The six modals: können, müssen, wollen, dürfen, sollen, mögen
CEFR A2 · part 1
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
The dative: dem, der, dem and den + -nPutting any phrase into the dative: seeing that the marking travels in the article…The seven prepositions that take the dative: mit, nach, aus, zu, von, bei, seitAutomatically putting whatever follows these seven into the dative, without stopping to…Verbs that take the dative: helfen, danken, gefallen, gehören, schmeckenRecognising the dozen German verbs that take a dative rather than a direct object, and…The Perfekt with haben: the past that people actually speakTelling any past event the way Germans do when they speak: haben conjugated in second…The Perfekt with sein: moving and changing stateDeciding in a second whether a verb takes haben or sein, using the two questions that…The participle: ge- -t, ge- -en, and the ones with no ge-Building the participle of any verb: the ge- -t mould for regular ones, ge- -en for…The rule, in three lines
The six modals —können, müssen, wollen, dürfen, sollen, mögen— do two odd things and you need both. One: first and third person singular are the SAME word and take no ending, ich kann and er kann, never ich kanne. Two: the other verb goes to the end of the sentence as an infinitive, Ich kann heute nicht ins Kino gehen. The modal runs the sentence and the real verb waits at the end.
The usual slip. Conjugating the modal like a normal verb and writing ich kanne or er kannt. The second mistake is leaving the infinitive stuck to the modal: Ich kann gehen ins Kino instead of Ich kann ins Kino gehen. Both come from the same place: treating the modal as an ordinary verb, which it is not.
Why it catches you out. English is the closest of the four: can, must, will, may and shall are literally the same six verbs, and they behave the same way —«he can», never «he cans»—. Two traps remain. will is not the future here: ich will means «I want». And müssen nicht is «need not», while nicht dürfen is «must not».