A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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12/8/2017
“double infinitive” phenomenon. Rather than a past participle, you will see the
infinitive form of the modal next to the dependent infinitive.
Present perfect:
Die Studentin hat diese ganze Woche fleißig lernen müssen.
The (woman) student has had to study hard this entire week.
Past perfect:
Der Ingenieur hatte die Maschine am Sonntag reparieren können.
The engineer had been able to repair the machine on Sunday.
Note that the modal perfect tenses affect the position of the auxiliary verb when it is
in a subordinate clause. Instead of appearing at the very end of the clause as usual,
it will appear before the double infinitive, and even before an adverb, if there is
one. The auxiliary verb is bolded in these examples:
Present perfect:
Die Studentin beklagte, daß sie diese ganze Woche hat fleißig lernen müssen.
The (woman) student complained that she has had to study hard this entire
week.
Past perfect:
Die Fabrik funktionierte weiter, da der Ingenieur die Maschine am Sonntag
hatte reparieren können.
The factory continued to function because the engineer had been able to repair
the machine on Sunday.
Future Tense
To form the future tense of the modal we use werden and its forms as we do for all
future tenses. Thus, using our sentences from the present tense, we have in the
future tense:
Der Student wird fleißig lernen müssen.
The student will have to study hard.
Mein Sohn wird ins Kino gehen wollen.
My son will want to go to the cinema.
Again the dependent infinitives go into final position. The difference between the
structure of the future and perfect tenses is that the future uses werden and its
forms, the perfect tenses haben and its forms.