The True Meaning of “sollen” – German Modal Verbs

Hello everyone

And welcome to our German Word of the Day,
this time, with a closer look at the modal verb

sollen

Since it’s one of the modal verbs, people usually meet it very early on, but then they never really use it and even among advanced learners there’s this lingering uncertainty about it. Like… What does it actually mean exactly? How to translate it? And there’s the question about the difference ich soll vs ich sollte and more generally about how to translate should in German.

In this lesson, we’ll clear it all up.
We’ll start with a little look at the origin and family of sollen, because there are some surprises waiting there.
Then we’ll talk about the main meaning and how to best translate sollen and then we’ll explore if there are other uses or meanings.
And last but not least, we’ll talk about soll vs sollte.
Sounds a lot, but don’t worry, we’ll take a little break in between so you can go get a coffee or on vacation or whatever.
Yeah… it’s going to be a two part lesson :)

Anyway, are you ready to dive in?
Then let’s go!

The interesting origin of “sollen” and “should”

Many of you probably know that sollen is the German brother of English shall. What you might not know is that they’re also related to the German words around die Schuld. Yes, the one that’s at the core of Entschuldigung.

Schuld itself means guilt (and sometimes fault) but the plural die Schulden is actually the German word for debt, and the verb schulden means to owe.

• Ich schulde dir eine Entschuldigung.
• I owe you an apology.
  (“Entschuldigung” – “de-guilt-ification”)
  
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

This example kind of shows the connection between the two. You feel guilty and so you feel like you owe an apology. Like… in a way, guilt is what you feel if you don’t settle some sort of debt.
I’ve explored this word cluster in more detail in a separate post, so I’ll leave the link below if you want to dig deeper.

But yeah, this idea of guilt and owing someone is actually kind of the core theme of the family and it was indeed the idea of the super duper ancient Indo-European root that the family comes from.
And we can find shades of it in other members of the family as well.

Take the word should for example.
For one thing, it looks a LOT like Schuld.
But more importantly, the ideas are directly connected as well. If you owe (schulden) someone an apology, you’d say that you SHOULD apologize. Like… in a way you can think of to owe as “should give”.

In fact, shall and should could literally mean to owe back a few hundred years ago, but they have shifted over time toward a more abstract and fairly diffuse sense of obligation.

• You shall not steal.
  (You “are obliged” not to steal)

It can also morph into the idea of permission at times, which makes sense if you think of permission as a removing an “obligation not to”.

• Okay, you shall steal now.
  (The obligation “not to steal” is removed – permission)

And sometimes, it can even cross over into sort of expressing future tense.

• I shall call you tomorrow.

This is a weird blend of future and obligation.
It sounds a bit pompous in English, but in Swedish, this phrasing actually became the proper future tense. In English, future tense evolved from a statement of intent (I will), in Swedish it evolved from talking about one’s obligations (“I shall”). And the German option with werden evolved from talking about which direction you “grow”. It’s kind of cool how even languages that are rather close relatives can use very different ways to express the same…
*buiiii buiiiii buiiiiiiii
Oh… hah… hold on.
*beeping stops
So that was actually my new digressio-meter that warns me if I veer off track too far. Sorry for that.

So yeah, the core theme that we found in all members of the family we just looked at was a sense of obligation.
And that’s also the core of sollen.

The main meaning of “sollen”

When you first come in contact with sollen, you might learn it as the German brother of shall. And that’s not wrong, as we’ve just seen, but it’s also a bit misleading because the usages don’t line up all that well.

They do line up in the classic commandment style phrasing.

• Thou shalt not eat my yogurt without asking.
• Du sollst nicht meinen Jogurt essen, ohne zu fragen.

But they do NOT line up at all in the use that leans more toward the future.

• Apologies! I shall never eat your yogurt again.
• Entschuldigung! Ich soll nie wieder deinen Jogurt essen… NOPE!!

The German sentence is not wrong, but it does not mean the same as the English one.
What the German version actually means is this:

• Apologies! Someone told me to never eat your yogurt again.

Because the core idea of sollen is obligation in the specific sense of someone wants me to.
Hold on, let me say that again, but in a box:

Take this example:

• Ich soll morgen ins Büro.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

This doesn’t just mean that I have to go to the office tomorrow. It means that someone WANTS me to go to the office tomorrow (and told me so).

That’s the core of sollen.
It does NOT include a notion of actually doing it or agreeing that I should indeed do it.

And it also doesn’t really include “obligations” that arise from circumstances, which brings us to the difference between sollen and müssen.

The Difference between “sollen” and “müssen”

Suppose you want to catch the train at 7, and in order to do that, you have to get up at 6. You could say that getting up at 6 is an “obligation” now, but it’s circumstantial.
Even if your friend tells you “Get up at 6 tomorrow if you want to catch the train.” the reason for you getting up would still be mainly the circumstances, not the fact that your friend told you to.

This can sometimes get lost in translation.

• Ich muss um 6 aufstehen.
• I have to get up at 6.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Ich soll um 6 aufstehen.
• I have to get up at 6. (someone told me to do it)
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

The first one is just making a statement about the facts. The second one is kind of making a statement about what someone said to you and it could well be that you don’t agree with it at all.

• My boss says I have to clean her car… yeah, no way I’m doing that.
• Meine Chefin sagt, ich soll ihr Auto putzen… ja genau, auf keinen Fall mach ich das.

You could also use müssen here, but sollen specifically stresses that it’s something she TOLD you.

I hope you can feel the difference between these two. It’s a bit hard to really capture in a simple one word translation actually.

So let’s look at some more examples for sollen to get a better feel for it.

• Wir sollen um 8 zu Hause sein, hat Mama gesagt.
• We have to be home by 8, mom said.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• Laut meinem Arzt soll man dreimal täglich eine Tablette nehmen.
• According my doctor you’re supposed to / you have to take one pill three times per day.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• “Warum spritzt du deine Katze mit Sprühflasche nass?”
  “Die soll lernen, dass sie nicht auf den Tisch darf.”
• “Why are you spraying your cat with a spray bottle?”
  “She has to learn/ I want her to learn that she’s not allowed on the table.
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• “Wann soll ich morgen kommen?”
  “So gegen 8 wäre gut.”
• “What time do you want me to/should I come tomorrow?”
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

• “Soll ich Bier mitbringen?”
  “Nee, nur dich und gute Laune.”
• “Should/do you want me to bring beer?”
  “Nah, just bring yourself and a good mood.”
• ▶
  
• Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop

  

As you can see, the contexts vary quite a bit and so does the most accurate translation. But I hope you can see the core theme of sollen in all of them:

The idea of “someone wants someone to do something“.

In the first one, the mom wants the kids to be home by 8. In the second one, the doctor wants the patient to take the pills three times per day. In the third one, I want my cat to learn to stay away from the table and the last two are basically asking someone what they want me to do, just in a friendly context.

Now, many of you are probably wondering if we could also use sollte in these two examples. And the answer to that is …drumroll… what we’ll find out next time.

Nah, kidding of course.
I can’t leave you hanging like that.
The answer is no.
And the reason for why it wouldn’t work is … drumroll… what we’ll find out next time.
Hahahaha…got’em!
I’m sorry, I really couldn’t resist.

But seriously, every good show needs a good cliffhanger, and I feel like this is the perfect moment to take a little break.

In part two (which will come out very soon, I promise) we’ll explore all about soll vs sollte and how they relate to should. And we’ll also look at some side uses of sollen itself that you’ll see in daily life sooner or later.

The key takeaway for today is the core idea of sollen, this theme of “we’ll go over that in the quiz again”.
Oh boy… I’m on fire right now.
But yeah, if you want to recap what we’ve learned so far and go over a few examples, just take the little quiz I have prepared. It’s just 5 questions, but better than nothing, I think.

And of course if you have any questions or suggestions or thoughts, just leave me a comment and we’ll continue the discussion there.

I really hope you enjoyed this, have a great week and I’ll see you next time.

Further reading:

• Word of the Day – “die Schuld”