Future Tense in English: 4 Types, Meanings, Uses, and Examples Just for You!

Introduction

As a child or an adult, we are always excited about things that we look forward to: birthday, holiday, exam, etc. These are just few of the things that we expect to happen in the future. To express these things in both speaking and writing, we use the future tense.

How familiar are you with the future tense in English? As a language learner, you must be bombarded with all the information about the tenses, because they have a lot of tiny details that are also important in learning the English grammar.

In this article, we will focus on the future tense in English and include necessary insights about it like its types, usage, meanings, and examples for your reference.

What is the Future Tense in English?

We have already discussed the overview of the tenses in English and also introduced to you the present tense, perfect tenses, and continuous tenses. Here, the future tense is our main topic.

The future tense in English is not new to us, because we were taught about it since we were in the elementary. This is one of the verb tenses that have special forms and uses.

We know that the future tense in English is a verb tense that expresses actions that are set or will take place in the future. As mentioned, these actions or activities are expected to happen.

Types of Future Tense

Just like any other tenses, the future tense in English has four types: Future Simple, Future Perfect, Future Continuous, and Future Perfect Continuous.

In this part of the article, we will discuss each type one by one and give you examples for each, indicating their uses in sentences.

Future Simple Tense

The future simple tense talks about actions that take place and ends by itself in the future. The structure of the future simple tense is subject + helping verb (will) + main verb.

STATUS	STRUCTURE	EXAMPLE
Positive	subject + helping verb (will) + main verb	She will watch a movie after dinner.
Negative	subject + helping verb + not + main verb	They will not celebrate her birthday.
Question	helping verb + subject + main verb	Will you take the call for me?
Negative Question	helping verb + subject + not + main verb	Will he not be present in the meeting today?

By using the helping verb “will” in the future tense in English, we usually refer to actions that have not been planned for a long time or have not been anticipated to happen. In some situations, “will” is used when the action has just been decided at the time of speaking. It was not planned or predicted.

Another verb we can use for the future simple tense is the “verb to be” or be going to. In using the “be going to” form, we refer to actions that have been long anticipated or planned for a long time already. These actions were not just decided.

Look at the structures below.

STATUS	STRUCTURE	EXAMPLE
Positive	subject + be going to + main verb	They are going to go fishing on Sunday.
Negative	subject + not + be going to + main verb	They are not going to visit their parents next month.
Question	be verb + going to + main verb	Is she going to represent the country next year?
Negative Question	be verb + not + going to + main verb	Are you not going to call me after you finish your work?

Notice that time markers are important to indicate the actions that have been planned or are expected to happen in the future.

Uses of the Future Simple Tense

To talk about actions that have just been decided
To talk about actions or situations that have been planned a long time ago
To state or express some factual events in the future
To ask someone about what they are doing in the future
To make guesses or predictions about the future

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.”

STATUS	STRUCTURE	EXAMPLE
Positive	Subject + Will be + verb-ing	I will be spending the night with my friends on Saturday.
Negative	Subject + Will not + be + verb-ing	They will not be coming home for Christmas.
Question	Will + subject + be + verb-ing	Will you be taking the test tomorrow?
Negative Question	Will + subject + not + be + verb-ing	Will they not be making some pizza for lunch?

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.

STATUS	STRUCTURE	EXAMPLE
Positive	Subject + Will + have + past participle	We will have finished eating lunch by 1 PM.
Negative	Subject + Will + not + have + past participle	She will have completed her master’s degree by Spring next year.
Question	Will + subject + have + past participle	Will you have finished writing the draft of the report by 6:00 PM?
Negative Question	Will + subject + not + have + past participle	Will you have not decided to continue your application by the time I resign?

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.

STATUS	STRUCTURE	EXAMPLE
Positive	Subject + Will + have + been + verb-ing	My parents will have been painting our house by 4 o’clock this afternoon.
Negative	Subject + Will + not + have + been + verb-ing	I will have been taking some English courses by this time next month.

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.

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

Check your answers here!