Breakdown of Við göngum ekki á veginn.
ekki
not
við
we
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
ganga
to walk
vegurinn
the road
Questions & Answers about Við göngum ekki á veginn.
Why does á mean "onto" here instead of just "on"?
In Icelandic, prepositions like á (on/onto) and í (in/into) take the accusative case when they describe motion towards a destination. Since we are walking onto the road, á triggers the accusative. If we were already walking around on the road, it would take a different case.
How did we get veginn for "the road"?
The dictionary form is vegur (road), which is a masculine noun. Because the preposition á causes it to be in the accusative case here, the -ur ending drops, leaving veg. Then we add the accusative definite article -inn (the) to the end, giving us veginn.
Why does ekki come after göngum? In English we say "do not walk".
Icelandic has a strict "verb-second" rule for main sentences. The verb (göngum) must be in the second position, right after the subject (við). Because of this, adverbs like ekki (not) are placed directly after the verb.
Why does the verb ganga (to walk) change to göngum here?
The ending -um is the standard present tense ending for við (we). When you add an ending containing the letter "u" to a word with an "a" in its stem, that "a" shifts to an "ö". This is a very common vowel shift in Icelandic!
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