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Future I Tense

While the German future tense can be used for the future, it most of the time isn't used for that purpose at all. It is mainly used to express assumptions and "Verbote" (=prohibitions) or orders. Assumptions are usually indicated by the word "wohl". Here an example:

  1. Er wird (wohl) nächste Woche heiraten. | assumption
    He will probably get married next week.
  3. Er wird nächste Woche heiraten. | prediction of the future
    He'll / is going to get married next week
  5. Er heiratet nächste Woche. | present tense > future meaning
    He's marrying next week
  7. Wirst du wohl hierbleiben? | strict order, wohl = emphasis, no translation possible
    Will you stay here.
  9. Hier wird nicht geraucht. | prohibition
    There's no smoking here.
  11. Das werde ich nie wieder tun. | promise
    I'll never do that again.

Note that Germans don't distinguish between "he will" and "he is going to".
Germans would rather use the Present Tense to express the actual future.

Due to their similarity to English, it is pretty easy to recognize and understand sentences that use the Futur I and we'll focus on those use cases that help us express assumptions.

How to build the Futur I

The Futur I is built with help of "werden" (=no meaning here) and the infinitive:

  • Er wird nächste Woche heiraten.
    He will get married next week.

In order to make clear that we are making an assumption, we always add the word "wohl" (=probably):

  • Er wird wohl nächste Woche heiraten.
    He will probably get married next week.

How to distinguish it from other constructions with "werden"

While there is another lesson about "werden" elsewhere in this course, here a quick overview over all possible uses of that verb:

  • Ich werde oft gefragt. I'm often being asked. | werden + past participle >>> PASSIVE
  • Ich werde ihn fragen. I'll ask him. | werden + infinitive >>> FUTUR I prediction
  • Ich werde ihn wohl fragen. I'll probably ask him. | werden + wohl + infinitive >>> FUTUR I assumption
  • Ich werde Vater I'm becoming a father. | werden = to become (1% of the use cases) , "werden" is the main verb

This topic is covered in: B1-L15