Unit 3.1
Future Perfect
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Introduction
Future is the tense used to talk about future events.
The future perfect tense is used to talk about a completed action in the future.
Form
Future perfect has these three forms: affirmative, negative and interrogative.
Affirmative
Its structure, in the affirmative form, is:
Subject + will + have + past participle + …
| SUBJECT | FUTURE SIMPLE | AUXILIARY VERB | PAST PARTICIPLE |
|---|---|---|---|
| I/You/He/She/It/We/You/They | will | have | walked |
Negative
Its full structure, in the negative form, is:
Subject + will + not + have + past participle + …
The negative short form is won’t have:
Subject + won’t + have + past participle + …
| SUBJECT | FUTURE SIMPLE + NOT | AUXILIARY VERB | PAST PARTICIPLE |
|---|---|---|---|
| I/You/He/She/It/We/You/They | will not/won’t | have | walked |
Interrogative
Its structure, in the interrogative form, is:
Will + subject + have + past participle + …?
| FUTURE SIMPLE | SUBJECT | AUXILIARY VERB | PAST PARTICIPLE | QUESTION MARK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will | I/You/He/She/It/We/You/They | have | walked | …? |
Example
- By the end of this year, I will have been in army for 2 years.
- James will have distributed the money equally by the end of the month.
- By the end of the week we will have notified the customers about our decisions.
- I think that James won’t have distributed the money equally by the end of the month.
- Will James have distributed the money equally by the end of the month?
Use
We use future perfect to:
- predict what has probably happened;
- talk about an action that will be completed before a certain time in the future.
NOTE: We usually use the word by in this tense to convey the meaning of not later than.
Summary
Future perfect is used to predict what has probably happened and to talk about an action that will be completed before a certain time in future.
We can use it in its different forms:
- affirmative: we start with the subject followed by will have and the past participle.
- negative: we start with the subject followed by will have not and the past participle.
- interrogative: we start with will followed by the subject followed by have and the past participle (the sentence ends with a question mark).
NOTE: We usually use the word by in this tense, to convey the meaning of not later than.
For example:
— Affirmative: “I will have worked 50 hours by the end of the week.“
— Negative: “I will have not worked 50 hours by the end of the week.”
— Interrogative: “Will I have worked50 hours by the end of the week?”
We use the future perfect because we are talking about an action that will (or will not) be completed before a certain time in the future.
♦ “I will work next week.” = We use the future simple because we express a future intention.
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.
Exercises
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