Breakdown of Der berüchtigte Anführer soll die Skizze gezeichnet haben.
haben
to have
sollen
should / ought to
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
die Skizze
the sketch
zeichnen
to draw (pictures, art)
berüchtigt
notorious
der Anführer
the leader
Questions & Answers about Der berüchtigte Anführer soll die Skizze gezeichnet haben.
How does soll ... gezeichnet haben translate to "is said to have drawn"?
This is the subjective use of the modal verb sollen, which expresses a rumor or hearsay (what someone "is said to" do). To show that this rumored action happened in the past, we use the perfect infinitive (gezeichnet haben) instead of a regular infinitive.
Could this sentence also mean "The leader should have drawn the sketch"?
No. To say someone "should have" done something, you have to use the subjunctive (Konjunktiv II) plus the double infinitive: Der Anführer hätte die Skizze zeichnen sollen. Because our sentence uses the present tense soll with a past infinitive (gezeichnet haben), it only expresses hearsay.
Why is the adjective ending -e in berüchtigte instead of -er for a masculine subject?
Because of the definite article Der. When you use a definite article, the adjective takes a "weak" ending. For a masculine noun in the nominative case (Anführer), that weak ending is just -e. You would only use the strong ending -er if the article was indefinite (ein berüchtigter).
Why does gezeichnet come before haben at the end of the sentence?
In a standard main clause with a modal verb (soll in position 2), the rest of the verbs are pushed to the very end. The perfect infinitive is always formed with the past participle (gezeichnet) followed by its helper verb in the infinitive (haben). They stack at the end of the clause in that exact order.
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