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What Is The Future Perfect

Updated: Apr 2

If you've ever felt confused about using the future perfect tense, don't worry! In today's blog post, we'll dive into the details of this tense, including how to form it, when to use it, and even some practice exercises.

Let's go!


Use:

The future perfect tense is used to describe actions that will be completed before a specific time or another action in the future. It highlights the fact that the action will be finished by a certain time and often conveys a sense of accomplishment.


Form:

To form the future perfect tense, we use the following structure:

Subject + will + have + past participle verb.

  1. I will have finished wasing the dishes before you get home.

  2. I will have already graduated by the time I go on vacation in august.

We can also add the word “already” to our future perfect sentenses, it's optional.




First, in cases where we're talking about two actions, the one that will be finished first gets the future perfect tense. For instance:


She will have already cooked dinner before her friends arrive.

  • “Will have cooked dinner” is the action that has the tense, so it will be the action that happens first.

My dad will have painted the bedroom when I arrive.


Before 6 O’ clock, I will have finished studying.

  • We can also reverse the order of the sentence, the words don't change no matter what the order is.


Read these sentences and guess which action happens before the other:


  1. My car will have run out of gas before I get to the gas station.

  2. At the end of the month, I will have finished my book.

  3. By 6 O’clock, Dave will have finished working.

  4. I will have already gone to sleep by the time you get home.

  5. By the time you get home, we will have finished eating dinner.


Sentence #1: The car running out of gas will happen first

Sentence #2 Finishing the book will happen first.

Sentence #3 Finishing work will happen first.

Sentence #4 The person speaking going to sleep will happen first.

Sentence #5 Finishing dinner will happen first.




The key words - in grammar, these keywords that come before the time we are referencing are called ‘time markers.’

The 5 common time markers are:

  • Before

  • At

  • When

  • By the time

  • Within

We must always have a time marker and then a specifc time or another action.

  • I will have finished this book within 2 weeks.

  • By the time you get home, I will ahve made dinner.




How to practice the future perfect:


When you are learning some new grammar, you need to make sure you keep that information locked in your brain. To do this, the last thing you want to do is try and actually remember the grammar, you absolutely do not want tor need grammar rules floating around in your head while you are trying to communicate in real life.


So what can you do to remember the grammar without memorizing rules?


You need guided activities. Let me give you one great activity that is also something millionaires do every night before bed.


Try to imagine your dream life in 2 years. Imagine the things you will have finished by that time. Look my example:

“By 2025, I will have finished my university degree.

By 2025, I will have bought a house in the philippines.

By 2025, I will have lived here for 6 years and can apply for PR.

By 2025, I will have opened my cookie store.”


Try choosing a time, either three months from now (within three months, I will have…..) or 2 years, 2025, or some other amount of time and write some things that you think you will have achieved by then. This is also really beneficial for your life in many other ways, because imagining your achievements makes it more likely to really happen.


But that is not all, then take what you wrote and reverse the order of the sentences. Like this:

“I will have finished my university degree by 2025.

I will have bought a house in the Philippines by 2025.

I will have lived here for 6 years and can apply for PR by 2025.

I will have opened my cookie store by 2025.”


*NOTICE that if the time marking phrase comes first (by 2025), we have a comma after it, and if this phrase comes at the end, then there is no comma needed.



REMEMBER: sometimes it can be confusing which action came first, remember that the event or action that “has the tense '' (will have _____) happens before the other time or action given.


I hope this article really clears things up for you. If you have any questions, just ask me in the comments. Happy learning! 😀


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