The Future Perfect Continuous is normally used to predict the length of an activity — as if looking back at such activity from some finished time in the future.
The Future Perfect Continuous refers to ongoing events or actions that will continue up to some point in the future. It is most often used with a time expression.
Here’s an illustration of what the Future Perfect Continuous (Progressive) expresses.
The Future Perfect Continuous tense is a combination of two English verb tenses: the Future Continuous (continuity of an action) and the Future Perfect (completion or result by a certain point in time).
Pattern 1: An ongoing future event in Future Perfect Continuous form may start in future and then only last for a set amount of time:
The set amount of time in this sentence is ‘half a year.’ The action that has not yet occurred is working for the company. For example, the speaker may start working for that company in January and at the time this sentence is spoken, it has not yet occurred.
Pattern 2: Sometimes the event can actually have begun in the past, as in the case with our following example:
In this example you have already started studying, but the act of studying for six months has not yet been completed. Once the exam is taken, this action will have been completed.
Pattern 3: The Future Perfect Continuous is also used to show cause. This means that something in the future has not yet occurred but is likely to be the cause of another action that will also occur in the future.
To make the Future Perfect Continuous, use:
will have been + ‘-ing’ form of the verb (Present Participle)
Singular | Plural |
I will (’ll) have been doing You’ll have been doing He/she/it’ll have been doing | We’ll have been doing You’ll have been doing They’ll have been doing |
To make a negative form of Future Perfect Continuous, just insert ‘not‘ between ‘will’ and ‘have’ (you can also use ‘won’t’).
To ask a question in Future Perfect Continuous, just swap ‘will’ and the subject of the sentence:
will + [subject] + have being + -ing verb
Here’s a video from Mad English TV with a good explanation of Future Perfect Continuous tense:
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