Future Continuous / Future Perfect / Future Perfect Continuous

Let’s learn the use of three Future Tenses. There is often very little difference between the future tenses. It often depends where you live (in Britain or the USA) and when you use the sentence (in spoken or written communication).

The Future Continuous Tense = will be + Ving

The Future Continuous is used to express an action going on at a definite moment or during a definite period of time in the future.

In present-day English the Future Continuous is often used in the same meaning as the Future Simple that is to express a future action.

Turn the following into the Future Continuous.

  1. They were having dinner at three.
  2. I am doing my morning exercises.
  3. The children will ski in the afternoon.
  4. The girl was reciting a poem.
  5. I will wait for you at the metro station.
  6. The boys will play hockey.
  7. The students will discuss it on Friday.

Answer the following questions.

  1. What will you be doing at four o’clock tomorrow?
  2. What will you be doing at this time tomorrow?
  3. What will you be doing at this time on Sunday?
  4. What will your mother be doing at this time on Sunday?
  5. Will you be learning German next year?

Put the verb in brackets into the Future Simple or the Future Continuous.

  1. “I ______________(come) at six o’clock.” “Good, I ______________ (wait) for you.”
  2. “I can’t understand this article.” “I ______________ (call) my son. He ______________ (translate) it for you.”
  3. This time next month I _______________ (sit) on a beach.
  4. You look frozen. Sit down by the fire and I ______________ (make) you a cup of  tea.
  5. That tree makes the house very dark. – Very well, I _______________ (cut) it down.
  6. What you __________________(do) when you grow up? – I ____________ (be) a pilot.
  7. What you ________________(do) at this time tomorrow? – I _______________ (play) football.
  8. My son ____________ (be) in the fifth form next year. That means that he _______________ (start) learning German.
  9. Don’t ring her up at 9, she _______________ (put) her children to bed. Ring up later.
  10. My brother ____________ (prepare) for his exam when I return.

The Future Perfect Tense = will have + V3

The Future Perfect is used to express an action completed before a definite future moment or before the beginning of another future action.

Turn the following into the Future Perfect.

  1. I had done my homework by 9 o’clock.
  2. They had built the new school by the first of September.
  3. The teacher had looked through our exercises-books by that time.
  4. We had discussed the report by four o’clock in the afternoon.
  5. The pupils had read three English books by the end of the year.
  6. I had written the composition by 2 o’clock.

Replace the infinitives in brackets by the Future Simple or the Future Perfect.

  1. He ______________ (to receive) the telegram tomorrow.
  2. He ______________ (to receive) the telegram by tomorrow.
  3. I ______________ (to do) the exercises by seven o’clock.
  4. I ______________ (to do) the exercise in the afternoon.
  5. By this time you ______________(to take) your examination.
  6. You ______________ (to take) your examination next week.
  7. The teacher ______________ (to correct) our dictations in the evening.
  8. The teacher ____________ (to correct) our dictations by the next lesson.

Complete the sentences with the verbs given below. Use Future Perfect.

translate, come, finish, see, cook, save, leave, lose, do, be married
  1. I __________________ reading this book by tomorrow evening.
  2. By next winter we _______________ the necessary sum of money.
  3. I ______________ the article an hour before you come.
  4. On March 7 they ______________ for twenty-five years.
  5. If I continue keeping to a diet I ______________ 10 kilos by the end of the month.
  6. The train _________________ before we reach the station.
  7. I hope you ________________ home from school by 2 o’clock.
  8. The mother _______________ dinner by the time you come.
  9. The pupils have too many exercises. They _______________ them by the time the teacher returns.
  10. Come to my place at 8 p.m. I _____________ this film by this time.

The Future Perfect Continuous Tense = will have been + Ving

The Future Perfect Continuous is used to express an action which will begin before another future action and will go on at the moment of it beginning. The Future Perfect Continuous is used very seldom.

I will begin to work at ten o’clock in the morning. When you return home at 5 o’clock, I will have been working for several hours.

By the 1st of June he will have been working at the plant for twenty years.

I will have been writing the letter for an hour when you come.

Make up your own sentences using Future Perfect Continuous

Use Future Tenses in the sentences of your own.