Breakdown of Ich will meinen Vater besuchen.
ich
I
besuchen
to visit
mein
my
der Vater
the father
wollen
to want
Questions & Answers about Ich will meinen Vater besuchen.
Wait, doesn't "will" mean doing something in the future, like "I will visit"?
No, this is a very common "false friend" for English speakers! In German, will is a form of the verb wollen, which means "to want". So Ich will means "I want to". If you want to talk about the future in German, you use a completely different verb (werden).
Why is the word for "visit" (besuchen) at the very end of the sentence?
That is the golden rule for using modal verbs (like wollen, können, or müssen) in German! The modal verb (will) takes the normal second position in the sentence, and it kicks the main action verb (besuchen) all the way to the end.
In English we say "want TO visit". Where is the word for "to" in the German sentence?
You don't need one here! In German, the basic dictionary form of a verb (the infinitive, like besuchen) already means "to visit". Modal verbs like wollen link directly with this infinitive at the end of the sentence, so you never add an extra word for "to".
Why is it "meinen Vater" instead of just "mein Vater"?
Because your father is the direct object of the sentence—he is the person receiving the action of being visited. This means we must use the accusative case. Since Vater is a masculine noun, the word for "my" changes its ending from mein to meinen.
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