Breakdown of Er sollte im Ausland studieren, aber er musste eine Ausbildung anfangen.
ein
a, an (eine)
er
he
aber
but
müssen
to have to, must
anfangen
to start
studieren
to study
sollen
should / ought to
im
in the (used with months) / in the (contraction of in + dem)
das Ausland
the foreign country / abroad
die Ausbildung
the apprenticeship / the vocational training
Questions & Answers about Er sollte im Ausland studieren, aber er musste eine Ausbildung anfangen.
Why doesn't musste have an umlaut like müssen?
When forming the simple past (Präteritum) of modal verbs, you drop the umlaut. So müssen (to have to) becomes musste (had to). The same rule applies to other modal verbs: können becomes konnte and dürfen becomes durfte.
I thought sollte means "should". Why is it translated as "was supposed to"?
sollte does double duty in German! It can mean "should" (when giving advice), but it is also the simple past form of sollen. In this past-tense sentence, it takes its literal past meaning: he "was supposed to" or "was expected to" study abroad.
anfangen is a separable verb. Why isn't it split up here?
Because of the modal verb musste. A conjugated modal verb in the second position takes control of the sentence and pushes the action verb to the very end in its full, unseparated infinitive form. If there were no modal verb, it would split: Er fing eine Ausbildung an.
Why is it im Ausland instead of just in Ausland?
Ausland is a neuter noun (das Ausland). The preposition in requires the dative case here because it answers the question "where?" (a fixed location where an action happens, rather than motion toward a new place). The words in + dem combine into the contraction im.
Could I use lernen instead of studieren here?
Not quite. In German, studieren specifically means being enrolled at a university or college. lernen means to learn or study in a general sense (like studying for a test or learning a language). Since the sentence contrasts university life with an apprenticeship (eine Ausbildung), studieren is the right word to use.
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