Learning English

Looking back from the future

Tomas is struggling with his DIY. He's not very good with his hands but he doesn't want to pay for a professional. Read what he has to say about his current situation:

"You know, I thought I could do it in time. I only had to paint the spare room. That was weeks ago. I'm nowhere near finished and in two weeks my parents will be visiting. By the time they get here I will have been working on it for nearly three months. I don't know where they are going to sleep."

Tomas looks back from a time in the future:

• By the time they get here... 

He predicts that he will still be doing something then that he started before that future time:

• ... I will have been working on it for nearly three months.

For this he uses the future perfect continuous.

So, we use the future perfect continuous when we look back from a time in the future at an action that will continue up to that point in time.

• If I don't stop before midday, I will have been reading this book for 24 hours non-stop.
• In November 2018 the International Space Station will have been orbiting Earth for 20 years.

Read the text and complete the activity

Making and using the future perfect continuous

We make this form with:

subject + 'll/will + 've/have + been + present participle (-ing form)

Negative

subject + won't + 've/have + been + present particple (-ing form)

Time references

The future perfect continuous is generally used with two time references. One reference is to the specific time in the future. The other is to the duration of the activity up until that time in the future and uses an expression with for.

• By the time they get here I will have been working on it for nearly three months.
• In July we'll have been living in Dubai for two years.
• Next week I'll have been studying here for six months. 

To do

Try the future perfect continuous quiz.

Next

In the next activity we look at some other uses of the future perfect continuous and compare it to the future perfect simple.