The future continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the future. The action will start before that moment but it will not have finished at that moment. For example, tomorrow I will start work at 2pm and stop work at 6pm:
At 4pm tomorrow, I will be working.
past
present
Future
4pm
At 4pm, I will be in the middle of working.
When we use the future continuous tense, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about. Look at these examples:
I will be playing tennis at 10am tomorrow.
They won't be watching TV at 9pm tonight.
What will you be doing at 10pm tonight?
What will you be doing when I arrive?
She will not be sleeping when you telephone her.
We'll be having dinner when the film starts.
Take your umbrella. It will be raining when you return.
Future Perfect Tense
The future perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and use. The future perfect tense talks about the past in the future.
How do we make the Future Perfect Tense?
The structure of the future perfect tense is:
subject
+
auxiliary verb WILL
+
auxiliary verb HAVE
+
main verb
invariable
invariable
past participle
will
have
V3
Look at these example sentences in the future perfect tense:
subject
auxiliary verb
auxiliary verb
main verb
+
I
will
have
finished
by 10am.
+
You
will
have
forgotten
me by then.
-
She
will
not
have
gone
to school.
-
We
will
not
have
left.
?
Will
you
have
arrived?
?
Will
they
have
received
it?
In speaking with the future perfect tense, we often contract the subject and will. Sometimes, we contract the subject, will and have all together:
I will have
I'll have
I'll've
you will have
you'll have
you'll've
he will have she will have it will have
he'll have she'll have it'll have
he'll've she'll've it'll've
we will have
we'll have
we'll've
they will have
they'll have
they'll've
We sometimes use shall instead of will, especially for I and we.
How do we use the Future Perfect Tense?
The future perfect tense expresses action in the future before another action in the future. This is the past in the future. For example:
The train will leave the station at 9am. You will arrive at the station at 9.15am. When you arrive, the train will have left.
The train will have left when you arrive.
past
present
future
Train leaves in future at 9am.
9.15
You arrive in future at 9.15am.
Look at some more examples:
You can call me at work at 8am. I will have arrived at the office by 8.
They will be tired when they arrive. They will not have slept for a long time.
"Mary won't be at home when you arrive." "Really? Where will she have gone?"
You can sometimes think of the future perfect tense like the present perfect tense, but instead of your viewpoint being in the present, it is in the future: