How to use the Future Perfect in English?

How to use the Future Perfect in English? (I will have played)


Feel free to leave a comment if you find any errors or if you have any suggestions to make to improve this lesson.




The Future Perfect (or simple Future Perfect) is usually used to talk about actions that will be completed before a given time, event or other future action.

  • He will have finished school before 5pm. 
  • The party will already have finished by the time we get there. 
  • Tomorrow morning she will have left. 

1/ Construction

Subject + WILL HAVE + Verb (past participle)

Affirmative Negative Question
 I / you / he / she / it / we / you / they I will have played I will not (= I won’t) have played Will I have played?
  • (+) He will have finished work by 5pm.
  • (-) He will not have (= won’t have) finished work by 5pm.
  • (?) Will he have finished work by 5pm?

2/ Use

We use the future perfect to express:

* An action carried out before a future event or action

Something will happen before another action in the future, or before a specific time in the future (tomorrow, next month, before something, by 2pm…)

You will notice that the simple present is used for the reference points:

  • He will have cleaned up the house before they move in.
  • She will have written the letter before tonight.
  • I will have finished the job before the deadline.
  • How many countries will you have visited by the time you turn 30?
  • By the time he gets home, she will have cleaned the entire room.
  • She will have finished this test by noon.
  • Phil will have drunk ten beers by the time the party starts.
  • Will she have learned enough japanese before she moves to Osaka?

* The duration of certain actions before a future date or event

  • will have known Sarah for ten years in October.
  • Patrick will have lived in Sydney for 10 years by 2014.
  • will have been in London for six months by the time I leave.
  • By Monday, Karl will have had my Ipod for a month.
  • We will have been married for one year next month.

* The conviction that something has just happened

  • There’s no point in going to the party. Everybody will have left by now. (= I’m sure everybody has left the party)
  • The bus will have left by now. (= I’m sure the bus has left)
  • My parents will have arrived in Bangkok by now. (I’m sure my parents have arrived in Bangkok)

3/ Notes

👉 We can use ‘going to’ instead of ‘will’ (same meaning)

  • The bus will have left by now. = The bus is going to have left by now.

👉 No future perfect with when, while, before, after, by the time, as soon as, if, unless, etc.

We use the present perfect instead:

  • I am going to play video games when I will have finished my homework. WRONG
  • I am going to play video games when I have finished my homework. CORRECT

👉 Current time expressions

We often use the perfect future with:

by / by the time / before / by tomorrow / at 7 o’clock / next month / until / till

  • He will have retired by the end of this year. 
  • I will have finished that report before the deadline.

👉 Active / passive form

  • Tom will have repaired the car before the end of the week. (Active)
  • The car will have been repaired by Tom before the end of the week. (Passive)

 

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