definite article onto the noun itself.

So instead of a separate word like English the, Icelandic often uses an ending:

• barnavagn = stroller / pram
• barnavagninn = the stroller / pram

Likewise:

• inngangur = entrance
• innganginn = the entrance

This attached article is one of the most noticeable differences between Icelandic and English.

It is the direct object of the verb skilja eftir, so its role is accusative.

In this sentence, the thing being left is barnavagninn, so that is the object.

One detail that can confuse learners: for this noun, the nominative and accusative singular definite forms happen to look the same:

• nominative: barnavagninn
• accusative: barnavagninn

So even though its function here is accusative, the form does not visibly change.

Here, við means by, at, or near.

So við innganginn means something like:

• by the entrance
• at the entrance
• near the entrance

It does not mean with here.

Like many Icelandic prepositions, við can have several meanings depending on context, but with places it often gives this idea of location near something.

The dictionary form is inngangur = entrance.

But after the preposition við, the noun appears in the accusative, and because it is definite, it also takes the article:

• nominative indefinite: inngangur
• accusative definite: innganginn

So við innganginn is the correct form for by the entrance.

This is a good reminder that in Icelandic, prepositions often control a specific case, and learners need to memorize that with the preposition.

There are two important things happening here:

1. Icelandic main clauses are usually V2

   • That means the finite verb tends to come in the second position.
   • Here the subject comes first: Ég
   • So the finite verb comes next: skil

2. The object can come before the particle

   • barnavagninn comes before eftir
   • This is normal with verb-particle combinations in Icelandic

So the structure is:

• Ég = subject
• skil = finite verb
• barnavagninn = object
• eftir = particle
• við innganginn = place phrase

This order is natural and idiomatic. As an English speaker, it may help to think of it like a phrasal-verb pattern where the object sits between the verb and the particle.