Wollen ("to want, to want to, to intend to") is one of the six German modal verbs and one of the highest-frequency verbs in the language. It expresses will, desire, and intention — you reach for it dozens of times a day to say what you want, what you plan to do, and what someone is trying to get you to do. For English speakers it carries one of the most notorious traps in all of German: the form will does not mean the English future "will." Ich will means "I want." Getting this wrong produces sentences that sound bizarre to a German ear, so it is worth burning into memory early.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Präteritum | Partizip II (auxiliary) |
|---|---|---|
| wollen | wollte | gewollt (hat) |
Read this as wollen – wollte – hat gewollt. Like all modals, wollen builds its Perfekt with haben, never sein. Note that the past forms have no umlaut: it is wollte, not wöllte. This sharply distinguishes wollen from mögen (whose Konjunktiv II möchte does take an umlaut) — see mögen: Full Conjugation and Usage.
Präsens (present)
The present tense of a modal shows the classic modal signature: the ich and er/sie/es forms are identical and have no ending. The singular also changes its stem vowel from o to i.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | will |
| du | willst |
| er / sie / es | will |
| wir | wollen |
| ihr | wollt |
| sie / Sie | wollen |
The reason ich will and er will look identical is historical: modals descend from old preterite-present verbs, whose singular forms never carried the personal endings ordinary verbs have. So resist the English instinct to add -t to the er-form. There is no er willt.
Ich will dieses Wochenende einfach nichts tun.
I just want to do nothing this weekend. (informal — will = want, not future)
Willst du noch einen Kaffee, oder sollen wir gehen?
Do you want another coffee, or should we go? (informal)
Meine Eltern wollen, dass ich Medizin studiere.
My parents want me to study medicine. (note the dass-clause, not an infinitive, because the subjects differ)
How wollen combines with other verbs
As a modal, wollen normally takes a second verb in the bare infinitive (no zu), which sits at the very end of the clause. This is the Satzklammer ("sentence bracket"): the modal in second position, the main verb parked at the end.
Wir wollen nächstes Jahr nach Japan reisen.
We want to travel to Japan next year. (reisen at the end, no zu)
When the two verbs share a subject, you use this infinitive construction. When the subjects differ — "I want you to..." — German cannot use the infinitive and must switch to a dass-clause, as in the Medizin example above. English uses an accusative-plus-infinitive ("want me to study") that German simply does not allow here. See the bare infinitive.
Wollen can also stand alone with a direct object and no second verb, in which case it means "to want (a thing)":
Was willst du zum Geburtstag? — Ich will nichts, ehrlich.
What do you want for your birthday? — I don't want anything, honestly. (informal)
Präteritum (simple past)
Modals are among the few verbs whose Präteritum is genuinely common in everyday speech (most other verbs prefer the Perfekt when spoken). The past stem is wollt-, with the regular weak endings and, again, no umlaut.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | wollte |
| du | wolltest |
| er / sie / es | wollte |
| wir | wollten |
| ihr | wolltet |
| sie / Sie | wollten |
Ich wollte dich gestern anrufen, aber ich hatte keine Zeit.
I wanted to call you yesterday, but I had no time. (Präteritum is natural here even in speech)
Sie wollten eigentlich früher kommen.
They actually wanted to come earlier.
Perfekt (present perfect)
Here you must make a choice that has no English parallel. When wollen governs another verb, the Perfekt uses a double infinitive: the auxiliary haben, then the main verb in the infinitive, then wollen — also in the infinitive, not the participle gewollt.
| Person | With a second verb (double infinitive) | Standing alone (participle) |
|---|---|---|
| ich | habe ... wollen | habe gewollt |
| du | hast ... wollen | hast gewollt |
| er / sie / es | hat ... wollen | hat gewollt |
| wir | haben ... wollen | haben gewollt |
| ihr | habt ... wollen | habt gewollt |
| sie / Sie | haben ... wollen | haben gewollt |
Ich habe das nie so gewollt.
I never wanted it to be that way. (no second verb, so the real participle gewollt appears)
Er hat schon immer Pilot werden wollen.
He has always wanted to become a pilot. (double infinitive: werden wollen, not 'gewollt')
Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)
Past auxiliary hatte plus the same double-infinitive (or participle) structure.
Sie hatte das Haus eigentlich verkaufen wollen, doch dann überlegte sie es sich anders.
She had actually wanted to sell the house, but then she changed her mind.
Futur I
The future uses werden + the infinitive wollen at the end. This is rare in practice — usually a present will with a time word already does the job — but it exists.
Irgendwann wird er die Wahrheit wissen wollen.
At some point he'll want to know the truth.
Konjunktiv II (would want / wanted)
The Konjunktiv II of wollen is simply wollte — identical in form to the Präteritum, because weak verbs and unumlauted modals make no distinction. Crucially, it takes no umlaut: there is no wöllte. (Compare müsste, könnte, dürfte, which do umlaut — wollen and sollen are the two modals that don't.)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | wollte |
| du | wolltest |
| er / sie / es | wollte |
| wir | wollten |
| ihr | wolltet |
| sie / Sie | wollten |
Because wollte is ambiguous between past and Konjunktiv II, German often disambiguates with the würde-form when clarity matters, though ich wollte for "I would want" is perfectly idiomatic. See Konjunktiv II of the modals.
Ich wollte, ich hätte mehr Zeit für so etwas.
I wish I had more time for that sort of thing. (literary/elevated — 'ich wollte' as a wish formula)
Konjunktiv I (reported speech)
Used in formal indirect speech, mainly journalism. The base is wolle.
Der Sprecher erklärte, die Regierung wolle keine neuen Steuern erheben.
The spokesperson stated the government did not want to levy new taxes. (formal/journalistic Konjunktiv I)
Usage notes and the will = want trap
The single most important fact about wollen: will is not "will." German has no separate future auxiliary that looks like English will; the future is built with werden. So Ich will always means "I want."
Ich will dir helfen.
I want to help you — NOT 'I will help you.' (the future would be 'Ich werde dir helfen.')
Wollen also carries shades of intention ("be going to, plan to") and, in reports, a claim someone makes about themselves ("he claims to..."):
Der Zeuge will den Angeklagten nie gesehen haben.
The witness claims never to have seen the defendant. (subjective use — a reported claim, common in news writing)
Common idioms and fixed expressions
| Expression | English |
|---|---|
| Das will ich meinen! | I should think so! / You bet! (informal) |
| Wenn du willst. | If you like. / Up to you. |
| Ich will nichts gesagt haben. | Forget I said anything. |
| Das will gut überlegt sein. | That needs careful thought. (set passive-like idiom) |
| Komme, was wolle. | Come what may. (literary/Konjunktiv I) |
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich will dich morgen anrufen.
Risky — to a German this says 'I want to call you,' not 'I will.' If you mean the future, use werden.
✅ Ich werde dich morgen anrufen.
I'll call you tomorrow. (genuine future with werden)
❌ Er willt nach Hause gehen.
Incorrect — the er-form takes no ending and changes its vowel: er will.
✅ Er will nach Hause gehen.
He wants to go home.
❌ Ich bin nach Berlin fahren gewollt.
Two errors — modals take haben, and with a second verb the Perfekt uses the double infinitive, not gewollt.
✅ Ich habe nach Berlin fahren wollen.
I wanted to go to Berlin. (though in speech 'Ich wollte nach Berlin fahren' is far more common)
❌ Ich wöllte gern mitkommen.
Incorrect — wollen does not umlaut in the Konjunktiv II; there is no 'wöllte'.
✅ Ich wollte gern mitkommen.
I'd like to come along. (or, more idiomatically, 'Ich würde gern mitkommen.')
❌ Meine Eltern wollen mich Medizin studieren.
Incorrect — when the subjects differ, German cannot copy the English 'want me to study'; it needs a dass-clause.
✅ Meine Eltern wollen, dass ich Medizin studiere.
My parents want me to study medicine.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: wollen – wollte – hat gewollt (Perfekt with haben).
- Present: will, willst, will, wollen, wollt, wollen — singular vowel o → i, and ich/er share the bare form.
- will = want, never the English future. The future is werden.
- Konjunktiv II is wollte with no umlaut — there is no wöllte.
- With a second verb, the Perfekt uses the double infinitive (hat ... wollen); standing alone it uses the participle gewollt.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- wollen: Wanting and IntentionA2 — How to use wollen for desire and intention — and why German will means 'want', not the English future 'will'.
- Modal Verbs: OverviewA2 — The six German modal verbs, their shared word order, and the irregular present tense that makes ich and er identical.
- Modals in the Perfekt and Subordinate ClausesB2 — Why modals prefer the Präteritum in speech, how the double infinitive (Ersatzinfinitiv) works, when the participle gekonnt/gemusst appears, and how subordinate clauses front the auxiliary.
- Konjunktiv II of Modal VerbsB1 — könnte, müsste, dürfte, sollte, möchte — the high-frequency modal subjunctives behind polite and tentative German, and the umlaut that separates them from the plain past.
- The Bare Infinitive (without zu)B1 — The small set of verbs — modals, perception verbs, lassen, and motion verbs — that take a plain infinitive with no zu, and the double-infinitive Perfekt they trigger.
- mögen: Full Conjugation and UsageA2 — Complete conjugation of the modal verb mögen 'to like' across every tense and mood, the all-important möchte 'would like', principal parts, idioms, and the errors English speakers make.