Sie lernen viele neue Wörter

Learning German Forum - Ask a Tutor
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Hi
The translation for the phrase “Sie lernen viele neue Wörter” is given as “You will learn many new words.”

I am confused because I read the German as the being in the present tense, so I would translate it as “You learn many new words”

Why can it be translated as the future tense “You will”. I thought to use the future you need to use “werde”. Something like “Sie werden viele neue Wörter lernen”

Vielen dank!
Ben

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We often use the present tense when we refer to a future event (especially in spoken German):

Example: Morgen fahre ich nach Wien.

In colloquial German you will hardly hear anybody say “Morgen werde ich nach Wien fahren”. Both forms are correct, but the use of the present tense with a future meaning is very common.

However, since in the dialogue you refer to all the other sentences are put in the future tense, I would have rephrased the sentence “Sie lernen viele neue Wörter”.

“Sie werden viele neue Wörter lernen”, as you suggested, would have been more consistent in my opinion.

You could argue that, whoever wrote that sentence, was trying to make a general statement, in which case we would also tend to use the present tense.

However, in this particular text I would have used the sentence as given by you, i. e. in the future tense.

Hope that helps.

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I always thought that one usually uses the present tense whenever it is obvious from the context that the event will happen in the future or it is stated directly. Is this correct?

This sentence does seem to stand out a bit though since all of the sentences around it are written in the future tense.

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Danke schön!

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Are there any resources you recommend to teach basic grammar and word order to a beginner?

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ad Colin: (…) … I always thought that one usually uses the present tense whenever it is obvious from the context that the event will happen in the future or it is stated directly. Is this correct? (…)

I’m not aware of any grammar rule establishing exactly when to use the future and when to use the present tense (with a future meaning). I find the future tense simply more formal.

Besides, I would never use the future tense with auxiliary verbs such as “müssen, sollen, dürfen, können” in certain contexts.

Example:

Morgen muss ich eine Übersetzung abliefern.

I would never say: Morgen werde ich eine Übersetzung abliefern müssen.

But: Wenn sich die Situation nicht ändert, werden wir uns an daran gewöhnen müssen.

I’m afraid I’m not of much help here because I can only tell you what “feels” correct for me and what not. I can’t support my point of view with any rules.

ad benjjj6:

(…) Danke schön! - Gern geschehen :slight_smile:

For a beginner, I’d recommend any of the dialogue-based self-study courses (Teach Yourself, Living Languages, Colloquial German etc.).

If you are looking for a more in-depth reference book, I’d recommend Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage by Martin Durrell (Routledge).

Good luck with your German studies :slight_smile:

EDIT: You might also want to check out “German grammar in a nutshell”, published by Langenscheidt. A quick and quite entertaining overview of the German grammar in English. I bought that book for some of my foreign friends and they really liked it.

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