You're already familiar with several modal verbs: "möchten", "können", "müssen" and "sollen". They describe the subject in relation to the action expressed by the main verb. "dürfen" is also a modal verb that provides more information about the nature of an action.

"dürfen" means to be allowed or have the permission to do something.

Example:
Darf ich mich setzen? (Ich möchte wissen: Ist dieser Platz frei?)

Conjugation

The conjugation of "dürfen" is irregular. Pay particular attention to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular in this chart: