German modal verbs: können, müssen, wollen and more

The seven German modal verbs — können, müssen, wollen, dürfen, sollen, mögen, möchten — each with its full present-tense conjugation and the meaning it adds to a sentence.

• könnencan, to be able to
• müssenmust, to have to
• wollento want to
• dürfenmay, to be allowed to
• sollenshould, to be supposed to
• mögento like
• möchtenwould like (polite wish)

Browse all German words