THE FUTURE PERFECT

Form

will + have + past participle

 

Affirmative Yes/no questions Negative

 

I will have worked here

for 2 years.

Will you have worked..?

Yes, I will. /No, I won't.

She will not have worked...

 

Usage

The future perfect tense is used to say that something will have been done,

completed or achieved by a certain time in the future.

 

The builder says he’ll have finished the roof by Monday.

The car will soon have done 100,000 miles.

 

The perfect structures are all relative. In the case of the future perfect, we look back on the past (a completed action) from a future standpoint. That is "past in the future".

A sentence with the future perfect generally uses an adverbial expression that signals when a future event will be completed.

 

By the end of the summer I will have completed this course.

At the end of the year I will have mastered this computer!

You will have reviewed the material before you sit the exam, I presume?

When they arrive I will have finished cooking dinner.

 

Typical student errors/mistakes

Form: I will have been finished by tomorrow.

I will be finish by tomorrow.

Function:

The future perfect can often be confused with future perfect continuous - the distinction between completion of action by a certain time in the future and how long something will have continued for by a certain time (future continuous) needs to be made.