Breakdown of Du solltest sofort den Notruf wählen.
du
you (informal singular)
sofort
immediately
sollen
should / ought to
der Notruf
the emergency call
wählen
to dial
Questions & Answers about Du solltest sofort den Notruf wählen.
Why is it solltest instead of sollst?
solltest is the Konjunktiv II form of sollen. While du sollst means you are supposed to do something because of an order or rule, du solltest translates to you should. It is used to give strong advice or a recommendation.
Why is wählen at the very end of the sentence?
This is the standard word order when using modal verbs. The modal verb solltest takes the second position in the sentence and pushes the main action verb wählen to the very end in its infinitive or dictionary form.
Why does the sentence use den Notruf instead of der Notruf?
Notruf is a masculine noun (der Notruf). In this sentence, it is the direct object receiving the action of being dialed, so it takes the accusative case. In the accusative case, the masculine der changes to den.
I learned that wählen means to choose or to vote. Why does it mean dial here?
You are right! wählen generally means to choose or vote. However, when you use it with a phone number or contact like den Notruf, it specifically means to dial that number.
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