Want to learn the future perfect tense? The future perfect tense describes actions that will happen or be finished at some point in the future. This future perfect guide has some helpful tips for elementary, middle schoolers, and ESL learners with flashcards and a checkpoint quiz.
The future perfect speaks of past actions in the future. When we use the future perfect, we are projecting ourselves, or whatever subject into the future. The actions they do will be complete by the time we reach the point in the future that we’re referencing in our present.
Affirmative | Subject | +will | +have | +past participle | |
Negative | Subject | +will | +not | +past participle | |
Interrogative | Will | subject | +have | +past participle | +? |
See if you can make a future perfect tense examples using the words on the front. Flip the flashcards for our examples.
However, irregular verbs can also take the third form to help form the future perfect tense. These are words that students will need to learn and commit to memory. Although it may be tricky at first, they should find that they can master this list of words quickly with enough use.
These are all affirmatives that we can form by starting with a subject, including the will have verb form, and ending with a regular or irregular verb in its third form.
We can also use the future perfect to ask questions about things that should be completed later. However, in order to do this properly, we need to change the structure of the future sentence slightly. We still need to use the proper tenses and forms for the verbs; these are static rules we’ve discussed already. However, we must alter the word order a bit for the interrogative.
Finally, you can use the future perfect tense to talk about how likely it is that some event already occurred in the past. We do this to talk about events that have already finished by the time we are in the present moment.
Think you've got it? Check your understanding with this future perfect quiz. Got a question wrong? Press reset and try again.
1. Will you ______ arrived by 9am?
Choose the best answer from the choices below
2. You ______ received the bill by tomorrow.
Choose the best answer from the choices below
3. Sally and Tom were exhausted. By the time they get home, they ______ slept for 36 hours.
Choose the best answer from the choices below
As we conclude, it is important that students understand a key difference between a tense like future perfect and that of future simple. We use the future simple in English to express that something will happen at a later date. Conversely, we use future perfect to emphasize that the action will be over at a particular point in the future. Similarly, future continuous emphasizes that the action will be ongoing until a particular point in the future.