B1 · intermediate · 12/20 #MODALVARSAYIM

The second meaning of modal verbs

subjektive Modalverben

The second meaning of German modal verbs expresses the speaker’s judgment or assumption instead of an obligation or permission: muss, soll, will.

Er muss krank sein does not mean “he is required to be sick” — it means “he must be sick”. English does the same trick with must be, is said to be and claims to be; German just hands the whole job to its modal verbs. A certainty scale, plus the soll of newspaper German.

Contents

Right now: one sentence, two readings

This builds on

A1 · Modal verbs B1 · Futur I (the guessing meaning)

Don’t come in here until the first meaning of the modal verbs feels solid — this page covers the second meaning of the same verbs.

ShortcutIf sein or a state follows, the modal is most likely a guess. If an action follows, it is probably the normal meaning. sollen is hearsay: “supposedly…”.

Sentence	First meaning	Second meaning
Er muss arbeiten.	He has to work.	—
Er muss krank sein.	he has to be sick	He must be sick.
Er soll reich sein.	he should be rich	He’s said to be rich.
Er will Arzt sein.	he wants to be a doctor	He claims to be a doctor.

The last row is especially sneaky: Er will Arzt sein = he claims to be a doctor. To say “he wants to become a doctor” you say Er will Arzt werden. One word, the exact opposite meaning.

You already do this in English

English has the same toolbox: must be (I worked it out), is said to be (I heard it from someone), claims to be (his own story, and I’m not convinced). German does all of it with modal verbs, so a sentence that looks like an order can secretly be a guess.

English	What it tells you	German
He must be sick.	confident deduction — I worked it out	Er muss krank sein.
He’s said to be rich.	hearsay — somebody else said it	Er soll reich sein.
He claims to be a doctor.	his own claim — I’m doubtful	Er will Arzt sein.
He’s probably about forty.	soft guess	Er dürfte vierzig sein.

So your English instinct works for you here: when you translate, ask yourself — am I saying “must be”, “is said to be”, or “claims to be”? The answer hands you the modal.

Table: which modal, how sure

These verbs form a certainty scale. Certainty sits at the top, impossibility at the bottom:

Modal	How sure	Example
muss	95% — certain	Er muss krank sein. — He must be sick.
dürfte	75% — most likely	Er dürfte zu Hause sein. — He’s probably at home.
könnte / kann	50% — possible	Er könnte krank sein. — He might be sick.
kann nicht	0% — impossible	Das kann nicht stimmen. — That can’t be true.

Here dürfte is a Konjunktiv II form and carries no permission meaning. It is the polite guess you will hear most in conversation — read it together with the Konjunktiv II page.

The second group is not about certainty but about the source of the information. Think of the English split between “is said to” and “claims to”:

Modal	Who is saying it	Example
soll	other people — “they say that…”	Der Film soll gut sein. — The film is said to be good.
will	the person themself — “according to him”	Er will alles gesehen haben. — He claims to have seen everything.

When wollen is used this way, it adds doubt to the sentence. When a German says Er will das nicht gewusst haben, it means “he says he didn’t know but I don’t believe him”.

Two places people go wrong

Trap 1

Reading sollen as “should”

At A1 you learned sollen = “should” or “is supposed to”, and that is correct. But when a state follows it, the meaning slides to hearsay — and the two readings can be exact opposites.

Du sollst mehr schlafen.

You should sleep more. — advice, first meaning.

Er soll sehr reich sein.

He’s said to be very rich. — hearsay, second meaning.

How to tell them apart: who is being addressed? If the sentence is said to du or Sie, it is most likely advice. If it is about a third person and a state follows, it is hearsay.

Trap 2

Not being able to build the past form

When the guess moves into the past, the structure changes and learners freeze. There is only one pattern: modal + Partizip II + haben / sein, all at the end.

Now	Past	In English
Er muss krank sein.	Er muss krank gewesen sein.	He must have been sick.
Er soll reich sein.	Er soll reich gewesen sein.	He’s said to have been rich (back then).
Sie muss es wissen.	Sie muss es gewusst haben.	She must have known.

The order is always the same: Partizip II first, then the infinitive of the auxiliary. gewesen sein · gewusst haben · gegangen sein.

Er muss krank gewesen ist.

The auxiliary is not conjugated; it stays an infinitive.

Er muss krank gewesen sein.

This is the right one.

The part nobody tells you: newspaper German runs on this

Textbooks squeeze this topic into a box called “the second meaning of modal verbs” and move on. In reality sollen is the backbone of German journalism — it lets a journalist report something without taking responsibility for it.

Der Täter soll 30 Jahre alt sein.

The perpetrator is reported to be 30 years old. — the paper does not confirm this.

Die Firma soll Millionen verloren haben.

The company is alleged to have lost millions.

A learner who doesn’t know this reads the story as established fact. But every time you see soll, the writer is telling you: “I’m not the one saying this; somebody else is.”

In the same way, wollen is a doubt marker in court and police reports: Der Angeklagte will nichts gewusst haben — the defendant says he knew nothing. The moment you see this word in a German text, you know the writer doesn’t believe it.

Practical upshot: this page is for reading, not for speaking. Nobody expects you to produce it in an oral exam, but if you plan to read German news, ads or official letters, you have to know the difference.

Practice now

What you just learned

To talk about a medium probability (50%) — “possible” — you use könnte or the modal verb _____.
Show the answer
kann. The modal verbs könnte (Konjunktiv II) or kann show that something is possible (a 50% chance).
The sentence Er muss krank sein. says that he is definitely sick and that there is no other possibility.
Show the answer
False — When müssen is used for an assumption, it expresses a strong guess (90–95%), not 100% certainty.
“He’s said to be rich” — which one is it?
Show the answer
Er soll reich sein. sollen shows that the information comes from other people — the counterpart of English “is said to”.

What to do this week

This topic sinks in through reading — not through doing exercises. Five minutes a day:

Open a short article on a German news site (tagesschau.de writes plainly).
Underline every sentence with soll and will.
Translate each one into English with “is said to” and “claims to” — does the meaning fit?
Make up three guesses about your own life: Er muss … sein · Sie dürfte … sein · Das kann nicht stimmen.
Once a week, push the same sentence into the past: Er muss krank gewesen sein.

You are at the end of the B1 path. From here the topics aren’t new material but going deeper: recognising the same structures in longer texts. Go back to the B1 path and pick whatever is still missing.

07Build

Build the sentence yourself

Tap the words and put them in order. This is the hardest part of German — and there are no options to pick from, you build it.

tap the words
tap the words
tap the words

Tips

Know this before the test

The core of the topic in three lines, then the mistakes people make most often.

Modal + sein = a guess
If the modal is followed by a state rather than an action (krank sein · zu Hause sein), it no longer expresses obligation but a guess. Er muss arbeiten = he has to work; Er muss krank sein = he must be sick.
Er muss krank sein. · Sie dürfte schon zu Hause sein.
The certainty ladder
Swapping the modal in the same sentence changes the strength of the guess: muss (certain) → dürfte (probably) → könnte (might) → kann nicht (impossible). English does this with “must · probably · might · can’t”.
Das muss stimmen. → Das dürfte stimmen. → Das könnte stimmen. → Das kann nicht stimmen.
sollen and wollen report, they don’t guess
sollen = other people say so (newspaper German). wollen = the subject’s own claim, and the writer keeps a distance. Neither is the speaker’s guess; they point to the source.
Er soll reich sein. (that’s what they say) · Er will Arzt sein. (he claims so)
Guess about the past: Partizip II + sein/haben
If the guess is about the past, the perfect infinitive replaces the plain infinitive: gewesen sein · gemacht haben. The modal is still conjugated and the rest stays frozen.
Er muss krank gewesen sein. · Sie will nichts gewusst haben.

Er muss krank gewesen ist.
Er muss krank gewesen sein.
After a modal there is always an infinitive. Even in the Perfekt it stays an infinitive — not the conjugated ist, but the infinitive sein.
Er soll krank sein — I think he’s sick.
Er soll krank sein — that’s what they say.
sollen passes on what was heard, not the speaker’s own opinion. To give your own guess you need dürfte or muss.
Das darf stimmen.
Das dürfte stimmen.
The guessing meaning lives in the Konjunktiv II form of dürfen (dürfte). Plain darf means permission.
Sie will Lehrerin sein — she wants to become a teacher.
Sie will Lehrerin werden — she wants to become a teacher.
Becoming a profession is werden. wollen with Lehrerin sein slides into “she claims to be a teacher”.

0705:40

Test yourself

Tap an answer — we will look at why together.

What does “Er muss krank sein” mean?

He must be sick. A state follows, not an action (krank sein) — that is the sign the modal has moved to its guessing meaning.

“He’s said to be rich” — which one is it?

Er soll reich sein. sollen shows that the information comes from other people — the counterpart of English “is said to”.

What does “Er will Arzt sein” mean?

He claims to be a doctor. For “he wants to become a doctor” you say Er will Arzt werden. The one-word difference between sein and werden flips the meaning.

Er muss krank .

He must have been sick.

gewesen sein. The past-guess pattern: modal + Partizip II + the infinitive of the auxiliary. The auxiliary is not conjugated.

A newspaper writes “Der Täter soll 30 Jahre alt sein”. What does that tell you?

It is reporting. In news language sollen means “I’m not responsible for this”. A reader who misses this takes the story for established fact.

Der Chef noch im Büro sein. (he’s probably still in the office)

The boss is probably still in the office.

dürfte. On the certainty scale this is the 75% soft guess — the “probably” tone. Don’t mix it up with darf: here dürfte is a Konjunktiv II form and carries no permission meaning. muss would give 95% certainty (“he’s definitely in the office”), and soll would give hearsay (“he’s said to be in the office”).

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Worksheet

Modal assumptions worksheet

This whole page — tables, traps, examples — as one PDF. Download it, print it, run through it before the exam.

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