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You already know the modal verb **wollen** expresses a desire or intention ("to want"). However, just like **sollen**, it has a subjective use.

While **sollen** reports general rumors ("is supposed to"), **wollen** reports what someone personally *claims* to be true about themselves, often when the speaker doubts their story. It translates to "claims to" or "insists that."

### Making Claims in the Present

To express what a person claims to be or do right now, use the conjugated form of **wollen** in the second position, and push the main verb to the end of the sentence in its infinitive form.

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Notice how this phrasing subtly distances the speaker from the claim. It implies: "He *says* he is innocent, but I have my doubts."

### Making Claims about the Past

To say someone claims to *have done* something, you use the perfect infinitive. Place the conjugated **wollen** in position two, and push the past participle of the main verb immediately followed by the infinitive **haben** (or **sein**) to the end of the sentence.

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### Subordinate Clauses

When you use subjective **wollen** inside a subordinate clause (such as after **weil** or **dass**), standard word order applies. The conjugated **wollen** goes to the very end of the clause.

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Subjective claims (wollen)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Directional adverbs (hin, her)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Question	Answer
the scammer	der Betrüger
the victim	das Opfer
The scammer claims not to know the victim.	Der Betrüger will das Opfer nicht kennen.
to deny	leugnen
the guilt	die Schuld
innocent	unschuldig
He denies the guilt and claims to be innocent.	Er leugnet die Schuld und will unschuldig sein.
the signature	die Unterschrift
The victim's signature was not real.	Die Unterschrift des Opfers war nicht echt.
to forge	fälschen
The woman claims not to have forged the signature.	Die Frau will die Unterschrift nicht gefälscht haben.
to transfer	überweisen
She was angry because she had to transfer the money.	Sie war wütend, weil sie das Geld überweisen musste.
The perpetrator claims not to have transferred the money.	Der Täter will das Geld nicht überwiesen haben.
the trick (scam, ploy)	die Masche
This trick is very well-known, but he denies everything.	Diese Masche ist sehr bekannt, aber er leugnet alles.
The boss claims not to have noticed the scammer's trick.	Der Chef will die Masche des Betrügers nicht bemerkt haben.
We don't believe him because he claims to be innocent.	Wir glauben ihm nicht, weil er unschuldig sein will.
He had no proof, but he denies the guilt.	Er hatte keinen Beweis, aber er leugnet die Schuld.
The suspect claims to have deleted the file.	Der Verdächtige will die Datei gelöscht haben.
The neighbor claims to have seen the perpetrator's signature.	Der Nachbar will die Unterschrift des Täters gesehen haben.
The victim claims to have transferred the money yesterday.	Das Opfer will das Geld gestern überwiesen haben.
to scam	betrügen
He claims not to have scammed anyone, but it is a trick.	Er will niemanden betrogen haben, aber es ist eine Masche.
The suspect was nervous because the police can prove the guilt.	Der Verdächtige war nervös, weil die Polizei die Schuld beweisen kann.
The fraudster claims not to have forged the signature and not to have defrauded the victim.	Der Betrüger will die Unterschrift nicht gefälscht und das Opfer nicht betrogen haben.