How to use the future perfect in German?

The conjugation of werden in the present tense is illustrated below. Pay close attention to the irregular forms when the subject is du (meaning you, singular) or er/sie/es (meaning he/she/it)!

In German, past participles are most often formed by adding ge- to the beginning of the verb stem and -t or -en to the end. Often the vowel in the stem will also change:

However, there are a lot of irregular forms to learn. Check out our post on past participles in German for a full description!

In the future perfect, the choice of auxiliary verb, haben (meaning to have) or sein (meaning to be), follows the same rules as other tenses like the perfect tense:

• sein → used mostly with verbs of movement or change of state, e.g. fahren (meaning to drive) or gehen (meaning to go)

• haben → used with most other verbs, e.g. lachen (meaning to laugh) or arbeiten (meaning to work)

For more descriptions and examples, check out our post on haben vs. sein in German!

To use the right word order in the German future perfect, just remember that werden is the conjugated verb. This means that, just like in any other tense, werden will usually come first in a question and second in a statement, while the other verbs will come at the end of the clause.

Check out our introduction to German word order to see how this tense plays into all the same rules as other tenses!

The classic use of future perfect is — as the name already suggests — to express that an event or action will have taken place and be completed before or by a point in the future.

Oftentimes you see this use of the future perfect accompanied by future time designations like days of the week or months, introduced by prepositions like bis (zu) (meaning until, by). This tense is also often used with adverbs of time like morgen (meaning tomorrow).

The future perfect is also used to express that you assume something that has already happened or must have already happened.

This use of the future perfect is usually accompanied by adverbs like schon (meaning already), wohl (meaning probably), sicher (meaning surely), or bestimmt (meaning certainly). These are placed after werden.

Note that while, in some cases, you can use the English future perfect to translate sentences, it can often be more natural to use a modal verb like “must” or “should” in these cases.

Using the future perfect with nicht (meaning not) or kein (meaning no, not a) to talk about something that you hope or believe hasn’t already happened.

Note that this use of the future perfect is almost never translated using the English future perfect, so this will likely take a bit more practice!

For more information on how to use nicht and kein, check out our post on German negation!