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English word should translates to sollen in German.
In English you can create sentences like these two:
Should you need any help, call us.
Should you go to the post, send this letter for me, please.

Can you use sollen the same way in German or is there a different word for that?

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English should is actually the subjunctive of the verb to shall — sollen. It's a defective verb in English and only has a few forms.

In German the verb sollen isn't defective and you can indeed use its Konjunktiv II forms the same way as English speakers use should.

Sollte ich Hilfe benötigen, melde ich mich.

Solltest du Hilfe benötigen, melde dich.

Sollte er/sie/es Hilfe benötigen, melde er/sie/es sich.

Sollten wir Hilfe benötigen, melden wir uns.

Solltet ihr Hilfe benötigen, meldet euch.

Sollten sie/Sie Hilfe benötigen, melden sie/Sie sich.

All those phrases but the third person singular one are common. That one would be rather phrased as

Sollte er/sie/es Hilfe benötigen, soll er/sie/es sich melden.

In addition to that, you can do another crazy thing in German. You can use the main verb itself in indicative mood in first position.

Benötige ich Hilfe, melde ich mich.

Benötigst du Hilfe, melde dich.

Benötigt er/sie/es Hilfe, melde er/sie/es sich.

Benötigen wir Hilfe, melden wir uns.

Benötigt ihr Hilfe, meldet euch.

Benötigen sie/Sie Hilfe, melden sie/Sie sich.

This is the same yes-no logic as in indirekte Fragesätze. But it's more common to use sollen in Konjunktiv II mood instead.

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  • 1
    Shall is indeed defective in English, and – like all modal verbs – does not have an infinitive form, so *to shall doesn’t exist. // As for the ‘crazy’ thing: isn’t it only indicative if it’s not irreal (i.e., if the corresponding explicit ‘if’ clause would be indicative)? In irreal contexts, the subjunctive definitely seems to be used based on Google hits for things like wäre es so, dann…, hätte ich Geld, dann…, etc.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Aug 31 at 18:48
  • A small remark to the examples: I would use "falls", "so" oder "wenn, dann" in all of the indicative sentences (but the versions without are certainly correct and I would understand them), as in "Falls ich Hilfe benötige, melde ich mich." (I would use that in everyday speech) / "Benötige ich Hilfe, so melde ich mich." (feels a bit more old-fashioned or higher register to me).
    – Sebastian Riese
    Commented Sep 1 at 10:03
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This perfectly works as in

Solltest du Hilfe benötigen...

but in conversation simpler constructs like

Wenn/falls du Hilfe brauchst...

are more common and sound a bit less formal.

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2
  • yes, notice that it is always the conjunctive "sollte(n)", never the indicative "soll(en)"
    – wonderbear
    Commented Aug 31 at 9:15
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    "Should you ..." sounds formal in English as well, and "If you ..." would be more usual, so about the same as German. I'm pretty sure this is covered under definition 5.2 of the Wiktionary entry. And I'm pretty sure the corresponding meaning for "sollen" is covered in definition 7 of it's Wiktionary entry.
    – RDBury
    Commented Aug 31 at 9:18

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