German Superlative
The German future tense (Futur I) is mostly used to express assumptions about the present or future in German. We can also use this tense to express future intentions, although, in spoken German, it is more common to use the present tense for this. We can translate the future tense with the English tenses: simple present or future with will or going to.
1. The verb “werden“
In German, the future tense is expressed through the verb ‘werden’ and the infinitive of the main verb. By itself, ‘werden’ can be used as the main verb in a sentence. Then it means ‘to become’ or ‘get’ (e.g. Es wird spät. / It is getting late.); however, it is also used to construct the future tenses as well as the passive voice (more on the latter in A2.2). The verb is conjugated below.
Here are some further examples of how ‘werden’ is used in the present tense as a main verb:
Heute hast du Geburtstag! Du wirst älter!
Today is your birthday! You are getting older!
Das Wetter wird immer kühler.
The weather is becoming increasingly cool/getting cooler.
Das Futur I
In English and in German, we can talk about the future without explicitly using the/a future tense. In German, we can use the simple present (Präsens) plus an adverb of time (‘morgen,’ ‘übermorgen,’ bald,’ ‘nächste Woche, etc). In English, we can use the present continuous to talk about the future. (I am going to school next week.)
To form the actual future tense in German, we use the auxiliary verb “werden”. This is the only variant, whereas in English we can either use “will” or “am/is/are going to”.
The conjugated form of “werden” will be in second position, and the second verb will move to the very end of the sentence.
Example:
Ich werde ein Fahrrad kaufen.
I will buy a bike.
The main verb ‘kaufen’ carries the meaning of the sentence, and ‘werden’ is just used to indicate the future tense, much like the English equivalent ‘will.’ Further, ‘werden’ can be used as a main verb in the future tense:
Example:
Du wirst frustriert werden.
You will be getting frustrated.
In addition, the adverbs ‘wohl,’ ‘wahrscheinlich,’ and ‘vielleicht’ (highly likely, probably, maybe, respectively) are added to speculate (e.g. Hannah wird wahrscheinlich nicht zur Party kommen.). There are two forms of the future (Futur I & II), the latter being the future perfect.
The future tense (Futur I) is mostly used to express assumptions about the present or future in German. We can translate the future tense with the English tenses: simple present or future with will or going to.
