Healthy living

In this fictional conversation, Ben repeats advice from his doctor. Sollen reports what someone else asks or advises a person to do. It does not mean that the speaker personally wants to do it.

Ich soll and er soll have no ending. Du takes sollst. Keep the activity verb in the infinitive at the end: Wasser trinken, spazieren gehen. These sentences practise reported advice, not personal health recommendations.

Ben and his friends compare suggestions they have received. With wir, meaning we, and sie, meaning they, use sollen. With ihr, use sollt. Each sentence reports a plan or suggestion from somebody else.

The forms are ich soll, du sollst, er or sie soll, wir sollen, ihr sollt and sie sollen. Sleep is schlafen, movement is Bewegung, and vegetables are Gemüse.

Ben checks what the advice means. In a yes-or-no question, soll comes before the subject. In a question with was, the question word comes first. A negative sentence can report advice to avoid an activity.

Compare soll with will. Soll reports an expectation or advice; will describes a personal intention. In ich soll nicht, nicht negates the activity. Keep the infinitive at the end even when the sentence is a question.