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GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sollen.

should; to be obligated (to do something); ought; shall

6 characters2 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈzɔlən/[zɔln̩]Germany/ˈsɔlɛn/[sɔln̩]Austria, Southern-Germany, Switzerland
  1. should; to be obligated (to do something); ought; shall

    auxiliary · preterite-present
    Ich soll das machen.
    Ich sollte das nicht tun.
  2. to be recommended (to do something); to be asked (to do something)

    auxiliary · preterite-present
  3. to be intended (to do something); to be meant (to be something)

    auxiliary · preterite-present
  4. to be said (to do something); reportedly; they say that; I hear that; so they say; rumor has it; supposedly.

    auxiliary · preterite-present
    Es soll da viele Leute geben.
  5. would; indicates that the subordinate clause indicates something that would happen in the past but after the time frame of the main clause

    auxiliary · preterite-present
  6. should; indicates that the subordinate clause indicates a hypothetical and unlikely condition for the main clause

    auxiliary · preterite-present
Where this word comes from

From Middle High German suln, soln, scholn, schuln, from Old High German sculan, skulan, scolan, from Proto-West Germanic *skulan. Cognate with English shall and should, Dutch zullen, Danish skulle, Swedish skall and skulle, Yiddish זאָלן (zoln).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.