Hann vildi ekki drepa.

Vildi is the past tense of vilja, which means to want. In this sentence, hann vildi means he wanted.

A useful basic pattern is:

• vilja = to want
• ég vil = I want
• hann vill = he wants
• hann vildi = he wanted

So Hann vildi ekki drepa literally has the structure He wanted not to kill / He did not want to kill.

Ekki means not, and in this sentence it negates the infinitive phrase drepa.

So:

• hann vildi drepa = he wanted to kill
• hann vildi ekki drepa = he did not want to kill

In Icelandic, ekki often comes after the finite verb, which is what happens here:

• vildi = finite verb
• ekki = not
• drepa = infinitive

That word order is very normal.

In Icelandic, you often do not need a separate word corresponding to English to before an infinitive after another verb.

So:

• vilja drepa = to want to kill
• literally, this is more like want kill

The infinitive form is still drepa, but Icelandic does not need an extra infinitive marker here the way English does.

Drepa is the infinitive, the basic dictionary form of the verb, meaning to kill.

After vilja (to want), Icelandic normally uses an infinitive:

• Hann vill drepa = He wants to kill
• Hann vildi drepa = He wanted to kill

So drepa is not conjugated here because vildi is already the main finite verb of the clause.

In normal English, the best translation is He didn’t want to kill.

Grammatically, the Icelandic wording can be understood as he wanted not to kill, but in ordinary usage it is usually interpreted naturally as he did not want to kill.

So for a learner, the safest understanding is:

• Hann vildi ekki drepa = He didn’t want to kill

Yes. Even though drepa often takes an object, Icelandic can leave the object unstated if it is understood from context or not important.

For example:

• Hann vildi ekki drepa manninn = He didn’t want to kill the man
• Hann vildi ekki drepa = He didn’t want to kill

The second sentence sounds more general or leaves unsaid kill whom/what.

Normally, Icelandic includes the subject pronoun, so hann is needed here.

• hann = he

Unlike some languages, Icelandic usually does not drop subject pronouns in ordinary sentences. So Vildi ekki drepa by itself would normally sound incomplete unless the context is very special, such as a diary style, poetry, or a fragment.

Usually yes. Hann is the masculine singular third-person pronoun, so it normally means he.

However, as in English, actual interpretation depends on context. It refers to some previously known male person or masculine noun.

Basic pronouns:

• hann = he
• hún = she
• það = it

The present-tense version is:

• Hann vill ekki drepa. = He does not want to kill.

Compare:

• vill = wants
• vildi = wanted

So the only change is the tense of vilja.

That would usually be expressed differently, because vildi means wanted, not would in this sentence.

For He would not kill, Icelandic might use something like:

• Hann myndi ekki drepa.

Here:

• myndi = would

So the distinction is:

• Hann vildi ekki drepa. = He didn’t want to kill.
• Hann myndi ekki drepa. = He would not kill.

Yes, but it is also very normal Icelandic word order.

The sentence is:

• Hann = subject
• vildi = finite verb
• ekki = not
• drepa = infinitive

So the pattern is:

Subject + finite verb + ekki + infinitive

This is a very common structure in Icelandic:

• Ég get ekki farið. = I cannot go.
• Hún ætlaði ekki að koma. = She was not going to come.
• Hann vildi ekki drepa. = He did not want to kill.

Yes. Icelandic can move elements around for emphasis, especially in larger contexts, but Hann vildi ekki drepa is the neutral, straightforward version.

For example, if another element were placed first, the verb would still normally come second because of Icelandic word-order rules. But without extra context, the given sentence is the most natural basic form for a learner to use.