Breakdown of Er wird an der Klippe abgerutscht sein.
sein
to be
er
he
an
at, on (vertical) / to (addressee) / of (in quantity/stock expressions)
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
werden
will (future auxiliary)
die Klippe
the cliff
abrutschen
to slip
Questions & Answers about Er wird an der Klippe abgerutscht sein.
The English translation is "He will have slipped," but does this actually refer to the future?
Not usually! In German, the Future Perfect (Futur II) is most frequently used to express a strong assumption or probability about something that already happened in the past. So, a more natural English equivalent in everyday conversation would often be "He probably slipped" or "He must have slipped at the cliff."
Why does the sentence end with sein instead of haben?
In the Future Perfect, the final verb is either haben or sein, depending on which one the main verb uses in the normal spoken past tense (Perfekt). The verb abrutschen (to slip down / slide off) expresses a change of location or condition, so it requires sein. Just like you would say Er ist abgerutscht (He slipped), you say Er wird abgerutscht sein for your assumption.
Why do we use the dative case (der Klippe) after an here? Doesn't slipping involve movement?
While slipping is definitely a physical movement, two-way prepositions like an only take the accusative case when there is a movement towards a destination (answering "Where to?"). Here, the entire action of slipping happens within a single location (at the cliff). Because it answers "Where did the event happen?" (Wo?), we use the dative case.
Why is the ge in the middle of abgerutscht?
Abrutschen is a separable verb, made of the prefix ab and the base verb rutschen. When forming the past participle for a separable verb, the -ge- is tucked right between the prefix and the main verb stem, giving us ab-ge-rutscht.
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