LoginFuture Perfect Continuous
This detailed lesson explores the Future Perfect Continuous Tense in English, featuring comprehensive examples and a quiz to test your knowledge.
What Is Future Perfect Continuous Tense?
The future perfect continuous refers to ongoing actions that will be finished at some time in the future. It focuses on how long something will have been happening by a future point.
Future Perfect Continuous vs. Future Perfect
Both these tenses describe actions in relation to a future point in time, but they focus on different aspects of those actions. While the future perfect tense focuses on completion and the result of an action, the future perfect continuous emphasizes the duration and the ongoing nature of the action before a point of time in the future. Compare the examples:
By 2030, scientists will have discovered a cure.
This is an example of future perfect tense. The action is already completed.
By 2030, scientists will have been researching a cure for 20 years.
This is an example of future perfect continuous tense. The focus is on the duration of an ongoing action.
Future Perfect Continuous: Structure
The future perfect continuous is composed of the modal verb 'will,' the auxiliary verb 'have,' the past participle of the auxiliary verb 'be' (which is 'been'), and the present participle of the main verb. Look at the table below:
Modal | First Auxiliary | Second Auxiliary | Main Verb | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
All subjects | will | have | been | verb + -ing |
When we use the future perfect continuous tense in speaking, we often contract the modal verb 'will.' Check out the examples below:
He will have been studying for three hours. → He'll have been studying for three hours.
In three years, he will have been teaching for thirty years. → In three years, he'll have been teaching for thirty years.
Future Perfect Continuous: Negation
To form negative sentences, add 'not' between the modal verb 'will' and the auxiliary verb 'have.' For example:
In three years, he will have been teaching for thirty years. → In three years, he will not have been teaching for thirty years.
Here, you can see the process of negation in action.
In negative sentences, we can contract the auxiliary verb 'will' and 'not' into 'wont.' See the examples:
In three years, he will not have been teaching for thirty years. → In three years, he won't have been teaching for thirty years.
Future Perfect Continuous: Questions
To form yes/no questions, simply put 'will' before the subject. Look at these example sentences with the future perfect continuous tense:
In three years, he will have been teaching for thirty years. → In three years, will he have been teaching for thirty years?
To form wh- questions, add the proper wh-word at the beginning of the sentence and the invert the subject and 'will.' Check out the examples:
She will have been studying at NYY. → Where will she have been studying?
Future Perfect Continuous: Uses
The future perfect continuous tense is used to talk about:
Duration Before a Future Moment
Cause of a Future Result
Temporary States Leading to a Future Event
Duration Before a Future Moment
We use the 'future perfect continuous tense' to talk about an ongoing action that continues until a specific point in the future. This structure emphasizes the duration of the action. The preposition 'for is commonly used with a length of time to specify the duration. For example:
In three years, he will have been teaching for thirty years.
Here, we are talking about an ongoing action that continue up to the future.
I will have been waiting for the bus for two hours by 9:00.
When I come at nine o'clock, will you have been studying long?
Cause of a Future Result
The future perfect continuous tense can also express why something will happen in the future by showing an ongoing action that leads to a specific consequence. In this case, the result is expressed using the future simple or present simple tense and the cause is specified using future perfect continuous. For example:
She will have been standing all day, so her feet will be swollen.
Here, we are referring to an ongoing future action in the future that leads to a certain result.
They will have been working all day and feel tired for the birthday party.
Temporary States Leading to a Future Event
Normally, stative verbs are not used in the continuous tenses. However, some stative verbs like 'stay, 'live,' 'feel,' 'enjoy,' and 'have' (in the sense of experiencing) can be used in the progressive tenses to show a temporary state. Look at the examples below.
She will have been staying at her friend's place for a month by the time her apartment is ready.
By next month, she will have been having headaches daily for a year.
Review
The future perfect continuous is used to talk about duration of actions that will continue until a specific time in the future. The table below summarizes the structure of future perfect continuous in affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences.
structure | subject + will + have + been + v + -ing |
|---|---|
affirmative | Sam will have been studying on Monday. |
negative | Sam will not have been studying on Monday. |
contraction | Sam won't have been studying on Monday. |
yes/no question | Will Sam have been studying on Monday? |
-wh question | Who will have been studying on Monday? |
Quiz:
What does the future perfect continuous tense emphasize?
Completion of an action in near future
The duration of an ongoing action before a future point
The future result of an action completed in the past
A temporary state in the past
Which of the following sentences uses the future perfect continuous correctly?
He will have been working all day by the time we arrive.
He will have been worked all day by the time we arrive.
He will has been working all day by the time we arrive.
He will have worked all day by the time we arrive.
Sort the words to make a wh-question using the future perfect continuous tense.
Fill the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in parentheses.
By next summer, I
(work) at this company for 5 years.
By March, the construction team
(not/build) the bridge for even a year yet.
How long
(she/studying) engineering by the time she graduates?
(you/wait) for long by the time I arrive?
Match the sentences to their correct uses of Future Perfect Continuous.
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