Word
Ein Gespenst soll nachts im Schloss spuken.
Meaning
A ghost is said to haunt the castle at night.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ein Gespenst soll nachts im Schloss spuken.
ein
a, an (eine)
sollen
should / ought to
im
in the (used with months) / in the (contraction of in + dem)
das Schloss
the castle
Questions & Answers about Ein Gespenst soll nachts im Schloss spuken.
Why does soll mean "is said to" here instead of "should"?
Normally, sollen means "should" or "is supposed to." However, German frequently uses it to report a rumor or hearsay without claiming it is a proven fact. In this case, it translates to "people say" or "is said to." The speaker is reporting the rumor of the ghost, rather than giving the ghost an order!
Doesn't the verb spuken mean "to spit"?
You are thinking of a very similar word: spucken (with a "ck"). Spucken means "to spit," whereas spuken (with a single "k") means "to haunt" or "to be spooky." They sound slightly different too: spucken has a short "u" sound, while spuken has a long "u" sound.
Why is there an "s" at the end of nachts?
Adding an "s" to times of day turns the noun into an adverb that describes when something habitually happens. Just like morgens means "in the mornings," nachts means "at night" or "nightly." Notice that it is written with a lowercase letter here, unlike the noun die Nacht.
Why do we use im Schloss (dative) rather than ins Schloss (accusative)?