You’re an English as an additional language learner and you’ve been struggling to master some verb tenses in English. You feel some of them are impossible for you to understand. You’ve always felt that the future perfect tense in English is especially difficult to learn. You have almost given up learning it. But you’ve found this article. Don’t be discouraged anymore. You’ll finally master the future perfect tense in English right now! Keep reading.
In case you need to remember all of these tenses, check out this amazing overview of all verb tenses in English!
What the Future Perfect Tense Is
The future perfect tense in English is one of the 12 verb tenses in this language. It is common both in formal and informal contexts. It is an advanced verb tense to be learned by English as an additional language students.
How to Form the Future Perfect Tense
The future perfect tense in English is formed by the auxiliary verbs will have and the past participle form of the main verb.
This structure will be used for all types of subjects invariably (I, you, he, she, it, we, they).
The past participle form of the main verb can be formed in two different ways.
The first one is by adding -ed to regular verbs (for example: watched, played, cooked, called, talked, opened, etc.).
The second is formed by irregular forms. This means you have to be familiar with and memorize these past participles. They appear in the third column of lists of irregular verbs in English. Examples are: gone, slept, said, caught, been, seen, drunk, run, etc.
To help you, here’s a list of the most common irregular verbs; and here’s a complete list of the irregular verbs in English.
| SUBJECT | VERB PHRASES + PAST PARTICIPLE | COMPLEMENT |
| I | will have finished | work |
| You | will have bought | your new house |
| He/she/it | will have stopped | playing |
| We | will have talked | to them |
| They | will have started | their task |
Above you can see how to form affirmative sentences in the future perfect. Below you can see how to change these into negative and interrogative sentences (questions).
Negative sentences
To form negative sentences in the future perfect tense in English, add not between the auxiliary verbs (will have).
| SUBJECT | VERB PHRASES + PAST PARTICIPLE | COMPLEMENT |
| I | will not have finished | work |
| You | will not have bought | your new house |
| He/she/it | will not have stopped | playing |
| We | will not have talked | to them |
| They | will not have started | their task |
Interrogative sentences (questions)
To form interrogative sentences (questions) in the future perfect tense in English, invert the order of the subject and the first auxiliary verb (will) of the sentence.
| FIRST AUXILIARY VERB | SUBJECT | SECOND AUXILIARY VERB + PAST PARTICIPLE | COMPLEMENT |
| Will | I | have finished | work? |
| Will | you | have bought | your new house? |
| Will | he/she/it | have stopped | playing? |
| Will | we | have talked | to them? |
| Will | they | have started | their task? |
When to Use the Future Perfect Tense in English
- We use the future perfect tense in English to talk about actions that will be completed before a specific time in the future.
| ACTION IN THE FUTURE PERFECT | SPECIFIC TIME IN THE FUTURE |
| I will have graduated college | by the end of next year. |
| You will have left the country | by next week. |
| He/she/it will have taken a shower | by this evening. |
| We will have finished dinner | by 9 pm. |
| They will have left | by lunchtime. |
- We also use the future perfect in English to talk about actions that will be completed before other actions in the future.
| ACTION IN THE FUTURE PERFECT | SPECIFIC TIME IN THE FUTURE |
| I will have graduated college | by the time you start your course. |
| You will have left the country | by the time you arrive in the city. |
| He/she/it will have taken a shower | by the time you get home. |
| We will have finished dinner | by the time you call us. |
| They will have left | by the time you arrive. |
Contractions
In informal, everyday speech it is very common for people to use contractions instead of full forms. See the possible contractions we can use with the future perfect below.
| FULL FORM (AFFIRMATIVE) | CONTRACTION (AFFIRMATIVE) | FULL FORM (NEGATIVE) | CONTRACTION (NEGATIVE) |
| I will have… | I’ll have… | I will not have… | I won’t have… |
| You will have… | You’ll have… | You will not have… | You won’t have… |
| He/she/it will have… | He/she/it’ll have… | He/she/it will not have… | He/she/it won’t have… |
| We will have… | We’ll have… | We will not have… | We won’t have… |
| They will have… | They’ll have… | They will not have… | They won’t have… |
Short Answers
When answering yes/no questions in this tense, we usually use short answers.
| QUESTIONS | AFFIRMATIVE SHORT ANSWER | NEGATIVE SHORT ANSWER |
| Will I…? | Yes, I/you will. | No, I/you won’t. |
| Will you…? | Yes, I/we will. | No, I/we won’t. |
| Will he/she/it…? | Yes, he/she/it will. | No, he/she/it won’t. |
| Will we…? | Yes, we will. | No, he won’t. |
| Will they…? | Yes, they will. | No, they won’t. |
Expressions of Time Used with the Future Perfect Tense in English
Some expressions of time commonly used with the future perfect are: before, by the time, by 8 am, by Monday/Tuesday/etc., by next week/month/year, by next summer/fall/winter/spring, by 2024/2025, etc.
Summary Chart
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