English Grammar Lesson: Future perfect simple

Study this example situation:

David is going to watch a football match on TV tomorrow. The match starts at 1am and finishes at 3 am. So we can say, at 3:15 am tomorrow the football match will have finished.

The highlighted sentence is called the future perfect simple.

This is the way we form the future perfect simple:

Positive:

Subject + will + have + V₃ (past participle) +...

· By the time you get home, I will have cooked dinner.

· By now, the exam will have begun.

· She will have lived here for 3 years by June.

Click here to learn about the past participle(v₃)

Negative:

Subject + will +NOT+ have + V₃ +...

· They won’t have completed their work by tomorrow. (won’t =will not)

· Sopheak won’t have returned home by the end of this year.

· I won’t have finished my report by next week.

Question:

(Wh-word) + will + subject + have + V₃ +...?

· When will you have finished your report?

· How many chapters will she have read by this week?

· Will they have arrived here by 3o’clock?

Short answer:

· Will she have cleaned the room by now?

Yes, she will

No, she won’t

· Will you have done it?

Yes, I will

No, I won’t

The future perfect simple is used:

1. to talk about an action which will be finished before at specific time in the future.

· Before my teacher arrived, I will have completed my homework.

· By now the bus will have leaved.

· Susan will have worked in the UK for 2 years by 2015.

(2015 hasn’t come yet)

Note:

We also use other modal verbs like could, may, might in the future perfect, but they show less certainty comparing to ‘will’ (Most certain to less certain : will> could>may>might).

· By now, the bus could/may/might have arrived in Siem Reap.

Note:

We don’t use could in negative sentence in the future perfect simple:

· They may not/might not have finalized their report by next week.

(not They couldn’t have finalized their report by next week.)

Test yourself on this lesson

Thanks for reading!