Breakdown of Sie meinte gestern, ich solle in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen stellen.
Questions & Answers about Sie meinte gestern, ich solle in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen stellen.
The verb meinen literally means “to mean” or “to be of the opinion”, often also “to think” in the sense of “to be of the opinion that…”.
In sentences like this, meinen can overlap with sagen:
- Sie meinte, ich solle …
≈ “She said (that) I should …”
but also carries a nuance of
“She was of the opinion that I should …”
Nuance compared with sagen:
- sagen is neutral: just “to say”.
- meinen often suggests:
- giving an opinion,
- a suggestion,
- or something a bit less formal / less blunt than a direct command.
So in English, depending on context, you might translate it as:
- “She said yesterday that I should ask more questions in the lecture.”
- “She thought / felt / was of the opinion yesterday that I should ask more questions in the lecture.”
Both are grammatically correct:
- Sie meinte gestern, …
- Sie hat gestern gemeint, …
The choice is mainly about style and region:
In written Standard German, especially in narration, the simple past (Präteritum) is preferred for common verbs like
sagen, meinen, fragen, antworten, gehen, kommen.
→ Sie meinte gestern, … sounds very natural in written German.In spoken German, especially in southern and western regions, people often prefer the present perfect (Perfekt) for past actions:
→ Sie hat gestern gemeint, … is what you might hear in everyday speech.
Meaning-wise, there is no real difference here; both mean “she said / she thought yesterday that …”.
Solle is the subjunctive I form (Konjunktiv I) of sollen. It’s used here because this is reported (indirect) speech:
- Direct speech:
Sie sagte: “Du sollst in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen stellen.” - Indirect speech:
Sie meinte gestern, ich solle in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen stellen.
In indirect speech, German often uses Konjunktiv I to show that these are someone else’s words or wishes, not necessarily the speaker’s own statement.
Forms of sollen (relevant ones):
- Indicative present:
ich soll
du sollst
er/sie/es soll - Subjunctive I (Konjunktiv I):
ich solle
du sollest
er/sie/es solle
So ich solle signals: “according to her, I should …” — we’re just reporting what she said without taking a stance.
Yes, ich soll is also possible:
- Sie meinte gestern, ich soll in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen stellen.
Both are grammatically OK. The difference is style and nuance:
ich solle
- clear indirect speech with Konjunktiv I;
- more formal / written;
- signals neutral reporting of what she said.
ich soll
- uses the normal indicative;
- very common in spoken German;
- can sound less like “I’m just reporting” and more like “this is a valid instruction/expectation in my present reality”.
In everyday conversation, you’ll very often hear ich soll.
In news reports, formal writing, or German exams, ich solle is often preferred to mark indirect speech clearly.
You can absolutely include dass:
- Sie meinte gestern, dass ich in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen stellen solle.
That is fully correct.
In the given sentence, dass is simply omitted, which is very common with verbs of saying, thinking, and feeling:
- sie meinte (dass) …
- er sagte (dass) …
- ich glaube (dass) …
When dass is omitted:
- The following clause (ich solle in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen stellen) is still dependent (it depends on “sie meinte”), but it looks like a main clause internally:
- Subject first (ich),
- then the finite verb in second position (solle),
- rest of the sentence,
- and the infinitive (stellen) at the end.
With dass, you would change the word order of the finite verb:
- Sie meinte gestern, dass ich in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen stellen solle.
Here, because of dass, the finite verb of that clause (solle) goes to (near) the end of the clause.
Two rules are at work:
Finite verb in second position
In a clause that is structured like a main clause (no dass), the finite verb goes in second position:- ich (1st position)
- solle (2nd position, finite verb)
Modal verb + infinitive
With modal verbs like sollen, the full verb (stellen) appears at the end of the clause:- ich solle … mehr Fragen stellen.
So the structure is:
- ich (subject)
- solle (finite modal verb, 2nd position)
- in der Vorlesung mehr Fragen (other elements)
- stellen (non-finite verb, at the end)
This is the standard pattern:
Subject – finite verb – … – infinitive at the end.
Three points:
Preposition “in” + case
- in can take dative (location, “where?”) or accusative (direction, “where to?”).
- Here the meaning is “in the lecture (while it is taking place)”, i.e. a location / situation, so we need dative.
Gender and dative form
- Vorlesung is feminine: die Vorlesung (nominative).
- Dative singular feminine of the article die is der.
→ in der Vorlesung (“in the lecture”).
Why not im Vorlesung?
- im = in dem (dative masculine or neuter).
- But Vorlesung is feminine, so you can’t use dem/im with it.
→ in der Vorlesung, not im Vorlesung.
In die Vorlesung would use accusative, and would mean “into the lecture” (movement towards, e.g. “Ich gehe in die Vorlesung”). That’s not the meaning here.
A Vorlesung is a specific kind of university class:
- Typically a lecture given by a professor,
- mostly one-way communication (the professor speaks, students listen and take notes),
- often in a large lecture hall.
Rough comparisons:
- Vorlesung ≈ lecture (university).
- Unterricht = “lessons / instruction” (school or general teaching, more interactive).
- Kurs = “course” (can be school, university, or other; more general term).
In this sentence, in der Vorlesung would normally refer to a university lecture.
In German, to ask questions is very commonly expressed as the fixed phrase:
- Fragen stellen = “to ask questions” (literally: “to pose questions”).
So:
- mehr Fragen stellen = “to ask more questions”.
If you said mehr fragen, it sounds like:
- “to ask more (often)” or “to ask more (in general)”,
- but without clearly specifying “questions”.
Using das Verb fragen directly is fine in contexts like:
- Ich frage den Professor. – I ask the professor.
- Frag doch mal nach! – Just ask (about it)!
However, when talking about the amount of questions, German prefers the noun phrase:
- viele Fragen stellen – to ask many questions
- wenige Fragen stellen – to ask few questions
- keine Fragen stellen – to ask no questions
- mehr Fragen stellen – to ask more questions
So mehr Fragen stellen is the most natural and idiomatic way to say “ask more questions” here.
Mehr behaves like a quantity word (similar to viele, wenige, einige).
It normally comes directly before the noun it modifies:
- mehr Fragen – more questions
- viele Fragen – many questions
- wenige Fragen – few questions
Then Fragen + stellen work together as the verb phrase Fragen stellen (“to ask questions”), and the quantity word stays attached to the noun:
- mehr Fragen stellen – literally “to ask more questions”.
Putting mehr somewhere else (e.g. Fragen mehr stellen) would sound unnatural or change the meaning.
In Sie meinte gestern, …, Sie must mean “she”.
Reason: the verb ending -te in meinte is 3rd person singular (er/sie/es):
- sie meinte = she said / she thought (3rd singular)
- sie meinten = they said / they thought (3rd plural)
- Sie meinten = you (formal) said / thought (also 3rd plural form)
So:
- It cannot be formal “you”, because that would require Sie meinten.
- It cannot be “they”, for the same reason (sie meinten).
- Therefore, it must be “she”.
The capital S doesn’t help here because the first word of a sentence is always capitalized anyway. The verb form is what tells you it’s she.