The modal verb dürfen expresses PERMISSION or PROHIBITION (‘must not’). Sollen – to be supposed to / should / ought toĪt first, let’s have a look at the three modal verbs: dürfen, können, möchten. (I like eating fish.)ĭownload “Exercise: Difference between möchten and mögen” exercise-difference-moechten-moegen.Modal verbs modify an action or situation by expressing the ideas of permission, ability, obligation, necessity, etc.

If you wonder how we express in German that you “like doing something”, we use the adverb gerne after the conjugated verb: The last important thing you must know is that the conjugation with -g- ( mag/mög-) normally is combined with a noun while the conjugation with -cht- ( möchte) can be combined both with a noun and a verb. To like (infinitive) → I liked (simple past) → I would like Mögen ( Infinitiv) → ich mochte ( Präteritum) → ich m öchte ( Konjunktiv II) saying “you would like something”, this is a polite way to express that you want something.įor the grammarians interested: In order to obtain the Konjunktiv II of the irregular verbs, in German we use the Präteritum (simple past) root plus umlaut dots on the root vowel and an -e at the end (if there isn’t one already):

The explanation is similar in English: “liking something” doesn’t mean you “want” it.īut used with the modal verb “would” (corresponding to Konjunktiv II in German), i.e. How is it possible for one verb to have 2 conjugations with different meanings? Thus, there are two ways of conjugating the German modal verb mögen as you can see in the following table: Modal verb infinitive mögen However, the conjugation with -chte ( möchte) means “to want/would like”. The modal verb in its infinitive form mögen generally means “to like” and this is the meaning you express if you conjugate it with a -g- in its root (mag). Difference in meaning between mögen and möchten Möchten is a verb from derived from the modal verb mögen, namely the Konjunktiv II, but used with present meaning. I’m aware that there are some websites where you can find the expression “the verb möchten” but this information is wrong.

Many people wonder about the difference between the German verb forms mögen and möchten.įirst of all, you need to know that there is no German infinitive * möchten.

Modal verb german exercise