Throughout this unit, you have looked at various ways of talking about future time in English. In this lesson, you will look at two more advanced future forms: the future continuous and the future perfect simple.
Future Continuous
The future continuous is used to talk about temporary actions or events that will (not) be in progress at a specific future time. It is formed with will + be + present participle (-ing) and requires a specific future time reference such as a time expression or a dependent clause expressing a shorter action or event happening at the same time.
- She will be working in the library all morning.
- I won't be attending your class on Tuesday.
- They will be studying when you get home tonight.
- We will be discussing this topic until it's time for lunch.
Note that the verbs in the dependent clauses are in the present simple and not a future form.
Future Perfect Simple
The future perfect simple is used to talk about actions or events that will (not) already be completed by a certain time in the future. It is formed with will + have + past participle and requires a specific time reference such as a time expression or dependent clause expressing a later future action or event.
- By this time next year, our daughter will have graduated from university.
- I won't have finished writing my assignment by Friday.
- They will have prepared their presentation by the time they go home.
- Before I graduate, I will have done three different internships.