Breakdown of Wir müssen heute eine Entscheidung treffen.
wir
we
heute
today
müssen
must
eine Entscheidung treffen
to make a decision
Questions & Answers about Wir müssen heute eine Entscheidung treffen.
Why is there an umlaut in müssen, and how is it conjugated?
Müssen is a modal verb and its dictionary form is spelled with an umlaut: müssen.
In the present tense it’s conjugated like this:
- ich muss – I must / have to
- du musst – you (singular, informal) must
- er/sie/es muss – he/she/it must
- wir müssen – we must
- ihr müsst – you (plural, informal) must
- sie/Sie müssen – they / you (formal) must
In your sentence, wir goes with müssen, so you get wir müssen.
The umlaut drops in some forms (muss, musst, müsst), but the infinitive and wir/sie/Sie forms keep it: müssen.
Why do we have müssen plus another verb treffen at the end?
In German, modal verbs (like müssen, können, wollen, dürfen, sollen, mögen) are usually followed by another verb in the infinitive.
The structure is:
Subject + conjugated modal verb + ... + infinitive at the end
So:
- Wir – subject
- müssen – conjugated modal verb (1st person plural)
- heute – time adverb
- eine Entscheidung – object (what?)
- treffen – infinitive at the end
Literally: We must today a decision make.
Correct idiomatic English: We have to make a decision today.
Putting treffen at the end is normal German word order in main clauses with a modal verb.