A2 · Modal verbs
sollen: orders and hearsay
Ich soll morgen kommen.
An obligation that comes from another person, and a second use that reports what people say.
At a glance
- Remember
- sollen has somebody behind it, müssen has a situation.
- Form
- ich sollI am supposed to
- Signal words
- soll
- sollst
- sollen
- sollte
- angeblich
- Trap
- Wrong:Ich muss morgen kommen. (weil der Chef es gesagt hat)Right:Ich soll morgen kommen.
Your turn
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The form
How the forms are built
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in German. The colours show what changes from one form to the next.
stem (regular) tense marker person ending question marker
| I am supposed to | ich soll |
| you are supposed to (informal) | du sollst |
| he, she, it is supposed to | er, sie, es soll |
| we are supposed to | wir sollen |
| you are supposed to (plural) | ihr sollt |
| they, you (formal) are supposed to | sie, Sie sollen |
| I was supposed to | ich sollte |
| you were supposed to (informal) | du solltest |
| he, she, it was supposed to | er, sie, es sollte |
| we were supposed to | wir sollten |
| you were supposed to (plural) | ihr solltet |
| they, you (formal) were supposed to | sie, Sie sollten |
| offering help | Soll ich helfen? |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
sollen names an obligation that comes from another person.
Ich soll das Formular ausfüllen.I have been told to fill in the form.
müssen names a necessity in the situation itself.
Ich muss zum Zug.I have to catch my train.
sollen with a third person reports hearsay.
Der Film soll gut sein.The film is supposed to be good.
Soll ich? offers help.
Soll ich das Fenster schließen?Shall I close the window?
Example sentences
Du sollst deine Mutter anrufen.You are supposed to call your mother.
Was soll ich sagen?What am I supposed to say?
Sie soll sehr freundlich sein.She is said to be very friendly.
Soll ich mitkommen?Shall I come along?
Das sollte eigentlich klappen.That ought to work, in principle.
6 more example sentences
Wann soll ich da sein?When am I supposed to be there?
Du solltest zum Arzt gehen.You ought to see a doctor.
Das Wetter soll besser werden.The weather is supposed to improve.
Ich soll Ihnen etwas ausrichten.I have a message for you.
Soll das ein Witz sein?Is that meant to be a joke?
Er sollte um acht hier sein.He was supposed to be here at eight.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Both sentences are correct German and they say different things. Müssen puts the necessity in the world — the train leaves at seven, so I have to go — while sollen puts it in a person who decided. Reaching for müssen everywhere is the usual learner default and it quietly removes the person from every sentence, which occasionally matters a great deal.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Sollen expresses an obligation whose source is somebody else. Ich soll morgen kommen means somebody has told me to. Compare Ich muss morgen kommen, where the necessity is in the situation itself and no person is behind it.
That distinction is the whole point of the verb, and English "should" only covers part of it. Du sollst nicht rauchen can be a doctor’s instruction rather than a piece of advice, and the German sentence does not say which unless the context does.
The verb has a second, quite different job: reporting what is said without vouching for it. Er soll sehr reich sein means he is said to be very rich. English needs a whole phrase — "apparently", "is supposed to be" — and German does it in one word, which is why the construction is everywhere in journalism.
A closer look
sollte is advice, not the past
Sollte is both the simple past of sollen and its subjunctive, and the second use is far more common. Du solltest mehr schlafen is advice — "you ought to" — and has nothing to do with the past. Only the context separates the two, and a time word usually settles it.
This is the everyday German for giving advice, and it is much softer than musst. Where English says "you should", German says du solltest, and reaching for du sollst instead turns a suggestion into an instruction.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When sollen appears in a wenn-clause
then it marks a remote possibility.
Falls er anrufen sollte, sag mir Bescheid.If he should call, let me know.
Why? The subjunctive form softens a condition the speaker does not expect.
Exception
When the hearsay is about something in the past
then sollen stays in the present and is followed by a past infinitive: participle plus sein or haben.
Er soll dort gewesen sein.He is said to have been there.
Why? The report is being passed on now; only what it is about lies in the past. (A double infinitive appears only when the modal itself is put into the perfect.)
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
Was soll das? is a complete sentence
Was soll das? means "what is that supposed to be about" and is a common expression of annoyance. Was soll’s is the resigned version — "never mind". Both use the verb with no second verb at all, which German modals allow freely.
Worth knowing
The hearsay use has a legal cousin
German journalism uses soll to report an accusation without endorsing it: Er soll das Geld genommen haben. The word carries the distance, so no additional hedging is needed, and reading German news without recognising it means mistaking allegations for facts.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: sollen · sagen · anrufen · sein · müssen · schließen