My boyfriend who is native German explained to me that “ich habe gewollt” just sounds wrong to him, he can’t explain why because he doesn’t know the rules he is just a native speaker. I am curious if there is a reason or it is just out of use. He said “ich wollte” is better. What I am trying to say is “I wanted” in the past tense.
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2A bit more context would be good. Or, in other words, don't ask for fragments of sentences. – Ingo Nov 29 '16 at 20:03
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Welcome to German Language Stack Exchange. Feel free to take a [tour] of the site. If you want to learn more about the way things work, visit the [help]. – Jan Nov 29 '16 at 20:06
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1@Ingo I don’t think context is needed. ‘Ich habe gewollt’ is fine in any context assuming that there is some kind of verb/object in the sentence. – Jan Nov 29 '16 at 20:15
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@Jan "Ich wollte." just doesn't make sense on its own, and an answer is much easier for a specific example. – Ingo Nov 29 '16 at 20:20
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Sorry, the reason I didn't add more context as I was just asking if you could use that form at all with anything. I.e. Ich habe in Berlin gehen gewollt or something, does that make the question clearer? – Syra Cheeseman Nov 29 '16 at 20:31
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Also, my boyfriend said that it is NEVER correct to use ich habe gewollt, not in some specific context, just incorrect overall. – Syra Cheeseman Nov 29 '16 at 20:34
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If that indeed was what he said, well then he was plainly wrong. He might have meant, however, that in your sentence in your comment above "Ich habe in Berlin gehen gewollt" you need to use the infinitive-like form of the perfect, "wollen". So ask him if he still thinks that "Ich habe in Berlin gehen WOLLEN" would be wrong. – Beta Nov 30 '16 at 06:40
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@SyraCheeseman Then please explain to him that conversations like the following are totally correct and often found in everyday German: Jetzt hast Du Cola über mein iPhone geschüttet! Sorry, das hab ich nicht gewollt! (which means: Sorry, I didn' mean to do that). – Thorsten Dittmar Nov 30 '16 at 10:30
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Your boyfriend is obviously not from Bavaria or Austria and very likely from the North of Germany. (To me, the North begins at the Main river.) There is nothing wrong with ‘Ich habe etwas gewollt’ or ‘Ich habe etwas tun wollen.’
In the South, especially Bavaria, there are exactly two verbs that form a preterite form at all, and those are sein and wollen. In spite of that, in spoken language it is still extremely common to use the perfect tense for wollen and depending on the sentence used, also for sein.
This question shows that usage is different in the North and the middle of Germany, where a number of verbs have preterite forms in common spoken usage. And I remember a quote by an Austrian who frequently posts here, saying in essence that preterite is an entirely written-only form in Austria.
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1Wie schon Karl Valentin sagte: Mögen hätt ich schon wollen, aber dürfen habe ich mich nicht getraut. – Thorsten Dittmar Nov 30 '16 at 10:28
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@ThorstenDittmar Ich hab den Satz bisher immer mit täte formuliert: »Meng dad i scho wolln, bloß derfn hob i mi ned traut.« – Jan Nov 30 '16 at 20:20