Like other tenses in English, the future tense has more than one form:.
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habitual
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I will go to school.
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incomplete or progressive
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I will be going to school.
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Both forms are translated into German by a single future-tense conjugation, which consists of the present-tense conjugation of werden and an infinitive located at the end of the sentence. For example:
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Ich werde zur Schule gehen.
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I will go to school.
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Er wird seinen Onkel besuchen.
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I will be going to school.
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Die Männer werden Karten spielen.
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The men will play cards.
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Another way to express the future tense in German is by a present-tense conjugation where the future tense is inferred or understood by the context or because of an adverb accompanying the verb. For example:
Take note that English often does something similar, as in the last example: I have a test next week. This sentence is in the present tense, but the meaning is the future tense.
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Future perfect tense
The future perfect tense in German is used like its counterpart in English. It consists of the conjugation of werden followed by a past participle and either haben or sein, whichever auxiliary is appropriate for the verb in question. It is called “future” and “perfect,” because it combines a form of werden with a participle and its auxiliary—for example, werden + gesprochen + haben. The auxiliary haben or sein will always be in the infinitive form.
Let’s compare the future-tense conjugation with the future perfect tense.
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future
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future perfect
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ich
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werde kommen
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werde gekommen sein (will come, will have come)
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du
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wirst kommen
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wirst gekommen sein
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er
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wird kommen
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wird gekommen sein
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wir
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werden kommen
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werden gekommen sein
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ihr
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werdet kommen
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werdet gekommen sein
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sie
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werden kommen
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werden gekommen sein
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In essence, these two tenses are formed in the same way if you consider the participle and infinitive of the future perfect tense as a participial infinitive composed of those two elements. Therefore, the structure is werden + the infinitive or participial infinitive.
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ich werde sprechen
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I will speak
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ich werde gesprochen haben
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I will have spoken
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The future perfect tense is used to tell that something will have occurred by a certain point in time in the future.
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Sie werden bis morgen Abend
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They’ll have arrived by tomorrow evening.
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angekommen sein.
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