Future continuous and future perfect
Look ahead to a point in the future: at ten tomorrow I'll be sitting in a meeting, by Friday I'll have finished.
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Both forms place us at a point in the future and describe the situation from there. The future continuous (will be doing) says what will be in progress at that point. The future perfect (will have done) says what will already be complete by then.
Future continuous | Future perfect | |
|---|---|---|
Form | will be + -ing | will have + past participle |
At that moment | the action is in progress | the action is already complete |
Typical words | this time tomorrow, at ten, all day | by Friday, by then, by the time, in two years' time |
Form
Will is the same for every person, so neither form changes with the subject. Negatives use won't, and in questions will comes before the subject.
Future continuous | Future perfect | |
|---|---|---|
+ | She'll be working. | She'll have finished. |
− | She won't be working. | She won't have finished. |
? | Will she be working? | Will she have finished? |
Short answers | Yes, she will. No, she won't. | Yes, she will. No, she won't. |
- Incorrect: At nine I will be sit in a meeting.
- Correct: At nine I will be sitting in a meeting.
- Incorrect: By Friday we will have wrote the report.
- Correct: By Friday we will have written the report.After will have, use the past participle.
Future continuous: in progress at a future time
Use it for an action that will be in the middle of happening at a particular future moment. It will start before that moment and continue after it.
- At this time on Saturday we'll be driving through France.
- I can't take calls on Thursday morning. I'll be training the new staff.
- At midnight she'll still be driving.
- Incorrect: This time tomorrow I will fly to Madrid.
- Correct: This time tomorrow I'll be flying to Madrid.At that moment the flight is in progress, so the verb needs be + -ing.
Compare will + verb, which gives the whole event or a decision.
- When you arrive, we'll be having dinner.
(Dinner will already be in progress.)
- When you arrive, we'll have dinner.
(You arrive first. Then we eat.)
Future continuous: part of the normal course of events
We also use it for something that will happen anyway, as part of a routine or of plans that are already in place. There is no idea of a new decision.
- I'll be driving past Hannah's office tomorrow, so I can drop the keys off.
- The band will be playing in Leeds next month.
In questions it is a polite way to ask about someone's plans, because it doesn't sound like a request.
- Will you be going past the post office this afternoon?
(I only want to know your plans. Perhaps I have a letter to post.)
- Will you be working from home tomorrow?
Future perfect: complete before a future time
Use it to say that something will be finished at some point before a future moment. The exact time of the action is not important; the deadline is.
- I'll have finished the report by Friday.
- By the end of the year the company will have opened ten new shops.
- Call me at eight. I won't have left by then.
- Will you have read the contract before the meeting?
Like other continuous forms, the future continuous is not normally used with state verbs (know, be, have meaning "own"). To say how long a state will have lasted at a future point, use the future perfect with for.
- Next month we will have known each other for twenty years.
- Incorrect: By next June we will live here for ten years.
- Correct: By next June we will have lived here for ten years.For ten years measures a period up to a future point. That needs will have + past participle.
By and by the time
By + a time means "not later than". After by the time, the verb is in the present simple, not will, as after when and before.
- By six o'clock everyone will have gone home.
- By the time you get this message, I'll have landed.
- Incorrect: By the time you will arrive, we will have eaten.
- Correct: By the time you arrive, we will have eaten.
- Incorrect: By the time you get here, I will leave.
- Correct: By the time you get here, I will have left.The leaving happens before you get here, so it is complete at that moment.
Will + infinitive with by is also correct when you promise or predict a result: I'll finish it by Monday. The future perfect, I'll have finished it by Monday, looks at Monday and says the work is already done at that point.
Future perfect continuous
Will have been + -ing says how long an activity will have been in progress at a future point. It is the least common of these forms and nearly always comes with for.
- In March I'll have been working here for ten years.
- By the time the train arrives, we'll have been waiting for two hours.