Modal Verbs I: können, möchten, müssen

A modal verb doesn't describe an action itself — it describes your relationship to an action: whether you can do it, want to do it, or have to do it.

• können = can, to be able to → ability or possibility
• möchten = would like (to) → polite wish
• müssen = must, to have to → necessity or obligation

In a German sentence, the modal verb takes the normal verb position (second place), and the main verb moves to the very end in its infinitive (dictionary) form:

Ich kann heute nicht kommen. — I can't come today.

This structure — conjugated modal in position 2, infinitive at the end — is called the sentence bracket (Satzklammer), and it's the single most important thing to remember in this lesson.

Modal verbs are irregular in the singular (ich/du/er) but completely regular in the plural. Notice two things: the ich and er/sie/es forms are always identical, and können/müssen lose their umlaut in the singular.

Pronoun	können	möchten	müssen
ich	kann	möchte	muss
du	kannst	möchtest	musst
er/sie/es	kann	möchte	muss
wir	können	möchten	müssen
ihr	könnt	möchtet	müsst
sie/Sie	können	möchten	müssen

Key takeaway: no -t ending on er/sie/es! It's er kann, er muss, er möchte — unlike regular verbs (er spielt).

(Grammar note: möchten is technically a special form of mögen, but at A1 you can treat it as its own verb meaning "would like.")

The modal verb and the infinitive form a bracket around everything else in the sentence:

Position 2 (modal)	Middle	End (infinitive)
Ich muss	morgen früh	aufstehen.
Wir können	am Samstag ins Kino	gehen.
Er möchte	einen Kaffee	trinken.

In yes/no questions, the modal moves to position 1, but the infinitive stays at the end:

Kannst du mir helfen? — Can you help me?

One more handy shortcut: when the main verb is obvious from context, German often drops it entirely — Ich möchte einen Tee (I'd like a tea) needs no trinken or haben.