A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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12/8/2017
independent of the tense of the dependent verb. Watch for those tense
differences and adapt your understanding of the meaning accordingly. In all
cases, you can count on the dependent verb appearing at the end of the clause
and in infinitive form, i.e., not conjugated to match a particular subject.
With perfect infinitives:
Mein Sohn soll das Buch gelesen haben.
My son is supposed to have read the book.
Der Zug muß neulich abgefahren sein.
The train must have departed recently.
With passive infinitives:
Diese Aufgabe muß getan werden.
This exercise must be done.
Der neue Prozeß kann schnell entwickelt werden.
The new process can be developed quickly.
Note: The dependent verbs stand in final position.
h. Past participle with ge-:
It is possible to form a past participle of the modals beginning with ge– and
ending in –t, i.e., gedurft, gekonnt, gemußt, gemocht, gesollt and gewollt.
However, these are only used when:
i. The modal’s special meaning is used as in:
Er hat den Film gemocht.
He liked the film.
ii. The infinitive verb is not present in the sentence, only implied:
Hat er das tun können? Ja, das hat er gekonnt.
Was he able to do that? Yes, he was able to.
Unit: 10: Modal verbs