müsst

Müsst is the second-person plural present tense form of the German modal verb müssen. It is used with the pronoun ihr to express obligation, necessity, or strong suggestion, roughly equivalent to “you all must” or “you must” in English.

In standard German, the full present tense paradigm of müssen is: ich muss, du musst, er/sie/es muss, wir müssen, ihr müsst, Sie müssen. The form müsst contains an umlaut in the stem (üb) and is followed by the standard present ending for you plural; the spelling includes ss before the final t. The pronunciation is typically [myːst], with the ü representing a close front rounded vowel.

Usage and nuance: müsst conveys obligation from the perspective of the speaker addressing multiple people informally. It appears in statements of requirement, rules, or recommendations. Negation is formed with nicht or ohne zu: ihr müsst nicht warten; ihr müsst es nicht tun. In subordinate clauses, the same form appears after other verbs or conjunctions, as in Ihr müsst wissen, dass ... (You must know that ...).

Origin and status: müsst is one form of müssen, a core German modal verb with a relatively irregular conjugation pattern typical of high-frequency auxiliary verbs. As a modal, müsst often appears in combination with other verbs in compound predicates, with the main verb placed in its infinitive form at the end of the clause (e.g., Ihr müsst heute arbeiten → You all must work today).

See also: müssen, Modal verbs in German, German verb conjugation.