Future Perfect Tense Rules & Usages in English Grammar

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In future, when any action or event will be started and completed is called Future Perfect Tense. It indicates our planned or expected action in future moment. In this lesson, i would like to discuss about the structures, various forms, and usages of Future Perfect elaborately. I hope you can easily learn this tense going through this lesson.

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I have already discussed other classes of tenses including present and past perfect tenses and now it’s future perfect, we are going to discuss on it and learn together step-by-step with examples.

What is Future Perfect Tense?

The future perfect tense indicates an action that will be completed between now and some point in the future. Besides, it is also used to express two actions or events of future moments together.

For Example:
They shall have sent the gift tomorrow.
You will have bought this gift before they will send it to you.

Structure of Future Perfect Tense

The structure of Future Perfect is not completely different from Present Perfect Tense. There is only the difference of auxiliary verbs. The auxiliary verb of this tense is ‘shall have/will have’.

STRUCTURE - Future Perfect Tense

Structure: Shall have/Will have+ past participle form of verb (v.p.p.f)

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For example:
I shall have bought this book tomorrow.
He will have submitted his homework next week.

Now look at the negative and interrogative structures:

Negative Structure

Shall have/Will have+ not+ past participle form of verb (v.p.p.f)

For Example:
I shall have not bought this book.
He will have not submitted his homework next week.

Interrogative Structure:

Shall/Will+ subject+ have+ past participle form of verb (v.p.p.f)+ object+?

For Example:
Shall i have bought a pair of shoes for him?
Will he have submitted his homework next week?

Two Actions or Events in Future?

Yes, in Future Perfect, there is also the function or structure of two actions or events of future like Past Perfect Tense. If you want to express such double actions in future, you have to express the first action in the structure of Future Perfect Tense and the next action in the structure of Future Indefinite Tense or Present Indefinite Tense. Like before here, you will also use the conjunction ‘before’ or ‘after’ to connect two actions.

So, the structure is:

Future Perfect Tense+ before+ (Future Indefinite Tense/ Present Indefinite Tense)
Or,
(Future Indefinite Tense/Present Indefinite Tense + after+ Future Perfect Tense)

For Example:

You will have examined the book before I will buy it.
(Future Indefinite Tense)

Or,

You will have examined the book before I buy it.
(Present Indefinite Tense)

Or,

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I will buy it after you will have examined the book.

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The Phrase Markers

In English language, there are some words or phrases which are considered as the signs of Future Perfect in order to express the time. If you get one of these words or phrases in any sentence, you should translate that sentence in the structure of this tense.

Here are the words or phrases given in chart:

byby thenfrom now
beforeby this / that timein two months’ time
by the 5th MarchAt midnightAs soon as

For Example:
You will have finished this project by the end of this week.
At midnight, the show will have ended.
When i visit your home, i will have been to your friend’s houses.

That’s all and i hope you can now easily write sentences using the structure of this tense to express any action or event of future moment. You can check out this exercise on future perfect and solve them. Besides, here is a video on future perfect tense, you might find it interesting and fun to watch.

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