A2 · Tenses
The future
werden plus infinitive — and why you rarely need it
German usually says the future in the present tense, and keeps werden for prediction and emphasis.
German has a future tense — werden plus an infinitive at the end — and uses it much less than English uses "will". The ordinary way to talk about tomorrow is the present tense with a time word: Morgen fahre ich nach Berlin.
So werden is not the neutral future; it is the marked one. It appears where the future is a prediction rather than a plan (Es wird regnen), where a promise is being made (Ich werde es nicht vergessen), and where there is no time word to do the job.
Werden also has a second life as an ordinary verb meaning "to become" — Er wird Lehrer — and a third as the passive auxiliary. Three jobs for one word, distinguished by what follows it: an infinitive, a noun, or a participle.
Die Form
| future | Ich werde morgen anrufen. |
| present as future | Ich rufe morgen an. |
| to become | Er wird Lehrer. |
| passive | Das Haus wird gebaut. |
| probability | Er wird wohl krank sein. |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
werden stands in second position and the infinitive at the end.
Wir werden das morgen besprechen.We will discuss that tomorrow.
With a time word, the present tense is the normal future.
Nächste Woche fange ich an.I am starting next week.
werden plus wohl or sicher expresses probability about the present, not the future.
Sie wird jetzt zu Hause sein.She will be at home by now.
werden plus a noun or adjective means "to become".
Es wird kalt.It is getting cold.
Genauer hingesehen
What werden wohl actually does
Er wird wohl krank sein does not talk about the future at all — it says something about now, with a hedge. German uses the future form to express a guess about the present, which strikes English speakers as backwards until they notice that English does exactly the same thing: "that will be the postman" said when the doorbell rings is not a prediction either.
This use is common in speech and is worth recognising before producing. A sentence with werden and no time word is more often a guess than a plan, and reading it as a future produces a small, quiet misunderstanding that nothing in the sentence corrects.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
the sentence is a promise, a threat or a firm intention
werden is used even with a time word, because the point is the commitment rather than the timing.
Ich werde das morgen erledigen, versprochen.I will get that done tomorrow, I promise.
The marked form carries the weight, which is what makes it right here.
-
you want the future perfect
use werden plus a participle plus haben or sein — a form that exists and is rare.
Er wird es vergessen haben.He will have forgotten it.
It is mostly used for assumptions about the past, not for scheduling.
Woran man es erkennt
- werde
- wirst
- wird
- werden
- morgen
- nächste Woche
- wohl
- bestimmt
Beispielsätze
Ich werde dich nicht vergessen.I will not forget you.
Morgen regnet es.It is going to rain tomorrow.
Das wird nicht funktionieren.That is not going to work.
Er wird bald sechzig.He is turning sixty soon.
Sie wird schon wissen, was sie tut.She presumably knows what she is doing.
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Was wirst du danach machen?What are you going to do afterwards?
Der Termin fällt nächste Woche aus.The appointment is cancelled next week.
Es wird schon gut gehen.It will be all right.
Wir ziehen im Sommer um.We are moving house in the summer.
Das werden Sie bereuen.You will regret that.
Morgen wird es kälter.It will be colder tomorrow.
Ich werde mich darum kümmern.I will see to it.
Sie wird das nicht gewollt haben.She will not have meant that.
Besonderheiten (2)
-
One word, three jobs
<z>Werden</z> plus an infinitive is the future; <z>werden</z> plus a participle is the passive; <z>werden</z> plus a noun or adjective means "to become". Nothing about the word itself says which — the thing that follows it does, and it follows at the end of the clause. It is another reason German sentences resolve late.
Es wird gebaut. / Es wird regnen. / Es wird dunkel.It is being built. / It is going to rain. / It is getting dark.
-
The present is not vague
English speakers sometimes worry that the present tense leaves the time unclear. It does not — the time word does that job, and German is if anything more precise, because the time word must be there. What is lost is the difference between "I am flying" and "I will fly", which German does not mark and does not miss.
Ich fliege am Dienstag nach Rom.I am flying to Rome on Tuesday.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Two things go wrong here at once, and the second is the interesting one. Doubling the verb is a slip; reaching for werden at all is the habit. English marks every future with "will" or "going to", so a learner marks every German future too, and the result is correct German that no German would write. If a time word is present, the present tense is enough.
A time word is the German future. werden is for prediction.
Jetzt selbst
5 Aufgaben zu diesem Thema. Die Antworten werden im Browser geprüft; nichts davon verlässt Ihr Gerät.