The future perfect tense (Futur II) in German is used to express actions that will have been completed by a certain point in the future.
- Actions completed before a future point in time:
- Bis morgen werde ich das Buch gelesen haben. (By tomorrow, I will have read the book.)
- In einer Stunde wird er die E-Mail geschrieben haben. (In one hour, he will have written the email.)
- An assumption about something that has likely happened in the past:
- Er wird schon zu Hause angekommen sein. (He will have arrived home already.)
- Der Boden ist nass. Es wird in der Nacht geregnet haben. (The ground is wet. It will probably have rained during the night.)
Forming the Future Perfect Tense
The future perfect tense is formed with the future tense of the auxiliary verb (haben or sein) plus the past participle of the main verb:
Future Perfect Tense is formed as
werden (conjugated in present tense) + past participle + haben/sein
Choosing Between haben and sein
While the German and English future perfect tenses are conceptually similar, one difference is that German requires selecting between haben and sein based on the main verb, while English always uses “have”.
When deciding whether to use haben or sein, the same rules apply as described in the perfect tense chapter.
Word Order in Future Perfect Tense
- In a main clause, the conjugated form of werden is in the second position, and both the past participle and haben/sein go to the end of the clause, with haben/sein coming last:
- Example: Bis morgen werden wir die Arbeit erledigt haben. (By tomorrow, we will have completed the work.)
- In a subordinate clause, all three verbal elements go to the end of the clause in this order: past participle + haben/sein + werden:
- Example: Ich glaube, dass er bis morgen angekommen sein wird. (I believe that he will have arrived by tomorrow.)
Alternatives to Future Perfect
In conversational German, the future perfect is often replaced by the perfect tense with a future time expression.
For an Action Completed in the Future
- Future Perfect: Bis morgen werde ich das Buch gelesen haben.
- Alternative (Perfect + future context): Bis morgen habe ich das Buch gelesen. (By tomorrow, I have read the book.)
For an Assumption About the Past
Using the Perfect tense with an adverb of probability like wahrscheinlich (probably), sicher (surely), or vermutlich (presumably).
- Future Perfect: Sie wird den Zug verpasst haben. (She will have missed the train.)
- Perfekt + Adverb: Sie hat wahrscheinlich den Zug verpasst. (She probably missed the train.)