Breakdown of Man soll in der Bibliothek leise sein.
sein
to be
in
in
leise
quiet / quietly
man
one / you (impersonal)
sollen
should / ought to
die Bibliothek
the library
Questions & Answers about Man soll in der Bibliothek leise sein.
How do you conjugate verbs for the pronoun man?
The impersonal pronoun man (meaning "one", "people", or the general "you") always takes the third-person singular form of the verb. This is exactly the same conjugation you use for er, sie, and es. So, just like you would say er soll (he should), you say man soll (one should).
Could I translate man as "man" in English here?
No, be careful! The pronoun man with a lowercase "m" and one "n" means "one", "people", or a general "you". The German word for a male person is der Mann (capitalized, with two "n"s).
Why is sein at the very end of the sentence?
This sentence uses the modal verb sollen (conjugated here as soll). When you use a modal verb, it takes the second position in the sentence, and the main action verb is pushed to the very end in its infinitive (dictionary) form. Here, that main verb is sein (to be).
Why is it in der Bibliothek when the word for library is feminine (die Bibliothek)?
The preposition in is a "two-way" preposition. Because being quiet describes a state happening in a fixed location (answering the question "where?"), we must use the dative case. In the dative case, the feminine article die changes to der.
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