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futur ii Tense in German Grammar

How to use German futur II

Introduction

The future perfect II (completed future) indicates that an action will be completed at the time of the statement or at a later point in time.
Master the future perfect tense with the GermanMind method. Learn the rules for conjugating the future perfect tense and get tips on how and when to use it. Test your German grammar skills in the exercises below.

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Usage

We use the future perfect to express:

  • Assumption - an assumed action in the past:

    Example:

    Er wird wohl gestürzt sein.

    Er wird eine Panne gehabt haben.

  • Prognosis - an assumed action that will be completed at a specific time in the future (a time is always needed here so that we know we are talking about the future).

    Example:

    Bis dahin wird er den Roller repariert haben.

important

We often strengthen assumptions by using phrases such as: wohl, likely/probably, sicher, certainly, bestimmt, definitely.

Example:

Er wird wohl gestürzt sein.
Er wird wohl eine Panne gehabt haben.

Conjugation of German verbs in the Futur II

To conjugate verbs in the future perfect tense, we need the finite form of werden, the past participle of the full verb, and the auxiliary verbs sein/haben.

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Past Participle

The past participle (participle II) is constructed in two different ways, according to whether we conjugate a strong verb (ge...en) or a weak/mixed verb (ge...t).

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exceptions

  • Many strong and mixed verbs change their stem in the past participle.

    Example:

    gehen – gegangen, bringen – gebracht

  • If the word stem ends in d/t, we add an -et to weak and mixed verbs.

    Example:

    arbeiten – gearbeitet

  • Verbs that end in -ieren form the past participle without ge.

    Example:

    probieren – probiert

  • Inseparable verbs form the past participle without ge.

    Example:

    bestehen – bestanden

  • With separable verbs, ge goes after the prefix. 

    Example:

    ankommen – angekommen

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