Future Perfect

 

The Future Perfect is used to talk about an event or action that will be finished before a certain event or time in future:

• They will have built the house (the house will be ready) by February (‘by’ here means ‘before’).

 

To make the Future Perfect, use will have + the past participle.

 

Note: For regular verbs, this is the “-ed” form of the verb. For the list of past participle forms of irregular verbs see Verbs: irregular in the Pre-Intermediate course.

 

Singular	Plural
I will have (’ll have) finished You’ll have finished He/she/it ’ll have finished	We’ll have finished You’ll have finished They’ll have finished

 

• Jack will have read all his books by next month.
• The next time you see me, I’ll have had a haircut.
• We are late! The play will have started by the time we get to the stadium.

 

 

Future Continuous

 

The Future Continuous is used to describe an event or action that will be in progress at a given time in the future.

This event or action will start before the given time and may continue after it.

• Right now Daniel is working in a cafe. (Present Continuous)
• In 3 years’ time he hopes he will be running his own restaurant. (Future Continuous)

 

To make the Future Continuous, we use will be + the “-ing” form of the verb:

 

Singular	Plural
I will (’ll) be waiting You’ll be waiting He/she/it’ll be waiting	We’ll be waiting You’ll be waiting They’ll be waiting

• This time next week I’ll be walking in the parks of Versailles.
• Tom will be starting school in September.

 

The Future Continuous is also used in  neutral questions — to ask for information, but not to make a request.

Consider the following examples:

 

Neutral question	Request
Will you be passing by the new grocery store? They have a wide selection of tea on sale.	Will you pass by the new grocery store, please? We’ve run out of tea.
Will you be attending the meeting this afternoon? Several interesting speakers are expected.	Will you attend the meeting this afternoon, please? They’ll discuss the topics of your interest.

 

 

The Future Continuous can sometimes be formed with ‘going to’ instead of ‘will’, but this is less common.

Use am/is/are + going to be + the “-ing” form of the verb:

• I’m going to be studying all day long.
• Do you want to go to a concert tonight? My wife’s going to be performing.
• Shall we have lunch together on Friday? Peter and Jessica are going to be visiting our city.

 

Present Perfect Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous?

 

 

How do you choose between the Present Perfect Continuous and Past Perfect Continuous?

 

The Present Perfect Continuous is used to talk about an action in progress that was taking place until the present moment.

• I’m really tired. I have been carrying those bags for half an hour.

 

The Past Perfect Continuous is used to talk about an ongoing action that was taking place until another specified moment in the past.

• I had been carrying those bags for half an hour when I met Peter and he helped me.

 

Consider the following examples:

 

Present Perfect Continuous	Past Perfect Continuous
I‘m really thirsty. I have been cycling for three hours.	I was really thirsty. I had been cycling for three hours.
They have been playing all day long and now they are tired.	They had been playing all day long before they got tired and went home.
Mary haven’t been doing well at school last month and the results of her tests are poor.	Mary hadn’t been doing well at school last month, so she failed her final tests.

 

Past Perfect Continuous: questions

 

To make questions in the Past Perfect Continuous, put had before the subject and add been + the “-ing” form of the verb:

 

Singular	Plural
Had I been skating? Had you been skating? Had he/she/it been skating?	Had we been skating? Had you been skating? Had they been skating?

 

• Had it been snowing for a long time before you went for a walk?
• Had you been playing chess with Timothy when your mom called you for dinner?
• Had she been studying Spanish for three years by the time she went to Madrid?  

 

Note: In short positive answers to the Past Perfect Continuous questions we use only full forms of had. In short negative answers we can also use short forms of had.

 

• Had you been playing football?
• Yes, I had (No, I hadn’t).

 

• Had she been watching TV at that moment?
• Yes, she had (No, she hadn’t).

 

Past Perfect Continuous: negative

 

To make negative statements in the Past Perfect Continuous, use:

 

had not been + the “-ing” form of the verb.

 

Singular	Plural
I had not been (hadn’t been) sleeping You hadn’t been sleeping He/she/it hadn’t been sleeping	We hadn’t been sleeping You hadn’t been sleeping They hadn’t been sleeping

 

• Mary decided to buy a new juicer because her old one hadn’t been working for years.
• He hadn’t been studying for 5 months before he returned to the university from a sabbatical leave.
• I hadn’t been training every day, so my results were very poor.

 

 

Past Perfect Continuous: statements

 

The Past Perfect Continuous is normally used with the Past Simple to talk about an activity that was in progress before another action or event happened.

 

In such statements the Past Simple refers to a specific completed event in the past. The Past Perfect Continuous describes a repeated or continuing action that was taking place before that completed event.

• He had been studying (Past Perfect Continuous) French for two years before he went (Past Simple) to Paris.
• By the time Nick arrived (Past Simple) to the station, he had been walking for two hours.

 

We can also use the Past Perfect Continuous to explain the cause of something in the past.

• My grades were great last semester because I had been studying every night.
• The plants died because we had actually been watering them too much.

 

To make the Past Perfect Continuous, we use had been + the “-ing” form of the verb:

 

Singular	Plural
I had (’d) been fishing You’d been fishing He/she/it’d been fishing	We’d been fishing You’d been fishing They’d been fishing

• Peter decided to buy a new car because his old one hadn’t been working for years.
• I went to see the doctor after I’d been feeling unwell for a few days.

Present Perfect or Past Perfect?

 

How do you choose between the Present Perfect and Past Perfect?

The Present Perfect is used to talk about an action that took place in the recent past and is still relevant to the present moment.

• The bus has left and we have to wait for another one.

The Past Perfect is used to talk about an action that took place before another moment in the past.

• The bus had left before we arrived to the station.

 

Consider the following examples:

Present Perfect	Past Perfect
I am so excited. I have just passed my exam.	I was so excited. I had passed my exam.
We’ve finished the game and now we’re having dinner.	We’d finished the game when mom called us for dinner.
His team has won and he is very happy.	His team had won, so he went to the bar to celebrate their victory.

 

Past Perfect: questions

 

To make questions in the Past Perfect, put had before the subject and add the past participle form of the verb:

Singular	Plural
Had I seen? Had you seen? Had he/she/it seen?	Had he seen? Had she seen? Had they seen?

• Had you seen Helen playing squash with Nicole before the rain started?
• Had he made any mistakes before the teacher asked him to hand in the test?
• You looked pale. Had anybody scared you?

Note: in short positive answers to the Past Perfect questions we use only full forms of ‘had’. In short negative answers we can also use short forms of had.

• Had you made your homework before the movie started?
• Yes, I had (No, I hadn’t).

 

• Had he already finished cleaning when you came in?
• Yes, he had (No, he hadn’t).

 

Past Perfect: negative

 

To make negative statements in the Past Perfect, use:

had not + the past participle form of the verb:

Singular	Plural
I had not (hadn’t) left You hadn’t left He/she/it hadn’t left	We hadn’t left You hadn’t left They hadn’t left

• Nick hadn’t attended our meeting, so we discussed everything without him.
• I hadn’t read the play before I went to the theatre to see it.
• They were so excited. They hadn’t danced together since 2014. 

 

Past Perfect: statements

 

The Past Perfect is normally used with the Past Simple to talk about two or more events that happened at different times in the past.

In such statements the Past Simple describes the event that is closest to the time of speaking. The Past Perfect describes an event further back in the past.

• The train had left (Past Perfect) before we arrived (Past Simple) at the station. (The train left earlier and we arrived later).
• Anthony had gone (Past Perfect) to the university when I knocked (Past Simple) on his door.
• He had cooked (Past Perfect) dinner before Gwen got (Past Simple) back from work.

To make the Past Perfect, use the verb had + past participle (for regular verbs, this is the “-ed” form of the verb. See more about participles in Unit **):

Singular	Plural
I had (I’d) planned You had planned He/she/it had planned	We had planned You had planned They had planned

In the following examples, even if the Past Simple action is first in the sentence, it still happened later:

• The traffic was bad because a car had broken on the road.
• When we arrived at the stadium, the game had already started.