Ich will mein Buch wieder.

I

Breakdown of Ich will mein Buch wieder.

• das Buch: the book
• mein: my; (masculine or neuter, nominative)
• wollen: want

Questions & Answers about Ich will mein Buch wieder.

Why does will mean want here? It looks like the English future word will.

In German, ich will comes from the verb wollen, which means to want.

So:

• ich will = I want
• not I will in the English future sense

This is a very common false friend for English speakers. German usually does not use wollen to form the future. If you want to talk about the future in German, you often just use the present tense:

• Ich gehe morgen nach Hause. = I’m going home tomorrow.

So in Ich will mein Buch wieder, will clearly means want.

Why is it mein Buch and not meinen Buch?

Because Buch is a neuter noun: das Buch.

The sentence uses Buch as the direct object, so it is in the accusative case. In the accusative:

• masculine: meinen
• feminine: meine
• neuter: mein
• plural: meine

So:

• das Buch → mein Buch
• not meinen Buch

A useful comparison:

• Ich will meinen Stift wieder. → Stift is masculine
• Ich will mein Buch wieder. → Buch is neuter

What exactly does wieder mean here?