Study materials
Three sentences about the same Friday. They describe three different moments inside it.
On Friday we will finish the project.
On Friday at noon we will be finishing the project.
By Friday we will have finished the project.
The plain future simply names the event. The other two put you inside the future: one shows a process in full swing, the other looks back from past the finish.
The Future Continuous: a window into a process
The formula is will be plus an ing form. It shows an action that will be running at a particular future moment.
This time tomorrow, I will be flying to Rome.
Don't call at eight, we will be having dinner.
This form has a second use that is not about time at all. A question with will you be sounds neutral: you are asking about a plan, not requesting or hinting.
Will you be using the car tonight?
Will you use the car tonight?
The Future Perfect: a look from past the finish
The formula is will have plus the third form. You mentally move to a future point and look back from there.
By Friday, we will have finished.
She will have left by the time you get there.
The word by is this form's main companion. It names the point you are looking from.
Accumulated duration
The third form combines both ideas: will have been plus ing. It counts how long the action will have run up to a future point.
By next June, she will have been working here for ten years.
This form is rare and is not used without need. It appears almost exclusively where a stretch of time is named with for.
The three forms side by side
They are easiest to remember by where your viewpoint stands in relation to the action.
| Form | Where you stand |
|---|---|
| will do | outside the event, simply naming it |
| will be doing | inside the process, with it running around you |
| will have done | after the event, with it already behind |
| will have been doing | after the event, counting how long it ran |
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is putting will into a time clause.
By the time you will arrive, we'll have finished. → By the time you arrive, we'll have finished.
The second is taking the plain future where by is present.
We will finish by Friday. → We will have finished by Friday.
The third is losing be or have from the chain.
At six I will working. → At six I will be working.
All three are caught by one question. Where am I mentally standing: before the event, inside it, or after it?
Try it right now
Describe tomorrow in English in three sentences: what you will be doing at a given hour, what you will have finished by the evening, and how long one of your tasks will have been running by then.
Then add one question with Will you be. Listen to how much more neutral it sounds.