Dutch future perfect and conditional perfect: zal hebben gedaan (will have done) and zou hebben gedaan (would have done)

Om acht uur zal ik het rapport hebben afgemaakt. (By eight, I will have finished the report.) The future perfect presents a result as complete by a future time. Als ik het geweten zou hebben, zou ik je hebben gebeld. (If I had known, I would have called you.) The conditional perfect can appear in the unreal-past condition, the result, or both. Compare these completed forms with the simple future and simple conditional.

Combine zal/zullen or zou/zouden with hebben or zijn and the completed form of the main verb.

Hebben or zijn is the perfect auxiliary, the helper verb that forms a completed tense. The past participle is the completed verb form, such as gewerkt or vertrokken.

1. Select the tense. Use zal/zullen for the future perfect and zou/zouden for the conditional perfect.
2. Match the subject. Use zal with ik/hij/zij, zal or zult with jij/je, and zullen with a plural subject. Use zou with a singular subject and zouden with a plural subject.
3. Reuse the ordinary-perfect auxiliary. Follow the same hebben or zijn choice: ik heb gewerkt becomes ik zal hebben gewerkt, while hij is vertrokken becomes hij zou zijn vertrokken.
4. Add the main verb's past participle, such as gewerkt, afgemaakt, vertrokken, or begonnen.

Om acht uur zal ik mijn werk hebben afgemaakt. (By eight, I will have finished my work.) The finite verb is the form that matches the subject, such as zal or zullen. In a main clause, the time phrase om acht uur takes the first position, so finite zal comes next. The subject ik follows it.

A verb cluster is the group of verbs at the end of these sentences. Here it contains the perfect auxiliary and the past participle. The cluster can use hebben afgemaakt or afgemaakt hebben: Om acht uur zal ik mijn werk afgemaakt hebben. (By eight, I will have finished my work.) Both orders occur in Standard Dutch. Speakers and regions differ in which order they prefer.

A subordinate clause keeps all three verb forms at the end. You can say als ik het zou hebben geweten or als ik het geweten zou hebben (if I had known). These examples also show that Dutch can use zou inside an als (if) clause.

Tegen vrijdag zal ik alles hebben geregeld. (By Friday, I will have arranged everything.) Use the future perfect when an action is complete before a named or understood future point.

• A future result: Voordat je thuis bent, zal de film zijn begonnen. (Before you get home, the film will have started.)
• A probable conclusion: Hij zal het wel vergeten zijn. (He has probably forgotten it.) Here wel (probably) points to a conclusion about a completed event, not to future time.

Dutch often uses the present perfect when a time phrase already makes the future meaning clear: Tegen vrijdag heb ik alles geregeld. (By Friday, I will have arranged everything.) The version with zal is less common.

Zonder de file zou ze op tijd zijn aangekomen. (Without the traffic jam, she would have arrived on time.) The conditional perfect gives the unreal result. It can also give the unreal condition: als ik het geweten zou hebben (if I had known).

The pluperfect uses past had/hadden or was/waren plus a past participle, as in had geweten and was vertrokken. It presents an action as complete before another past point. In unreal-past sentences, Dutch can combine it with the conditional perfect in these three patterns.

The first pattern gives a clear learner model. Dutch also often uses the third pattern, with the pluperfect in both clauses.

Ik zou werken (I would work) uses the simple conditional. Ik zou hebben gewerkt (I would have worked) adds the perfect auxiliary and past participle for a completed result. Keep the ordinary-perfect auxiliary too. Dutch says de trein is vertrokken and de film is begonnen, so these forms use zijn: zal zijn vertrokken and zou zijn begonnen.