Der Hund will mit der Katze spielen.

to play

Breakdown of Der Hund will mit der Katze spielen.

• der Hund: the dog
• die Katze: the cat
• mit: with

Questions & Answers about Der Hund will mit der Katze spielen.

Why is the modal verb will used in this sentence, and what does it mean?

In German, will is the third-person singular form of the modal verb wollen, which means “to want.” Unlike in English where “will” typically indicates future or voluntary action, here it expresses the dog’s desire. Thus, “Der Hund will” translates to “The dog wants.”

What is the role of the phrase mit der Katze, and why is der Katze used instead of die Katze?

The phrase mit der Katze is a prepositional phrase indicating with whom the dog wants to play. The preposition mit always takes the dative case in German. Although the noun Katze is feminine (with the nominative article die), it changes to der in the dative case.

Why is spielen placed at the end of the sentence rather than immediately after the modal verb?

In German modal constructions, the conjugated modal verb is placed in the second position, and the main verb—in its infinitive form—is placed at the end of the sentence. Therefore, spielen comes at the end to complete the structure of the modal sentence.

How does the word order in this German sentence compare to typical English sentence structure?