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Future Perfect
Unlock the secrets of the Future Perfect tense in English grammar with our comprehensive guide! Learn how to express completed actions or events that will occur before a specified point in the future. Master the nuances and enhance your language skills with practical examples and insights. Watch now and take your English proficiency to new heights!
Grammar
Future Perfect
Practice how to use Future Perfect.
Transcript
Title: FuturePerfect Made Easy
Introduction:
- Host: Hello and welcome to the English Magnet. Today’s video: The Future Perfect Made Easy! A verb tense sometimes overlooked by learners, but actually so useful! The future perfect is your go to form for predicting, anticipating and referring to deadlines; a great tense for business purposes! By the end of this video, you’ll have learned all you need to know about the future perfect. We’ll cover its structure, when to use it, the related key time words, and common mistakes to keep away from . Ok, let’s get to work!
Part 1: Structure of the Future Perfect (display the chart, examples can appear as they are mentioned)
Ok, the future perfect consists of three words; two auxiliaries (will and have) and a past participle. Regardless of the subject, the first two words are always will and have, easy to remember! So it’s totally ok to see he/she/it + will + have, no ‘has’ in the future perfect, never ever! That means verbs have a single form for all subjects. The only tricky bit is the last word; the 3rd form of verbs. If you’re dealing with a regular verb, it’s the -ed form, except, to show, it becomes shown. Then, the irregular ones are, how to put it nicely, let’s say an interesting piece of trivia. Look, you’ll need to do a bit of memorizing, but the rest is smooth sailing, I promise 🙂 Ok, so forming the future perfect goes like this: subject + will have + past participle (3rd form of verbs).
Example:
She will have reviewed
We will have dealt
They will have given
Contractions are common for subject and will, so you get:
She’ll have reviewed
We’ll have dealt
They’ll have given
Squeeze ‘not’ between the two auxiliaries to form the negative or merge will and not to form won’t which is very commonly used in spoken English. So, we get:
She will not have reviewed / She won’t have reviewed
We will not have dealt / We won’t have dealt
They will not have given / They won’t have given
What to do with questions? Flip the subject and will! Don’t forget the question mark… so many people forget it and native speakers are as guilty as non native speakers, maybe more actually. 🙂 For a negative question flip the subject and won’t or just include not after the inversion.
You end up with:
Will she have reviewed? / Won’t she have reviewed? / Will she not have reviewed?
Will we have dealt? / Won’t we have dealt? / Will we not have dealt?
Will they have given? / Won’t they have given? / Will they not have given?
Part 2: Usage
Now that we know how to form the future perfect, let’s focus on when we should use it. It might sound nonsensical, but this tense represents the past of the future, just hear me out! The future perfect describes an action or event taking place in the future but before another action or event. So it’s used for an action taking place in the future and we expect it to be done before a point in the future or before another action. Think of a race about to take place; when the winner crosses the finish line, that happens before the last runner crossing the finish line, makes sense, right? Well, the winner crossing the line is like the future perfect since it will end before another action or event, in this case the last runner (or any other runner for that matter) crossing the line afterwards.
Let’s look at concrete examples:
1) It can be used to talk about a finished action in the future before a specific moment. A future action ends before a point in time.
Example: By next Friday, Steve will have moved into his new apartment. This shows that the future action of moving will be completed before next Friday.
We won’t have read the full report by 5 pm. Not fully reading the report is happening before the 5 pm deadline.
2) It can be used to talk about a finished action in the future before another action in the future. Here, two actions happen in the future, one ends before the second takes place.
Example: By the time he wakes up, she will have left. Her leaving will happen before his waking up, the exact time of her leaving isn’t clear, but it definitely will happen before his waking up. (by the time + present simple expresses a future action).
Come home after 3 pm, I’ll have ended my conference call by then. This shows that the future action of ending the conference call will be completed before the action of coming home.
3) It can be used to talk about a conviction or strong belief. The future perfect fits very well for statements expressing a conviction about the future which uses a time marker, a sort of prediction.
Example: I know our son will have spent all his allowance money by tonight. The speaker is pretty sure his or her son is reckless with money, the spending will take place in the future but will be done before tonight.
I’m confident we’ll have made significant progress on this unresolved case by tomorrow. The speaker strongly believes they will make progress in the future between now and tomorrow, lots of work ahead!
Part 3: Key time words
Good news, the future perfect NEEDS a time marker of some sort and these time words are simply indicating that the action is taking place in the future. Without mentioning a certain moment in time the future perfect loses its use, you normally don’t find it ‘alone and naked in the wild’, meaning it will have a time word with it in a sentence.
1) By + future time word (tonight, tomorrow, next week/month/year, future moment…)
By is the most common time word found with the future perfect. Careful, this preposition has many different meanings; here we are focusing on its use with the future perfect. Consequently, ‘by’ together with a future time word mark a specific future moment showing the limit before which an action will have taken place.
Example: By 2050, we will have invented the flying car. Besides being overly optimistic and equally silly, we understand that the speaker predicts that the flying car will be a thing and it can happen anytime between now and 2050.
Will you have handed in the report by tomorrow? The question is about whether the report can be handed in between now and tomorrow. It hints at tomorrow being a deadline of some sort.
2) By the time + action in the present simple
‘by the time’ and an action in the present simple can actually mark an event in the future before which another action will have happened. It’s similar to using ‘by’ the difference being that a future action acts as our benchmark for a future moment.
Example: By the time the pizza delivery guy rings the doorbell, we will have built our cozy fort in the living room. The ringing of the bell acts as a future time limit to the previous future action of building a fort.
The popcorn will have disappeared by the time the movie ends. The ending of the movie acts as our future limit for the popcorn to disappear.
3) When & Before + action in the present simple
These words can act as synonyms to ‘by the time’. Let’s revisit the previous examples:
When the pizza delivery guy rings the doorbell, we will have built our cozy fort in the living room.
The popcorn will have disappeared before the movie ends.
Different time words, but the meaning is preserved!
Refrain from using ‘when’ + future time word, but go ahead with ‘before’
Before 2050, we will have invented the flying car.
Part 4: Common Mistakes
1) The future perfect on its own:
It might be tantalizing to use the future perfect in a simple ‘subject + verb + object’ sentence, but without a time reference the proper tense is most likely the future simple. Add ‘by’ and a time word and you’re golden!
Example: She will have arrived. = She will arrive. or She will have arrived by… the end of the afternoon / tomorrow / next week / the time the weather clears.
With by + a future time word it gives us a specific point in the future before which she will arrive, all good.
2) Wrong auxiliaries
This one is a common pitfall; the future perfect only uses the combination ‘will have’ but other forms exist or might feel like correct.
‘Would have + past participle’ exists, however it’s an unreal past result. Future time words wouldn’t make much sense here since it refers to an unreal past scenario. (link to 2nd and 3rd conditional video)
Example: The mechanic would have repaired your car by next week = The mechanic will have repaired your car by next week.
You could also simply form a 3rd conditional by adding a condition and removing the time word.
The mechanic would have repaired your car, if you had brought it in on Friday. That’s correct grammar, but not the future perfect.
‘he/she/it will has’ is never correct. It can be very tempting especially when forming a question ’will he/she/it has’. But you have to remember that modal verbs such as ‘will’ are only followed by a base form verb, so ‘has’ won’t work even in a question form.
Example: Will he has delivered the goods by October? = Will he have delivered the goods by October? In a vacuum ‘he has’ sounds right, but when using the future perfect limit yourselves to ‘will have’ and you’ll be spot on.
3) Past simple instead of past participle
The real difficulty with the future perfect is the last word, the 3rd form of verbs. Sometimes learners will mix up the second form (past simple) and the 3rd form (past participle). If you’re dealing with a regular verb (-ed ending), you can’t be wrong since 2nd and 3rd forms are the same (except -show/showed/shown). But irregular verbs have to be memorized or you’re going to have a bad time. 😉
Example: By the year 2100, humans will have went to Mars and beyond. = By the year 2100, humans will have gone to Mars and beyond. The message is understood but it doesn’t sound right, (go/went/gone), these have to be known by heart, no magic trick, just hard work! But eh, you got this! (encouraging emoji)
Wrap up
- Host: That’s it, the future perfect, the first action happening in the future! Hopefully, the future perfect will have sunk in by the end of this video. If you’re in the mood, be sure to watch more of our videos! Also, a link to some free material to practice by yourselves can be found in the description below. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it. Thank you for watching. Until next time!