German modal verbs change the mood or tone of a sentence.

They let you express abilities, desires, obligations, and permissions.

Instead of just saying that you do an action, modal verbs allow you to say that you can, must, or want to do it.

Learning how to use these verbs correctly will make your German sound much more natural.

I’ll show you exactly how to conjugate them and build sentences with them.

What are the German modal verbs?

There are six primary modal verbs in the German language.

These verbs are können, müssen, dürfen, sollen, wollen, and mögen.

We also frequently use möchten alongside these six words.

While möchten is technically a conjugated form of mögen, it functions exactly like a distinct modal verb.

Modal verbs rarely stand alone in a complete sentence.

They usually team up with a second verb to complete the meaning of your thought.

Sentence structure with modal verbs

German sentence structure follows a very strict rule when using modal verbs.

The conjugated modal verb always takes the second position in a standard statement.

The main action verb is pushed to the very end of the sentence.

This main verb must remain in its infinitive form, meaning it doesn’t get conjugated.

Think of the modal verb and the main verb as a pair of bookends holding your sentence together.

In this example, kann (can) sits firmly in position two.

The main action sprechen (to speak) waits at the very end of the sentence.

Conjugating German modal verbs

Modal verbs don’t follow regular conjugation rules.

The singular forms (I, you, he/she/it) almost always experience a vowel change.

The ich (I) and er/sie/es (he/she/it) forms are always exactly the same word.

Neither of these first-person and third-person singular forms receives a traditional verb ending.

The plural forms (we, you all, they) act completely normal and keep the original vowel.

Here’s a table showing the present tense conjugations for each modal verb.

Meanings and examples of each modal verb

Let’s look closely at how each specific verb changes the meaning of your sentence.

Können (can / to be able to)

You use können to express a physical ability, a learned skill, or a possibility.

It’s the direct equivalent of “can” or “to be able to” in English.

Müssen (must / to have to)

You use müssen to show a strong necessity or absolute obligation.

It translates to “must” or “to have to”.

Dürfen (may / to be allowed to)

Dürfen primarily expresses permission.

It translates to “may” or “to be allowed to”.

If you want to say that something is strictly forbidden, you use nicht dürfen (must not).

Sollen (should / to be supposed to)

Sollen is used to give advice, express expectations, or outline softer obligations.

It translates to “should” or “to be supposed to”.

Wollen (want to)

You use wollen to express a strong intention, firm desire, or will to do something.

It simply means “to want to”.

Mögen and möchten (to like / would like)

Mögen usually means “to like” a person, an object, or a concept.

It often stands completely alone without needing a second action verb.

Möchten means “would like” and serves as a polite alternative to wollen.

You’ll hear möchten constantly when ordering food or buying tickets in German-speaking countries.

There are some interesting regional variations regarding these two words.

In Bavaria and Austria, locals often use mögen to mean “want” instead of just “like”.

You might hear a Bavarian say Ich mag nicht gehen instead of Ich will nicht gehen when they don’t want to leave.

Using modal verbs in the past tense

Spoken German normally prefers the conversational past tense (Perfekt) for regular verbs.

However, Germans almost exclusively use the simple past tense (Präteritum) when speaking with modal verbs.

Using the Perfekt tense with modal verbs sounds very clunky to native speakers.

To form the simple past, you drop the umlaut (the two dots) from the original verb.

After dropping the umlaut, you simply add a “-te” ending to the stem.

For example, müssen becomes musste and können becomes konnte.

This spoken preference for the simple past applies everywhere in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.