Learn how to form and use the future perfect tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chuck: Chuck here. Upper intermediate, season 1, Lesson 10. If You Don’t Start Now, It Will Soon Have Been Too Late to Study German. |
| Judith: Hello everyone, I am Judith and welcome to germanpod101.com |
| Chuck: With us, you will learn to speak German with fun and effective lessons. |
| Judith: We also provide you with cultural insights. |
| Chuck: And tips you won’t find in a textbook. In this lesson, you will learn how to form and use the future perfect tense in German. |
| Judith: This conversation takes place at a German office. |
| Chuck: The conversation is between Mr. Jones and Mrs. [Bayer]. |
| Judith: The speakers are colleagues. Therefore they will be speaking formal German. |
| Chuck: Let’s listen to the conversation. So wait, how was Mrs. [Bayer] not punctual. She is German right? |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jones: Oh, hallo Frau Bayer…. |
| Bayer: Ah, Herr Jones. Sie kommen heute auch etwas zu spät…Dann bin ich wenigstens nicht die Einzige! |
| Jones: Haha….Ja, ich habe zehn Minuten verschlafen und habe meinen Bus verpasst… Und Sie? |
| Bayer: Ich komme ja mit dem Auto und die Hauptstraße ist wegen eines Unfalls gesperrt, sodass ich eine Umleitung fahren musste …. |
| Jones: Ach so…Na vielleicht kommt unser Chef ja auch zu spät! |
| Bayer: Hmm, ich glaube nicht. Herr Müller wird bestimmt pünktlich gekommen sein. |
| Jones: Oh, wirklich!? Was meinen Sie, was Herr Müller zu uns sagen wird? |
| Bayer: Ach, ich glaube nicht, dass er viel dazu sagt. Wir sind ja nur 10 Minuten zu spät… Aber er wird sich sicherlich gewundert haben, dass wir beide zu spät kommen… |
| Jones: Ja, stimmt. Wir sind ja noch nie zu spät gekommen… |
| Bayer: Ja, deswegen ist es ja auch nicht so schlimm… |
| Jones: Ach, ich mag so einen hektischen Morgen gar nicht. Das ist kein guter Start in einen Tag… |
| Bayer: Ja, da haben Sie Recht. Denken Sie immer daran, in acht Stunden werden Sie es geschafft haben! Dann ist der Tag endlich vorbei! |
| Jones: Haha, ja… Aber so schlimm ist die Arbeit ja nicht. |
| Jones: Oh, hello Mrs. Bayer. |
| Bayer: Ah, Mr. Jones. You're a bit late today too...at least I'm not the only one! |
| Jones: Haha...Ya, I overslept by ten minutes and missed my bus. And you? |
| Bayer: Well, I come by car and Main street was blocked by an accident, so I had to take a detour. |
| Jones: Oh ya...well maybe our boss will also be late! |
| Bayer: Hmm, I don't think so. Mr. Muller will certainly have arrived right on time. |
| Jones: Oh really? What do you think Mr. Muller will say to us? |
| Bayer: Oh, I don't think he'll have much to say. We're only 10 minutes late after all. But he will certainly have been surprised that we're both late. |
| Jones: Ya, true. We never really came late before, anyway. |
| Bayer: Ya, that's why it won't be so bad... |
| Jones: Boy, I don't like having such hectic mornings. It's not a good way to start the day. |
| Bayer: Ya, you're right. Just remember that in eight hours it'll all be over! Then the day will finally be done! |
| Jones: Haha, ya...but work's not that bad, anyway. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Judith: Yeah she is but this thing about punctuality is a stereotype about Germans and I think we should talk about some stereotypes in this lesson. One thing is of course punctuality and generally, yeah Germans will be punctual and they will expect you to be punctual as well as a matter of common courtesy. If you are more than 5 minutes late, you should call whoever you are meeting and apologize profusely. |
| Chuck: Another comment I missed is that the Germans are workaholics. |
| Judith: They are not quite. |
| Chuck: Yeah. Germany is one of the countries with the least work hours per week. The maximum is less than 40 hours per week and in addition, there is a lot of public holidays and you are legally guaranteed four weeks of vacation and remember if you only get four weeks of vacation, don’t start complaining about it. |
| Judith: In my experience, Germans actually want to work hard during work hours but as soon as the work hours are over, they will drop whatever they were doing and go home. So if you are still a customer somewhere and the bank clerk just hit his end of the workday, then goodbye to you. He may not see you anymore. |
| Chuck: Because I find that Americans often brag about how many hours they work but Germans prefer to brag about how much work they are able to do in the work hours they have. |
| Judith: Yeah. If you are doing extra hours, then that’s almost a sign that you are not very efficient. |
| Chuck: Yeah. It’s also quite commonly heard that Germans drink a lot of beer. |
| Judith: Yes. |
| Chuck: Well, it’s – they are actually only outdone by the Czech Republic when it comes to per capita beer consumption but there are quite a few Germans who don’t like beer just like there are Americans who don’t like basketball. |
| Judith: Yeah or some people prefer wine. So just don’t take it as a given that everyone will like beer. |
| Chuck: And don’t forget about those people who drink say 6 to 7 bottles of beer in the evening influencing the general average. |
| Judith: Yes. And another stereotype is that Germans wear [Lederhosen]. |
| Chuck: They don’t? |
| Judith: No, no way please. This is really annoying for the average German because only Bavarians wear [Lederhosen] and even there, it’s part of like folklore. It’s not something that you’d necessarily wear all day. So… |
| Chuck: October 1st. |
| Judith: Yes. That too it’s a mimic thing even though other cities have copied it but please don’t confuse Bavarian culture and German culture. |
| Chuck: So listeners, what other stereotypes about Germans have you heard. Maybe we can shed some light on them in this lesson’s comments. |
| Judith: Yes. Just comment about them and we will figure them out. |
| Chuck: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Judith: The first word is [einzig]. |
| Chuck: Sole, solely, exclusive, exclusively, unique or uniquely. |
| Judith: [einzig]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [verschlafen]. |
| Chuck: To oversleep, sleeping or sleep so long. |
| Judith: [verschlafen] And the forms are [verschlafen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Er verschläft, Er verschlief, Er hat verschlafen]. |
| Chuck: To miss as in a schedule connection. |
| Judith: [verpassen]. This is a weak verb. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Unfall]. |
| Chuck: Accident. |
| Judith: [Unfall, der] And the plural is [Unfälle]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [sperren]. |
| Chuck: To bar or to block as in an area or street. |
| Judith: [sperren]. Another weak verb. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [Umleitung]. |
| Chuck: Redirection, alternative route or detour. |
| Judith: [Umleitung]. And the plural is [Umleitungen]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [pünktlich]. |
| Chuck: Punctually or on time. |
| Judith: [pünktlich]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [sicherlich]. |
| Chuck: Surely or certainly. |
| Judith: [sicherlich]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [sich wundern]. |
| Chuck: To wonder. |
| Judith: [sich wundern]. |
| Chuck: Next. |
| Judith: [hektisch]. |
| Chuck: Hectic or fast-paced. |
| Judith: [hektisch]. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Chuck: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Judith: The first word we are going to look at is the usage of the particle ja. |
| Chuck: The purpose of the yeah is to establish agreement between the people in the conversation. |
| Judith: For example, [Vielleicht kommt ja unser Chef auch zu spät] in this phrase, the degree that there was a possibility that the boss will be late as well and in other phrases that we’ve seen in the dialogue in the [Wir sind ja nur zehn Minuten zu spät, deswegen ist es ja nicht so schlimm. Wir sind ja sonst nie zu spät gekommen], the two employees are affirming to each other that it’s not going to be a big deal. |
| Chuck: Without the yeah, one of them might say, actually we were late a couple of times this year but the yeah inhibits such a response and messages agree with me here except the statement for the purpose of this discussion and especially don’t split hairs. |
| Judith: Sometimes the yeah can be translated as you know. For example, the [Ich komme ja mit dem Auto] you know, I am coming by car. So we are establishing mutual understanding here. We are making sure that Mr. Jones knows about the car now even if you happened to miss that detail before. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Chuck: The focus of this lesson is the future perfect. |
| Judith: The future perfect [Futur II] in German is used when something will already have happened at a certain point in the future. |
| Chuck: When you are describing a series of things in the future, for example inviting guests, cleaning the house and the guests are arriving, then these would all be listed using the regular future tense [Futur I]. The future perfect comes into play when you’ve already talked about the guests arriving and you have something that was supposed to go earlier in your plans. |
| Judith: For example, if you remember that by the time the guests arrive, you must have finished baking a cake. In German, this would be [Wenn die Gäste ankommen, werde ich einen Kuchen gebacken haben]. |
| Chuck: When the guests arrive, I will have baked a cake. So the way to construct this tense is to combine the verb [werden] with the perfect tense of the verb. |
| Judith: [werden] is conjugated and the [haben] or [sein] is left as an infinitive. It’s just like in English actually except for the word order. |
| Chuck: Now wait a minute, could you give us some examples? |
| Judith: Yeah of course [Ich werde etwas gebacken haben]. |
| Chuck: I will have baked something. |
| Judith: [Du wirst etwas getrunken haben]. |
| Chuck: You will have drunk something. |
| Judith: [Er wird gekommen sein]. |
| Chuck: He will have come. |
| Judith: [Wir werden etwas geschafft haben]. |
Outro |
| Chuck: We will have achieved something. That just about does it for today. Remember, you can leave us comment on this lesson. |
| Judith: So if you have a question or some feedback, please just leave us a comment. |
| Chuck: It’s very easy to do. Just stop by germanpod101.com. |
| Judith: Click on comments. |
| Chuck: Enter your comment and name. |
| Judith: And that’s it. |
| Chuck: No excuses. We are looking forward to hearing from you. So see you next week. |
| Judith: [Also bis nächste Woche]! |
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