PE-40: Future Perfect and Future Perfect Continuous
By this time next year, what will you have done? Standing in the future and looking back — will have + V3, and will have been + -ing.
PE-40: Future Perfect and Future Perfect Continuous
Here is a strange and rather beautiful thing English can do: it can put you in the future and let you look backwards from there. "By June I will have finished school." June has not arrived, and neither has the finishing — yet you are already standing in June, looking back at a completed action. These are the last two tenses of the Perfect family.
In this lesson you will learn
- will have + V3 — finished before a future moment
- will have been + verb-ing — how long, up to a future moment
- The signal word by, and the by the time rule
- How these two complete the whole tense system
1. The picture: standing in the future, looking back
The blue dot is the action; the red dot further right is the future moment you are looking back from. Everything is ahead of NOW — the action just happens earlier than the deadline.
By next June I will have finished school.
Kelasi iyunga qadar maktabni tugatgan boʻlaman.
2. The signal word: by
This tense almost always appears with by or by the time, because it needs a deadline to look back from.
1by + a time
I'll have read it by Friday.
2by then
Come at six — I'll have cooked by then.
3by the time + clause
By the time you arrive, we'll have eaten.
4in / before
In two years he'll have graduated.
By the time the guests get here, Afsona will have made the plov.
Mehmonlar yetib kelguncha, Afsona palovni pishirib boʻlgan boʻladi.
Two futures in one sentence, but only one will.
3. Future Perfect Continuous — how long, by then
Add been + -ing and you get duration instead of completion: not "what will be finished", but "how long it will have been going on".
Next month I will have been studying English for six years.
Kelasi oyda ingliz tilini oʻrganayotganimga olti yil boʻladi.
The studying continues; we are only measuring it from a future point.
will have + V3 — completed
- By 2030 he will have built the house.
- I will have written ten pages by Friday.
will have been + -ing — duration
- By 2030 he will have been building it for five years.
- By Friday I will have been writing for a week.
4. Form details
- Same for everyone: I / she / they will have finished.
- Negative: They won't have arrived by six.
- Question: Will you have finished by then?
- Short answer: Yes, I will. / No, I won't.
5. Common mistakes
By the time you will arrive, we will have eaten.
By the time you arrive, we will have eaten.
I will have finish my work by Friday.
I will have finished my work by Friday.
Next year I will have been study here for three years.
Next year I will have been studying here for three years.
Until Friday I will have finished it.
By Friday I will have finished it.
I will have went home before you call.
I will have gone home before you call.
Practice
1 Complete: By ten o'clock tonight I ? (finish) all my homework.
Show answer
will have finished — by ten o'clock is the deadline you are looking back from.
2 Correct it: By the time the film will start, we will have bought the tickets.
Show answer
By the time the film starts, we will have bought the tickets.
After by the time comes the Present Simple — the same rule as after when and if.
3 Which one, and why? In September, Jasur ___ (live) in Tashkent for ten years.
Show answer
will have been living (or will have lived) — we are measuring how long, from a future point. With live both forms are accepted, as in PE-37.
4 Make it negative: They will have arrived by six.
Show answer
They won't have arrived by six.
Only will becomes negative; have and the V3 stay exactly as they are.
5 Write one sentence about yourself starting with By this time next year…
Show answer
Model: By this time next year I will have taken my final exams and I will have started at university.
Key words — Kalit soʻzlar
- Future Perfectkelasi tugallangan zamon
- By thenoʻsha vaqtga qadar
- By the time...gunga qadar
- Deadlineoxirgi muddat
- To graduatebitirmoq
- To assumetaxmin qilmoq
- Final examsyakuniy imtihonlar
- To buildqurmoq
- Completiontugallanish
- To look backorqaga nazar solmoq
🎯 Remember this
- will have + V3 = finished before a future moment.
- will have been + -ing = how long it will have been going on.
- Signal words: by, by then, by the time, in two years.
- After by the time → Present Simple, never will.
- Uzbek "...gan boʻlaman" is your signal for the Future Perfect.