The Future Perfect tense
The future perfect is made with the future simple of 'have' (will have) and the past participle. For regular past participles add 'ed' to the verb ('play' becomes 'played'). Click here to learn about irregular past participles.
Here's the positive:
By six pm tonight:
I will have finished this book
You will have studied the English tenses
She will have cooked dinner
He will have arrived
We will have met Julie
It will have stopped raining
They will have left Japan
For the short form, we change will to 'll. But, when we are speaking, we also make 'have' shorter, so it sounds like I'll've finished (don't write this!).
I'll have finished this book
You'll have studied the English tenses
She'll have cooked dinner
He'll have arrived
We'll have met Julie
It'll have stopped raining
They'll have left Japan
Here's the negative:
By next week,
I will not have finished this book
You will not have studied the English tenses
She will not have cooked dinner
He will not have arrived
We will not have met Julie
It will not have stopped raining
They will not have left Japan
Here's the short form.
I won't have finished this book
You won't have studied the English tenses
She won't have cooked dinner
He won't have arrived
We won't have met Julie
It won't have stopped raining
They won't have left Japan
To make the question, just put 'will' before the subject:
'Yes / no' questions:
By next year,
will I have finished writing this book?
will you have studied all the English verb tenses?
will she have graduated?
will he have got married?
will it have got colder?
will we have met your boyfriend?
will they have left their jobs?
'
Wh' questions:
When will I have finished writing this book?
Why will you have studied all the English verb tenses by tomorrow?
When will she have been here three weeks?
Why will he have got married before June?
Why will it have got colder by May?
How will we have met your boyfriend by tonight?
When will they have left their jobs?
1: We use the future perfect to say 'how long' for an action that starts before and continues up to another action or time in the future. Usually we need 'for'. We can also use the future perfect continuous here so we often use the future perfect simple with stative verbs. If we use 'when', we usually need the present simple.
When we get married, I'll have known Robert for four years.
At 4 o'clock, I'll have been in this office for 24 hours.
Sometimes we could also use the present perfect in the same situation. But we like to use the future perfect to make the time an easy number.
I've lived here for 11 months and three weeks. (This is correct, but the time is not an easy number.)
On Tuesday, I will have lived here for one year. (A much easier number.)
2: We use the future perfect with a future time word, (and often with 'by') to talk about an action that will finish before a certain time in the future, but we don't know exactly when.
By 10 o'clock, I will have finished my homework. (= I will finish my homework some time before 10, but we don't know exactly when.)
By the time I'm sixty, I will have retired. (= I will retire sometime before I'm sixty. Maybe when I'm fifty-nine, maybe when I'm fifty-two.)