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Questions & Answers about Ich will heute tanzen.
Why does this sentence use will instead of möchte?
will is the present‐tense form of the verb wollen, meaning to want. It expresses a direct desire: I want to dance today.
möchte is the subjunctive form of mögen, meaning I would like—it’s more polite or tentative. So Ich möchte heute tanzen would be I would like to dance today, whereas Ich will heute tanzen is more forceful: I really want to dance today.
What’s the difference between Ich will tanzen and Ich werde tanzen?
- Ich will tanzen = I want to dance (present intention).
- Ich werde tanzen = I will dance (future action).
In German, werden- infinitive forms the future tense. Using will (from wollen) expresses desire, not future time.
Why is tanzen at the end of the sentence?
German word order with modal verbs (like wollen) follows the rule:
- Finite verb in second position (will)
- Then other elements (subject, adverbs)
- The infinitive verb (tanzen) moves to the end.
That’s why Ich will heute tanzen, not Ich will tanzen heute.
Why isn’t there a zu before tanzen (as in some other infinitives)?
After modal verbs (wollen, können, müssen, dürfen, etc.), you use a bare infinitive without zu. The zu‐infinitive construction appears with other verbs (e.g. Ich versuche, heute zu tanzen).
What part of speech is heute and why is it placed where it is?
heute is a temporal adverb (it indicates time). In main clauses, adverbs of time usually come in the midfield—after the finite verb and subject, but before manner/place adverbs or non‐verb elements. So Ich (S) will (V) heute (Time) tanzen (Infinitive).
Could I omit heute or place it elsewhere in the sentence?
Yes. It’s optional since it just tells when. You could say:
- Ich will tanzen. (I want to dance.)
- Heute will ich tanzen. (Today, I want to dance.) — here heute is moved to the very front for emphasis.
Can you drop the subject Ich in this sentence?
German typically requires an explicit subject in main clauses. Unlike in casual English (“Want to dance today?”), you’d rarely say Will heute tanzen in writing. In very colloquial speech you might hear it, but the standard form keeps Ich.
How do you pronounce heute and tanzen?
- heute: [ˈhɔʏ̯tə] (HOY‑tuh)
- tanzen: [ˈtant͡sn̩] (TAHN‑tsn)
Key points: the eu/äu digraph in heute sounds like English oy, and the final ‑en in tanzen is a reduced syllable [‑n̩].