Breakdown of Wer wollte nicht ein Leben retten, wenn ein Unfall passiert?
ein
a, an (eine)
nicht
not
wer
who
wollen
to want
Questions & Answers about Wer wollte nicht ein Leben retten, wenn ein Unfall passiert?
Wait, isn't wollte the past tense of wollen? Why does it mean 'would want to' here?
You are completely right! wollte is the simple past tense of wollen. However, it is also the Konjunktiv II form. For wollen and sollen, the Konjunktiv II forms do not get an umlaut, so they look exactly the same as the past tense. Because this sentence is about a hypothetical situation, we know it means 'would want to' rather than 'wanted to'.
Could I use möchte instead of wollte here?
Yes, you absolutely could say Wer möchte nicht ein Leben retten. It means almost exactly the same thing ('Who would not like to save a life'). Using wollte here just makes the intention a little stronger: 'would want to' versus 'would like to'.
Why is the verb retten at the end of the first part of the sentence?
This is the standard rule for modal verbs. The conjugated modal verb (wollte) takes the second position in the clause, which pushes the main action verb (retten) all the way to the end of that clause in its basic dictionary form.
Why does passiert come at the very end of the sentence?
The word wenn ('when' or 'if') introduces a subordinate clause. Words like wenn, dass, and weil always kick the conjugated verb (in this case, passiert) to the very end of their clause.