Breakdown of Der Verdächtige will die Datei gelöscht haben.
haben
to have
wollen
to want
löschen
to delete
die Datei
the file
der Verdächtige
the suspect
Questions & Answers about Der Verdächtige will die Datei gelöscht haben.
Doesn't will usually mean "wants to"? Why is it translated as "claims to" here?
This is the subjective use of wollen. In German, you can use wollen to report what someone claims about themselves, often when there is a hint of doubt or distance from the speaker. So er will ... haben translates to "he claims to have ...".
Why is the sentence using gelöscht haben instead of just the past tense?
Because the suspect's claim is about something that already happened, we have to use the perfect infinitive (a past participle like gelöscht plus haben or sein). It translates literally to "claims to have deleted". If it were Der Verdächtige will die Datei löschen, it would just mean "The suspect wants to delete the file."
Why does Verdächtige (suspect) end in an -e?
Verdächtige is a "nominalized adjective" — an adjective acting as a noun. Because of this, its ending changes depending on the article before it, just like a regular adjective would. Here, it follows the definite masculine article der in the nominative case, so it gets the weak ending -e. If you used the indefinite article, it would be ein Verdächtiger.
Can I use Datei for any type of file?
No, Datei is exclusively used for digital computer files. If you are talking about a physical paper file or folder, you would use die Akte or der Ordner.
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