Breakdown of Das Ufo soll über der Stadt fliegen.
die Stadt
the city
fliegen
to fly
über
over, above
sollen
should / ought to
das Ufo
the UFO
Questions & Answers about Das Ufo soll über der Stadt fliegen.
Why does soll mean "is said to" here instead of "should"?
In this lesson, we are using sollen to report hearsay or rumors. When you hear that something is allegedly happening, but you cannot guarantee it yourself, you use sollen. So Das Ufo soll... means "People say the UFO is..." or "The UFO is said to...".
Why do we use the dative der Stadt instead of the accusative die Stadt after über?
über is a two-way preposition. Here, it answers the question "where?" (location) rather than "where to?" (direction). The UFO is already flying around in the airspace above the city, so we use the dative case (der Stadt).
Could this sentence also translate to "The UFO should fly over the city"?
Yes, without context, sollen can also have its standard meaning of "should" or "is supposed to" (for example, if a movie director is giving instructions for a sci-fi scene). However, when reporting news or strange sightings, the "is said to" meaning is much more common.
Why is fliegen at the very end of the sentence?
This is the standard word order when using modal verbs. The conjugated modal verb (soll) takes the second position in the sentence, pushing the main verb (fliegen) to the very end in its infinitive (dictionary) form.
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