Welcome back to our grammar lesson! Today, we’re diving into the Future Perfect Tense. If you’re aiming for a B2 level in English, understanding and using this tense correctly is crucial. Don’t worry, we’ll break it down in a simple and practical way, focusing on how you can use it in your everyday spoken English.

What is the Future Perfect Tense?

The Future Perfect Tense is used to describe an action that will be completed before a specific point in the future. Think of it as looking forward to a point in time and then looking back at something that will already be finished. It’s all about actions that will be completed by a certain time in the future.

Let’s imagine you are planning a trip next year. You might say, “By next year, I will have visited five new countries!” This means the action of visiting five new countries will be finished before next year arrives. See? It’s about completion in the future.

How to Form the Future Perfect Tense

Forming the Future Perfect is quite straightforward. You need three key components:

1. Will (or Shall – though ‘will’ is much more common these days)
2. Have (always ‘have’, never ‘has’ or ‘had’ here)
3. Past Participle of the main verb

So, the structure is: Will + Have + Past Participle

Here are a few examples to illustrate:

• Verb: to finish
  • Sentence: By the time you arrive, I will have finished cooking dinner.
• Verb: to travel
  • Sentence: She will have travelled around the world by the time she’s thirty.
• Verb: to learn
  • Sentence: By the end of this course, you will have learned a lot about English grammar.

Remember to use the past participle form of the verb. If it’s a regular verb, just add ‘-ed’ (e.g., finished, travelled). For irregular verbs, you’ll need to know their past participle forms (e.g., eaten, gone, seen). If you’re unsure, a quick online verb conjugator can be very helpful!

When to Use the Future Perfect Tense: Practical Applications

Now, let’s look at the situations where you’ll find yourself using the Future Perfect Tense most often. Understanding these situations will make it much easier to use this tense in your own spoken and written English.

1. Actions Finished Before a Specific Time in the Future

This is the most common use. We use the Future Perfect to say that something will be completed before a certain point in the future. We often use time expressions like:

• by + time (by next week, by 5 pm, by the end of the year)
• before + time/event (before you arrive, before the meeting starts, before 2025)
• in + period of time (in two hours, in a week, in a few months)

Examples:

• “I will have completed this report by Friday.” (The report will be finished on or before Friday.)
• “Before the movie starts, we will have bought popcorn.” (Buying popcorn will be finished before the movie begins.)
• “In a few months, they will have moved to their new house.” (Moving will be completed within a few months from now.)

Speaking Application: Imagine you are making plans with a friend. You could say, “Let’s meet at 7 pm. I will have finished work by then.”

2. Expressing Certainty About the Past from a Future Perspective

Sometimes, we use the Future Perfect to express our certainty or make a deduction about something that happened in the past, but we are talking about it from a future point of view. It’s like making an educated guess about the past from the future.

Examples:

• “John is late. He will have missed the bus.” (We are assuming he missed the bus because he is late, looking from now into the near future.)
• “They haven’t arrived yet. They will have gotten stuck in traffic.” (We deduce traffic is the reason for their delay, projecting from now into the future.)

Speaking Application: You are waiting for someone for a meeting. “They are 15 minutes late. They will have forgotten about our appointment.” (You’re making an assumption based on the lateness.)

3. Duration of an Action Up to a Future Point

We can also use the Future Perfect to talk about how long an action will have lasted up to a certain point in the future. This often involves time expressions of duration.

Examples:

• “By next year, I will have been working at this company for ten years.” (The duration of working at the company will reach ten years by next year.)
• “In July, she will have lived in London for five years.” (The duration of living in London will reach five years in July.)

Speaking Application: You are talking about your studies. “By the end of this semester, I will have been studying English for two years.”

Common Mistakes to Avoid with the Future Perfect

Even at a B2 level, learners sometimes make a few common mistakes with the Future Perfect Tense. Let’s look at some of these so you can avoid them:

• Using the Present Perfect instead: Don’t confuse it with the Present Perfect. The Present Perfect is about the past connecting to the present. The Future Perfect is strictly about actions completed in the future.
  • Incorrect: “By tomorrow, I have finished my work.”
  • Correct: “By tomorrow, I will have finished my work.”
• Forgetting ‘have’: Always remember to include ‘have’ after ‘will’.
  • Incorrect: “By next week, she will finished the project.”
  • Correct: “By next week, she will have finished the project.”
• Incorrect Past Participle: Make sure you use the correct past participle form of the verb.
  • Incorrect: “By then, they will went home.”
  • Correct: “By then, they will have gone home.”

Pay attention to these points, and you’ll be using the Future Perfect with confidence!

Future Perfect in Spoken English

In spoken English, we often use contractions to make our speech flow more naturally. With the Future Perfect Tense, we commonly contract ‘will have’ to ‘ll have’.

Examples:

• “I will have finished” becomes “I‘ll have finished.”
• “She will have travelled” becomes “She‘ll have travelled.”
• “They will have moved” becomes “They‘ll have moved.”

Using contractions like ‘ll have’ will make your spoken English sound more natural and fluent. Try to incorporate them into your practice!

Let’s Practice!

Ready to put your knowledge to the test? Fill in the blanks with the Future Perfect Tense of the verb in brackets.

Practice Exercises

1. By the time we get to the station, the train _______ (leave).
2. She _______ (learn) to drive by the end of this year.
3. In two weeks, I _______ (live) in this city for five years.
4. They _______ (eat) all the cake before the party even starts!
5. By next Monday, he _______ (finish) reading that long novel.

Answers

1. By the time we get to the station, the train will have left.
2. She will have learned to drive by the end of this year.
3. In two weeks, I will have lived in this city for five years.
4. They will have eaten all the cake before the party even starts!
5. By next Monday, he will have finished reading that long novel.

How did you do? Practice makes perfect! The more you use the Future Perfect Tense, the more natural it will become.

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Conclusion

Congratulations! You’ve now explored the Future Perfect Tense in detail. Remember, it’s all about actions completed by a point in the future. Keep practicing, and don’t be afraid to use it in your conversations. With consistent effort, you’ll master this tense and enhance your overall English grammar skills. Keep learning and keep speaking!

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Related Keywords: English grammar, advanced English, spoken English, English tenses, perfect tenses, learn English grammar, improve English speaking, B2 English level.