Understanding future perfect continuous tense

There are four types of future tenses in English:

• The simple future tense
• The future continuous tense
• The future perfect tense
• The future perfect continuous tense

These tenses can help you write about an upcoming action that hasn’t happened yet. Let’s take a deeper look at the future perfect continuous tense.

What is the future perfect continuous tense?

The future perfect continuous tense, also known as the future perfect progressive tense, is used when an action will happen in the future but will end at a certain point. For the future perfect continuous tense, you must use the verb “will have been” with the present participle of a verb.

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Examples of the future perfect continuous tense

Use these examples to help you understand the future perfect continuous tense:

• In July, I will have been living in New York for three years.

In this sentence, “will have been living” is the future perfect progressive tense.

• Next week, we will have been dating for a year.

In this sentence, the phrase “will have been dating” uses the future perfect progressive tense.

• By September, he will have been doing the workout for three months.

In this sentence, the phrase “will have been doing” uses the future perfect progressive tense.

Creating negative statements with the future perfect continuous tense

Writers can still create negative statements with the future perfect progressive. To create a negative statement using the future perfect progressive tense, add the word “not” between “will” and “been.” Here are some examples of negative statements that use the future perfect continuous tense:

• He will not have been home for that long.
• I will not have been working there for two years.
• She will not have been living there for that much time.
• My mother will not have been teaching for more than a year by then.

Using contractions with the future perfect continuous tense

Writers can also create contractions with the future perfect continuous tense. Contractions are perfect for informal writing or if you have a character limit. Here are examples of sentences that use contractions with the future perfect continuous tense:

• She’ll have been going to that gym for a whole year.
• I’ll have been practicing the setlist for a whole week by Friday.
• He’ll have been waiting to see the doctor for thirty minutes by 3:00 PM.

What’s the difference between the future perfect continuous tense and the future continuous tense?

Sentences in the future continuous tense use the verb “to be.” You can easily identify them since they follow this format: “Will be” + present participle.

Here’s an example of a sentence in the future continuous tense:

• I will be reading tomorrow morning.

The future continuous tense is different from the future perfect continuous tense because the future continuous tense discusses events that are unfinished and continue to happen in the future. On the other hand, writers use the future perfect continuous tense to discuss events that will happen in the future but will end at some point.

Don’t let verb tenses trip you up—see how you can use the past perfect continuous tense in your writing.