What is the difference between “wollen” and “werden”?
Due to their similarity to English, the two verbs “wollen” and “werden” are easily confused by German students. After reading this article and practicing with its free worksheet, you will be a pro!
Recommended study materials on the topic:
Exercise – German modal verbs in the present tense (incl. answers)
Exercise – German modal verbs in the past tense (incl. answers)
Conversation exercise – speaking with modal verbs in the present tense
Conversation exercise – speaking with modal verbs in the past tense
A-Grammar: Practice German grammar German (incl. answers)
German self-study book for A1-B1 (incl. answers)
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The problem of “wollen” and “werden”
These two verbs have completely different meanings: “wollen” means to want, and “werden” means to become or is used to express the future tense. Additionally, there is a problem with differentiating the verbs “bekommen” and werden which I already covered in another article. As you can see, the two verbs cannot be used as a replacement, and the only reason people like to confuse them is English which means that they are false friends.
“Wollen”
“Wollen” is one of the German modal verbs, which means that one usually has to add another noun or verb at the end of the sentence to have a proper sentence. As it is a modal verb, it also has irregularities in its verb conjugation:
ich will
du willst
er will
sie will
es will
wir wollen
ihr wollt
sie wollen
As mentioned above, you have the two following possibilities to form a sentence:
Der Junge will eine Pizza kaufen.
Die Kinder wollen Eis!
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“Werden”
“Werden” has three jobs: It can express the English verb “to become”, it can also be used to express future tense, or it can be used to express the passive tense:
Die Frau wird Mutter.
Ich werde nächste Woche nach England reisen.
Das Auto wird geputzt.
The conjugation of “werden” is as follows:
ich werde
du wirst
er wird
sie wird
es wird
wir werden
ihr werdet
sie werden
What to know about “wollen” and “werden”
Now, after reading this article, you can practice your new knowledge with the free worksheet “The difference between “werden” and “bekommen” in German”!
Bis bald!
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