Future Perfect Simplified: Your Guide to Using Futur 2

This week I covered the last of the tenses I will be covering in the 3 Minuten Deutsch series, the future perfect (Futur 2). In the videos below, I explain how and why to use this tense. Below the videos you will find a step by step process for forming this tense and a few more example sentences.

How to Form the Future Perfect in German:

• Determine where your conjugated verb should go.
  • The conjugated verb is in the second position in most simple German statements. Keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily the second word in the sentence, but rather the second part of the sentence.
    • Ich gehe nach Hause. – I am going home.
    • Um 3 Uhr fahren wir nach Hause. – At 3 o’clock we are driving home.
  • In questions, the conjugated verb is in the first position unless it is preceded by a question word.
    • Gehst du nach Hause? – Are you going home?
    • Wohin fahren Sie? – Where (to) are you driving?
  • The rules listed above only apply in “Hauptsätze” (main clauses). If there is a subordinate clause, there are two versions of word order
    • Subordinate clauses after main clauses have the first conjugated verb in the normal position in the main clause and the conjugated verb in the subordinate clause moved to the end of the sentence.
      • Ich esse Gemüse, wenn meine Tochter in der Nähe ist. – I eat vegetables, when my daughter is near by.
    • Subordinate clauses before the main clause move all conjugated verbs to before and after the comma separating the two clauses.
      • Wenn meine Tochter in der Nähe ist, esse ich Gemüse. – When my daughter is near by, I eat vegetables.
• Determine the form of the verb “werden” you need to fit the subject.
  • Conjugation of “werden”.
    • Ich werde – I will
    • Du wirst – you will
    • Er, Sie, Es wird – he, she, it will
    • Wir werden – we will
    • Ihr werdet – you will
    • Sie werden – they/you will
• Determine if your other verb requires “haben” or “sein” in the present perfect tense.
  • Use “sein” if the verb is a motion verb or a change of state verb.
  • Use “haben” if the verb is not a motion verb or change of state verb.
• Determine what the past participle of the other verb is.
  • Regular verbs take “ge-” at the beginning of the verb and “-t” at the end instead of “-en”.
    • bauen – gebaut
    • arbeiten – gearbeitet
  • If there is a separable prefix, the “ge-” goes between the prefix and the verb stem.
    • aufbauen – aufgebaut
  • If there is an inseparable prefix, there is no “ge-“.
    • beantworten – beantwortet
  • Irregular verbs follow their own rules.
    • essen – gegessen
    • fahren – gefahren
    • sein – gewesen
  • Play a game of verbal leapfrog. (When you add another verb to the sentence, move the first verb to the end of the sentence.)
    • Start with a present tense sentence with your main verb.
      • Ich gehe nach Hause. – I am going home.
    • Change the sentence to the present perfect tense.
      • Ich bin nach Hause gegangen. – I went home.
    • Add “werden” to the sentence and adjust the sentence.
      • Ich werde nach Hause gegangen sein. – I will have gone home.

Futur 2