Future Continuous Tense

This type of future tense in English talks about actions that are in progress at a particular time in the future. To better understand this, a time marker is helpful.

The structure of the future progressive tense is “will be + verb-ing.”

In the future continuous tense, we cannot use “be going to” because after it, the main verb follows which is not appropriate for its structure (e.g. I am not going to go shopping). In that case, it follows the to-infinitive rather than the verb-ing form.

Future Perfect Tense

The future perfect tense talks about actions that are expected to be completed at a particular time in the future. These actions indicate that the action in the future is anticipated to be finished. The structure of this tense is “will + have + past participle.”

Here are the examples for this type of future tense in English.

Future Perfect Continuous

This type of the future tense in English expresses actions that are anticipated to have been temporarily done or ongoing at a particular time in the future. The action will still be in progress by the time of speaking. It is better to use a time marker when using this tense.

The future tense in English is a little bit tricky compared to other tenses in English because of its structure, but they are special and they play a great role to make sentences correct and meaningful especially when the actions we are referring to are for the future.

There are so much to learn about the future tense in English. Forming each sentence correctly is easy when you allow yourself to learn this tense better and use it appropriately.

Additional key notes to remember:

• The future tense in English also uses the present simple tense to talk about future plans
• The future tense always uses the auxiliary verb “will.”
• It expresses the idea of a future action even if the sentence construction is not in the future.
• Time markers are important words to check if the action will be completed at a particular time in the future.
• The “be going to” indicates a future plan.
• Future tense in English talks about planned events and predictions.

You have already learned a lot about the future tense in English. Are you ready to practice and challenge yourself?

Test Yourself!

Identify whether the sentence is a future simple tense, a future perfect tense, a future continuous tense, or a future perfect continuous tense.

1. Suarez will have been flying from London to Tokyo at 5 o’clock this afternoon.
2. I am planning to take an IELTS exam next month.
3. My best friend will be flying from Australia tomorrow.
4. Mom will surely take me to the mall on my birthday.
5. It is going to rain soon.
6. Harvey told me not to call him at 3PM tomorrow as he will have been playing tennis by that time from 1PM.
7. We will take the taxi to the station/
8. He will not be making his homework tonight.
9. My teacher will be absent tomorrow until Friday.
10. Have you not been getting emails since I fixed your computer?

Check your answers here!