English Future Perfect Continuous

The future perfect continuous tense emphasizes the duration of an activity leading up to a future moment. It is particularly useful when you want to highlight the continuity and progression of an action over time.

How to Form the Future Perfect Continuous Tense

The future perfect continuous tense is formed using the following structure:

[Subject] + will have been + [present participle]

The present participle is the -ing form of the verb (eating, walking, talking, etc.). Here are some examples:

Next June, I will have been working at this company for five years.

She will have been sleeping for hours by the time I get home.

When they get to Peru, they will have been traveling for two months.

In casual writing and speech, the subject pronoun and the word “will” are usually contracted into one word. Here’s what this looks like:

Next June, I’ll have been working at this company for five years.

She’ll have been sleeping for hours by the time I get home.

When they get to Peru, they’ll have been traveling for two weeks

How to Use the Future Perfect Continuous Tense

We use the future perfect continuous tense in the following main ways.

To emphasize the duration of an action before a specific future time

The future perfect continuous is often used to indicate how long an action will have been occurring up to a certain point in the future. For example:

In December, I’ll have been living in this city for ten years.

At 8 p.m., she’ll have been practicing the piano for two hours.

These sentences highlight the duration of the actions (living, practicing) leading up to the future times (December, 8 p.m.).

To show continuous action leading up to another future event

The future perfect continuous can also be used to describe an ongoing action that will continue until just before another future event. For example:

They’ll have been driving for six hours when they reach their destination.

He’ll have been waiting for an hour by the time the bus arrives.

In these cases, the tense emphasizes that the actions (driving, waiting) will have been in progress for a certain period before the subsequent event occurs.

To express cause and effect in the future

The future perfect continuous can be used to explain the cause of a future situation by focusing on the duration of an action. For example:

She’ll be tired because she’ll have been working all day.

They’ll need a break because they’ll have been hiking for hours.

These sentences indicate that the reason for the future condition (tiredness, need for a break) is the ongoing action leading up to that point.

The Future Perfect Continuous vs. Related Tenses

Future Continuous vs. Future Perfect Continuous

The future continuous tense (will be + present participle) describes an action that will be in progress at a specific time in the future, while the future perfect continuous emphasizes the duration of that action up to a future point.

• Future continuous: I’ll be traveling around Europe next month.

• Future perfect continuous: On the 11th, I’ll have been traveling around Europe for one month.

The future perfect continuous highlights how long the action will have been happening before the 11th.

Future Perfect vs. Future Perfect Continuous

The future perfect tense (will have + past participle) describes an action that will be completed by a certain time in the future, while the future perfect continuous focuses on the ongoing nature and duration of that action.

• Future perfect: She’ll have completed the report by 5 p.m.

• Future perfect continuous: At 5 p.m., she’ll have been working on the report for three hours.

The future perfect continuous emphasizes the process and time spent working on the report, rather than just its completion.