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. |
|
|
| |
|
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:
| present perfect
tense |
|
future perfect
tense |
| |
|
have |
done |
> | |
|
|
|
|
will |
have |
done |
> | |
|
|
|
| past |
now |
future |
|
past |
now |
future |
|
