Future perfect
Saying that something will be complete before a point in the future, with will have and the past participle.
When you use it
The future perfect looks forward to a moment in the future and back from it. It says that by that moment an action will already be complete. You need a deadline or a reference point, usually introduced by by, by the time, before, in plus a period, or when: by Friday, by the time you arrive, in two years.
It is also used for confident guesses about the present or the past: Tom will have landed by now means that you assume the flight has already arrived.
How it is formed
Will have plus the past participle, for every subject. The negative is will not have or won't have. In a question will moves before the subject.
| Subject | Affirmative | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| I / you / we / they | will have finished | won't have finished | will you have finished? |
| he / she / it | will have finished | won't have finished | will she have finished? |
The future perfect continuous adds been and an -ing form. It emphasises the length of an activity up to the future point, and is usual with for and a period of time.
| Form | Example |
|---|---|
| will have been + -ing | In June Tom will have been working here for a year. |
| negative | She won't have been waiting long. |
| question | How long will you have been living here? |
In the time clause after by the time, when or before, the verb is in the present simple, not the future: by the time you arrive, not will arrive. The future is understood from the main clause.
Contractions are normal in speech: I'll have finished, they'll have gone. The word have is unstressed and often sounds like of, but it is always written have.
Examples
- By eight o'clock Tom will have finished dinner.
- Anna will have lived in Berlin for ten years next spring.
- We won't have painted the whole flat by Sunday.
- Will you have read the book by the time the film comes out?
- By the time you get there, the shop will have closed.
- In June Tom will have been working here for a year.
- I will have forgotten all this by next week.
- Anna will have left the office before the storm starts.
Common mistakes
- ✗ By 2030 I will finish my studies.
✓ By 2030 I will have finished my studies.
Russian and Ukrainian express completion with the perfective future (закончу, закінчу), and one form covers both will finish and will have finished. English has no perfective aspect, so the idea of completion before a deadline needs the future perfect. Will finish by itself points to the moment of finishing, not to the state of being finished. - ✗ By the time you will arrive, we will have eaten.
✓ By the time you arrive, we will have eaten.
In Slavic languages the time clause takes the future too (когда ты придёшь). English keeps the present simple after when, by the time, before, until and as soon as, and puts the future only in the main clause. - ✗ She will have finish the report by noon.
✓ She will have finished the report by noon.
After have the verb is the past participle. The regular -ed is easy to drop after a long auxiliary group, and the mistake is often one of writing rather than knowledge. - ✗ In May I will have been here since two years.
✓ In May I will have been here for two years.
Duration takes for; since marks a starting point (since 2024). Russian уже два года has no preposition at all, so the choice between the two feels arbitrary. Ask whether the phrase names a length of time or a moment. - ✗ Tom will have been knowing Anna for ten years next month.
✓ Tom will have known Anna for ten years next month.
State verbs such as know, have, be and own are not used in continuous forms. Use the simple future perfect with for to express the duration.
Try it
- By next summer Anna ___ (finish) her degree.
- Tom ___ (not / arrive) by the time the meeting starts.
- ___ you ___ (send) the invoice before Friday?
- In October we ___ (live) here for exactly five years.
- By the time the taxi ___ (come), I will have packed.