TENSE: FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

TENSE: FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

Future Perfect

The Future Perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and use. The Future Perfect talks about the past in the future.

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

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?

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

Contraction with Future Perfect

In speaking with the Future Perfect tense, we often contract the subject and will. Sometimes, we may 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

I'll have finished when you arrive.

She'll have forgotten everything.

They'll've had their dinner by then.

In negative sentences, we may contract with won't or won't've, like this:

Anthony won't have arrived by then.

They won't've finished the car tomorrow.

We sometimes use shall instead of will, especially for I and we.

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

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   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:

have done →	will have done →	will have done →
past	present	future

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

Future Perfect Quiz

You can do this grammar quiz. It tests what you learned on the Future Perfect page.

1. I ________ by then.

 will be leave

 will have left

 will leaving

2. Will you ________ by 8am?

 have arrived

 be arrive

 have arriving

3. You ________ the bill by the time the item arrives.

 'll have received

 will receiving

 've received

4. Melissa and Mike will be exhausted. They ________ slept for 24 hours.

 will not

 will not have

 will not be

5. He will have ________ all about it by Monday.

 forgetting

 forgotten

 be forgetting

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE

6. Will you ________ the contracts by Thursday?

 have mailed

 mailing

 to have mailed

7. The boss ________ by the time the orders come in.

 will leave

 will be left

 will have left

8. Where ________ gone?

 will she have

 is she has

 she have

9. September works for us. Lisa will not ________ by then.

 graduating

 have graduated

 be graduate

10. I will let you in. I ________ with the keys by the time you come in.

 will have arrived

 will be arrival

 will be arrived