Learn Hardcore German: Wir werden am Wochenende feiern, sobald ich meine Prüfung bestanden habe. - We will celebrate on the weekend as soon as I have passed my exam.

Sobald means “as soon as” and introduces a subordinate clause that sets a condition. It tells us that the celebration will only happen once the exam has been passed.

Why does the subordinate clause use the perfect tense (bestanden habe) rather than the present tense?

In German, the perfect tense is used in this context to indicate that the exam must be successfully completed before the celebration begins. Even though the main clause is in the future, the perfect tense in the subordinate clause emphasizes the completion of an action that is a prerequisite for the future event.

Why is the conjugated verb (habe) placed at the end of the subordinate clause?

German grammar requires that in subordinate clauses—those introduced by words like sobald—the finite verb appears at the end of the clause. This inversion of word order differentiates subordinate clauses from main clauses.

Why is the future action expressed with werden feiern instead of using the present tense?

Although German sometimes uses the present tense to refer to future actions, the construction with werden plus an infinitive (here, feiern) explicitly marks the action as future. This form is often preferred when there is a clear condition (introduced by sobald) that must be met before the event occurs.

What punctuation rule is demonstrated by the comma before sobald?

In German, a comma must be used to separate a subordinate clause from the main clause. The comma before sobald correctly signals that what follows is a subordinate clause providing additional, conditional information.