Future Perfect Continuous Tense Definition, Affirmative, Negative and Interrogative Sentences
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Future Perfect Continuous Tense
The Future Perfect Continuous Tense is often confused with the Future Continuous Tense, which is used to indicate the duration of an action done up to that particular moment, not at a particular moment in the future. The most important difference between Future Perfect Continuous Tense and Future Continuous Tense is that Future Perfect Continuous Tense emphasizes the duration while Future Continuous Tense emphasizes the action done.
The Future Perfect Continuous Tense has no limits on its usage, you can use it any time you want in daily life, but the key point of using this tense is to talk about the future. If you want to tell how long a job has been done while talking about the future, you should use the Future Perfect Continuous Tense.
How to Use Future Perfect Continuous Tense?
You need to pay attention to the auxiliary verbs “have” and “has”, which can vary depending on the subject. Subjects “I, You, We, They” always use the auxiliary verb “have”. “He, She, It” subjects are those using the auxiliary verb “has”. However, this auxiliary verb change is not used in the Future Perfect Continuous Tense, the auxiliary verb you will use while making a sentence with the Future Perfect Continuous Tense is only the auxiliary verb “have”.
Just like the Simple Future Tense, the Future Perfect Continuous Tense has two different patterns. These patterns are “will have been doing” and “be going to have been doing”. Although “will” and “be going to” patterns cannot be used interchangeably in Simple Future Tense, there is no such limitation in Future Perfect Continuous Tense. However, when using the phrase “be going to have been doing”, you should pay attention that the auxiliary verb “be” is one of the auxiliary verbs “am, is, are” that will come to the subject and should be appropriate.
Future Perfect Continuous Tense Sentence Grammar Rules
Positive Sentences: If you want to make positive sentences with the Future Perfect Continuous Tense, there are two different patterns you can use: “will have been” and “be going to have been doing”. Don’t forget to use “am, is, are” when using the “be going to have been doing” pattern. The verb must be in the first form in both patterns and take the “-ing” suffix.
- Richard will have been studying at the library for six hours by nine o’clock.
- When Lina finishes university, Lina will have been learning her major for eight years because of her unsuccessful lessons.
Negative Sentences: The only thing that separates the negative sentence from the positive sentence is the “not” suffix added to the auxiliary verbs “will” and “be”.
- If Lowell will buy a car for himself, he will not (won’t) have been spending his time on the roads all day.
- Paula (she) is not (isn’t) going to have been doing workouts for over three hours.
Interrogative Sentences: In the questions, you make with the Future Perfect Continuous Tense, the auxiliary verbs “will” and “be” should be placed before the beginning, and the additions of “have been” and “going to have been doing” in the patterns should be added after the subject.
- Are (they) Gregor and Daniela going to have been being married for thirty years by 2019?
- Will Moses have been feeling sad by the time I make a surprise for him?
