Breakdown of Er will niemanden betrogen haben, aber es ist eine Masche.
sein
to be
ein
a, an (eine)
er
he
es
it
haben
to have
aber
but
wollen
to want
niemand
no one
die Masche
the trick (scam, ploy)
betrügen
to scam
Questions & Answers about Er will niemanden betrogen haben, aber es ist eine Masche.
Why does will translate to "claims" instead of "wants" in this sentence?
This is the subjective use of the modal verb wollen. When someone uses wollen followed by an action they supposedly did in the past, it translates to claiming or asserting something. Here, Er will... betrogen haben means "He claims to have scammed..." and usually implies the speaker doubts the claim.
How does the structure betrogen haben work at the end of the first clause?
Modal verbs like wollen push the action to the end of the sentence in its infinitive form. Because the scamming supposedly happened in the past, we use the "past infinitive" structure: the past participle of the verb (betrogen) followed immediately by the infinitive helper verb (haben).
Why does niemand have an -en ending (niemanden)?
Niemanden is the accusative form of niemand (nobody). Since nobody is the direct object of the verb betrügen (the people who were or weren't scammed), it takes the accusative case. In spoken German, people sometimes drop the ending and just say niemand, but niemanden is the strictly correct written form.
What kind of trick is a Masche?
While Masche literally means a "stitch" (like in knitting), in everyday German it is widely used to mean a "ploy", "scam", or "con". It usually refers to a specific, repeated tactic or routine someone uses to manipulate or deceive others.
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