Breakdown of Wir sollen den Text nicht abschreiben.
Questions & Answers about Wir sollen den Text nicht abschreiben.
Because German main clauses normally follow the verb-second rule: the finite verb goes in position 2.
Here, sollen is the finite verb:
- Wir = subject
- sollen = finite verb
- den Text nicht abschreiben = the rest of the clause
So:
- Wir sollen den Text nicht abschreiben.
This is very normal German word order.
Sollen is a modal verb. In this sentence, it usually expresses an instruction, expectation, or obligation coming from someone else.
So wir sollen ... often means something like:
- we are supposed to ...
- we should ...
- we have been told to ...
It is different from a simple future meaning. Here it is not like English shall in modern formal English.