The future
perfect continuous tense expresses actions that will be continued over time
that will end in the future. This tense is very rare and almost never necessary
to use. This tense conveys the same meaning as past perfect continuous; the
difference is only that it describes the future continued actions.
Formation:
To formulate future perfect
continuous tense use will have been and present participle of the
main verb.
Future Perfect
Continuous Tense Formula
Positive Sentences
Structure: Subject + will
+ have + been + verb-ing + Object + since/for…...
Using
since with length of time in the future perfect tense is less
common.
Examples
- By the end of this year, she will have been teaching in this school for five years.
- The son will not have been studying for three hours by the time his father comes home.
- She will have been writing assignments for one hour by the time we reach her place.
- His wife will have been cleaning the home for thirty minutes.
- The girl will have been carrying your bag for ten minutes before you arrive.
- We hope that the other students will have been preparing their projects when we get to school today.
- His little daughter will have been sitting quietly for three hours when the game finishes.
Negative Sentences
Inserting
the word, not after the auxiliary will, will make the future
perfect continuous tense negative. The negative of the future perfect
continuous tense is not very common.
Structure:
Subject + will
+ not + have + been + verb-ing + Object + since/for……
Examples
- We will not have been working for two days.
- I will not have been smoking before my dinner is ready.
- I will not have been walking for one hour to the garden before they come.
- The baby will not have been sleeping for very long, but I have to wake him up.
- The police will not have been investigating you for three days before they know everything about you.
- I will not have been presenting our project for one hour to the class when my friends join me.
Interrogative Structure
Sturucture: Will
+ Subject + have + been + verb-ing + Object + since/for……
Examples
- How long will you have been working on this project when you finally complete it?
- How long will you have been teaching English when you shift to this city?
- Will the girl have
been walking along the road that leads to the garden for several
minutes when she sees her brother there?
- Will I have
been paying the rent for two years before I leave the house?
- Whose friend will have been searching for several days before finding a good product?
- By what time will the pandemic have been spreading to the rest of the world for many years?
Uses of the Future Perfect Continuous Tense
1. The future
perfect continuous tense is used to show an action that will happen over time
before something in the future. The same idea can be expressed by future
perfect tense as well if we add the length of time to it. But sometimes, only
one of these two tenses would sound correct.
Example
He will have been working
on this assignment when he goes to school today at 9:00.
(The future perfect continuous tense shows
that the action ‘work on this assignment will happen overtime before the action
‘go to school.’)
2. The future
perfect continuous tense also describes a repeated action that we expect to
have been happening in the past and up to the present time.
Example
It is time to discuss the topic many of
the students will have been discussing themselves.
The future perfect continuous isn’t used
very much. Other tenses can be used instead of it. Therefore, it is a bit harder to find a good
example of future perfect continuous tense.
Like other
continuous tenses, non-action or stative verbs cannot be used in the future
perfect continuous tense.