Breakdown of Er wollte das Auto schnell reparieren, aber er konnte es nicht.
er
he
es
it
schnell
fast, quickly
das Auto
the car
aber
but
nicht
not
können
can / to be able to
wollen
to want
reparieren
to repair
Questions & Answers about Er wollte das Auto schnell reparieren, aber er konnte es nicht.
Why do wollte and konnte not have umlauts, even though the dictionary form of können does?
In the simple past tense (Präteritum), modal verbs always lose their umlauts. So können (can) becomes konnte (could). The verb wollen (to want) doesn't have an umlaut to begin with, so it simply becomes wollte (wanted). Since the subject is er, we just use these base past forms without any extra personal endings.
Why is reparieren at the very end of the first part of the sentence?
Modal verbs like wollte push the second, main verb (reparieren) to the very end of the clause. This second verb always stays in its infinitive (dictionary) form, creating a bracket around the rest of the information.
Does the word aber change the word order in the second half?
No, aber (but) is a coordinating conjunction. It counts as position zero in the sentence, meaning it doesn't affect the word order that follows. The subject er is in position 1, and the verb konnte takes the standard position 2.
Why doesn't it say aber er konnte es nicht reparieren at the end?
Just like in English when we say 'but he couldn't', you can drop the main verb in German if it is already obvious from the first half of the sentence. Adding reparieren at the end is perfectly correct, but leaving it out is shorter and sounds very natural.
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