Breakdown of Er soll das Gold tief im Dschungel vergraben haben.
er
he
in
in
haben
to have
tief
deeply
sollen
should / ought to
das Gold
the gold
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
der Dschungel
the jungle
vergraben
to bury
Questions & Answers about Er soll das Gold tief im Dschungel vergraben haben.
How does soll ... vergraben haben translate to "is said to have buried" instead of "should have buried"?
To say "should have buried," you would use the subjunctive form (Konjunktiv II): Er hätte das Gold vergraben sollen. Here, using the present tense soll with the past infinitive (vergraben haben) signals subjective hearsay. It means the rumor exists right now (soll), but the action happened in the past (vergraben haben).
Why does haben come at the very end of the sentence?
The modal verb soll is the conjugated verb in the second position, which pushes the rest of the verb phrase to the end. The phrase vergraben haben is a "Perfekt Infinitive" (past infinitive), formed by the past participle (vergraben) followed by the infinitive of the helping verb (haben).
Wait, isn't vergraben the infinitive form? Where is the past participle here?
vergraben is actually the past participle in this sentence, but it happens to look exactly like the infinitive! Because the verb starts with the inseparable prefix ver-, it doesn't get the usual ge- added to it in the past participle.
Why do we use the dative im (in dem) for Dschungel? Doesn't burying something involve movement?
While he moved the gold to bury it, the phrase tief im Dschungel describes the location where the action took place, or the final resting place of the gold answering the question "where at?" (Wo?). For two-way prepositions like in, answering "where at" requires the dative case. If the sentence was focusing on him walking into the jungle, it would be the accusative in den Dschungel.
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