Word
In zwanzig Jahren werden sie nach Spanien ausgewandert sein.
Meaning
In twenty years, they will have emigrated to Spain.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of In zwanzig Jahren werden sie nach Spanien ausgewandert sein.
sein
to be
in
in
sie
they
das Jahr
the year
Questions & Answers about In zwanzig Jahren werden sie nach Spanien ausgewandert sein.
How does this sentence show that the action will be completely finished by the future deadline?
It uses the Futur II (Future Perfect) tense, which is built with werden plus the past participle ausgewandert and the infinitive sein. This structure tells us that at the point of twenty years from now, the act of emigrating will already be fully completed, rather than just starting or ongoing.
Why does the sentence end with the infinitive sein instead of haben?
In Futur II, you use the same helper verb that the main verb takes in the regular present perfect tense, just placed in its infinitive form at the very end of the sentence. Because auswandern (to emigrate) expresses a change of location, it uses sein for its past forms (sie sind ausgewandert). Therefore, its Future Perfect form must also end with sein.
Why do we use nach for 'to Spain' instead of another preposition like in or zu?
In German, the preposition nach is used for movement or relocation to geographical places that do not take a definite article, such as most cities, continents, and neuter countries like Spanien. If it were a country with an article, such as the feminine die Schweiz (Switzerland), you would have to use in instead.
Why does Jahren have an extra -n added to it here?