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7.2 Present and future
The PRESENTTENSE is mostly used as in English, to express an action in the present or a generalization:
German also often uses the present tense to refer to the future, as long as the future meaning is clear from the context (typically through a time adverbial):
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Wir beziehen uns auf Ihr heutiges Fax. Ich gehe jeden Samstag ins Kino. We refer to your fax of today. I go to the cinema every Saturday.
In zwei Stunden bin ich wieder da. Ich schreibe den Brief heute Abend. Vielleicht sagt er es ihr. I’ll be back in two hours. I’ll write the letter tonight. Perhaps he’ll tell her.
NB There is no equivalent in German to the ‘going to future’, e.g. ‘I’m going to see him tomorrow’: Ich sehe ihn morgen.
The FUTURETENSE is used much less in German than in English. The future tense is mainly used to refer to the future if the present could be misunderstood:
Er wird wieder bei der Post arbeiten. He is going to work for the post office again.
NB Er arbeitet wieder bei der Post can only mean ‘He is working for the post office again’.
In both English and German, the future tense may indicate not that something is going to happen in the future, but that the speaker supposes that something has happened, is happening, or will happen. In German the most common use of the future tense is to express a supposition (often with the modal particle wohl):
Sie wird (wohl) wieder krank sein. Dietlinde wird auch kommenwollen. She’ll be ill again./I expect she’s ill again. Dietlinde will want to come too.
The FUTUREPERFECT can refer to an event before another one in the future:
Wenn wir uns wiedersehen, werden
By the time we meet again, we will both wir beide unser Abitur gemacht haben. have done our Abitur. Bis morgen werde ich den Brief geschrieben haben. By tomorrow I’ll have written the letter.
The future perfect is also commonly used to express a supposition about the past:
Sie wird (wohl)krank gewesen sein. She’ll have been ill./I expect she was ill. Max wird den Termin vergessen haben. I expect Max forgot the appointment.
