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sollen: Obligation, Advice, and Hearsay

sollen is the modal of external will. Where wollen expresses what you want, sollen expresses what someone else wants of you — an instruction, an expectation, a rule handed down from outside. From that single idea grow three uses English splits across "should," "shall," "be supposed to," and even "is said to be." This page sorts them out.

Conjugation: the modal that keeps its vowel

sollen is the odd one out among the core modals. Most of them change their stem vowel in the singular (können → kann, müssen → muss, dürfen → darf). sollen does not: the o stays put throughout. It only drops the -t ending in the third person singular, like every modal.

PersonForm
ichsoll
dusollst
er / sie / essoll
wirsollen
ihrsollt
sie / Siesollen

Ich soll um acht im Büro sein.

I'm supposed to be at the office at eight.

Du sollst pünktlich kommen, hat die Chefin gesagt.

You're to come on time, the boss said. (informal)

Obligation and instruction: "be supposed to"

The base meaning is an obligation imposed from outside — a task you were given, an expectation you're meant to meet. Crucially this is milder than müssen. müssen is hard necessity (you have no choice); sollen is what someone wants or expects of you (you might still not do it).

Der Arzt sagt, ich soll weniger Salz essen.

The doctor says I'm supposed to eat less salt.

Wir sollen das Formular bis Freitag abgeben.

We're supposed to hand in the form by Friday.

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Feel the difference: Ich muss arbeiten = "I have to work" (no way around it). Ich soll arbeiten = "I'm supposed to work" (those are my instructions — but the sentence leaves room for me to slack off). müssen points to necessity; sollen points to someone else's wish. See müssen.

Soll ich…? — offering and asking what's wanted

Because sollen is about what someone wants done, the question Soll ich…? asks "Do you want me to…? / Shall I…?". This is the everyday German way to offer help.

Soll ich dir helfen?

Shall I help you? / Do you want me to help?

Was sollen wir jetzt machen?

What should we do now? (asking for direction)

English "shall" has largely died out except in this exact offering function — and German Soll ich…? maps onto it almost perfectly.

sollte: the everyday "should" for advice

This is the form you will use constantly. sollte is the Konjunktiv II of sollen — note it has no umlaut; it is spelled exactly like the Präteritum sollte, and context tells the two apart. As a subjunctive it softens the outside obligation into a recommendation: "should," "ought to."

Personsollte (advice / Konjunktiv II)
ich / er / sie / essollte
dusolltest
wir / sie / Siesollten
ihrsolltet

Du solltest mehr schlafen.

You should sleep more. (friendly advice)

Wir sollten langsam gehen, es ist spät.

We should get going, it's late.

Eigentlich sollte ich gar nicht hier sein.

I really shouldn't be here at all.

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sollte is doubly useful, which is why it shows up so often. As a Präteritum it means "was supposed to" (Ich sollte gestern anrufen — "I was supposed to call yesterday"). As a Konjunktiv II it means "should" (Ich sollte anrufen — "I should call"). Same spelling; the tense of the surrounding sentence disambiguates.

Hearsay: "is said to be" — the use with no English modal

Here is the meaning competitors leave out, and it has no clean English equivalent. When sollen takes a subject in the third person and the speaker is reporting a claim they did not verify, it means "is said to be / supposedly / apparently." The speaker passes along a rumour or report without vouching for it.

Er soll sehr reich sein.

He's said to be very rich. (so people claim — I don't know)

Das neue Restaurant soll fantastisch sein.

The new restaurant is supposed to be fantastic. (people say so)

Sie soll früher Profisportlerin gewesen sein.

She's said to have been a professional athlete.

Notice that the second example is genuinely ambiguous out of context: Das Restaurant soll fantastisch sein could be "the restaurant is supposed to be fantastic" (an instruction to make it so) or "the restaurant is reportedly fantastic" (hearsay). In speech, intonation and context decide; in practice the hearsay reading dominates when the subject is a person or place being described.

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The hearsay sollen is a "subjective modal" — it comments on the truth status of the claim rather than on an action. Compare it with the claim use of wollen (Er will alles gewusst haben = "he claims to have known everything"): sollen reports what others say about the subject; wollen reports what the subject says about himself. The dedicated page on objective vs subjective modals lays out the whole system.

Past tense

The Präteritum is sollte (weak, no vowel change), and in speech this is the normal past form. The Perfekt with a governed verb uses the double infinitive sollen (Ich habe gehen sollen), but it is rare; standalone, the participle is gesollt (Das hätte ich nicht gesollt — "I shouldn't have"). See the Perfekt and double infinitive page.

Ich sollte eigentlich schon gestern anrufen.

I was actually supposed to call yesterday already.

Common mistakes

❌ Ich soll jetzt gehen, der Zug fährt gleich ab.

Wrong if it's a hard necessity — sollen is too weak here.

✅ Ich muss jetzt gehen, der Zug fährt gleich ab.

I have to go now, the train's leaving. (necessity → müssen)

❌ Du sölltest mehr schlafen.

Wrong — sollte takes no umlaut, ever.

✅ Du solltest mehr schlafen.

You should sleep more.

❌ Man sagt, er ist reich.

Not wrong, but misses the compact native hearsay option below.

✅ Er soll reich sein.

He's said to be rich. (hearsay sollen)

❌ Muss ich dir helfen?

Wrong as an offer — this asks whether you're forced to help, sounding reluctant.

✅ Soll ich dir helfen?

Shall I help you? (a genuine offer)

Key takeaways

  • sollen = external will: instructions, expectations, what someone else wants of you — milder than müssen.
  • sollte (no umlaut) is the everyday "should" for advice; it doubles as the Präteritum "was supposed to."
  • Soll ich…? = "Shall I…? / Do you want me to…?" — the standard offer.
  • Third-person soll can mean "is said to be" (hearsay) — a subjective reading English has no single modal for.

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Related Topics

  • Modal Verbs: OverviewA2 — The six German modal verbs, their shared word order, and the irregular present tense that makes ich and er identical.
  • müssen: Necessity and ObligationA2 — The full conjugation and meaning of müssen — plus the meaning-reversing negation trap: nicht müssen means 'needn't', and English 'must not' is darf nicht.
  • wollen: Wanting and IntentionA2 — How to use wollen for desire and intention — and why German will means 'want', not the English future 'will'.
  • Objective vs Subjective Use of ModalsC1 — How the same modal verb carries two layers — real ability/obligation (objective) and the speaker's inference or hearsay (subjective/epistemic).
  • 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.
  • Reported Speech: OverviewB2 — How German reports what someone said — the colloquial dass + indicative form versus the formal Konjunktiv I, the pronoun shift, and the core insight that German reports by mood, not by tense backshift.