Learn English Tenses: FUTURE PERFECT

Hi, I'm Rebecca. In this class, we will learn all about the future perfect tense. Now, this

class is part of a series, created by www.engvid.com, to help you master all of the English verb

tenses, step by step. Now, the future perfect tense is an advanced tense, and it will allow

you to speak about the future in a really interesting way that may or may not exist

in your own language. So, shall we begin? Let's get started.

So, we can use the future perfect tense in two ways. We use it to talk about an action

that will be completed before a specific time in the future, or before another action in

the future. So, let me explain again. It's an action that will be finished or completed

before a specific time in the future, or a specific other action in the future. Okay?

Let's look at an example. Then, you'll understand a little bit better, and as we go through

the lesson, you'll understand more and more. Alright.

So, let's look at this timeline. Let's pretend that I'm a university student and this is

where I am right now, okay? This is the present in time. And I'm thinking ahead and so I'm

saying, "Okay, six months from now, I will finish university", but when I think ahead

I say, therefore, "A year from now, or next year at this time, what things will already

be over next year, at this time, I will have finished university. I will have completed

all my classes. I will have passed all my exams" and all of those things. So, what we're

doing is we're using the future perfect to explain all the things that will already be

finished before a point in the future. Okay? And as we go along, you'll understand more

and more.

Let's just look very quickly at the structure. So, that's really easy. You just take the

subject, I, You, We, They, He, She, It, which you know very well. You add these two words

for every subject, you don't have to change anything, just say, for example, "I will have"

and then we take the verb, a regular verb, you can use the past participle or the past

participle of an irregular verb. Doesn't matter. Again, I'll explain that. So, you could say,

"I will have finished university." I will have completed my courses. I will have attended

my classes, and so on, okay? That's the basic overview.

Now, let's look at when to use the future perfect tense, so you can understand a little

more clearly. So, we use it, remember, to describe an action that will be completed

before a specific time in the future. For example: By next July, they will have moved

to the States, they will have started new jobs, and they will have bought a home. So,

where is the future perfect here? In three places. "Will have moved", "will have started",

and "will have bought". Right? By this time in the future, by next July, these three things

will have happened already. Okay? That means these things will have happened before. They

will have moved. They will have started new jobs, and they will have bought a home before

next July. Okay? Alright.

We can also use it to talk about a completed action that happens before another action

in the future. I know, it all sounds a little bit tricky, but it's not. It's really pretty

easy to understand. So, let's look at the example: Before you arrive, we will have eaten

dinner and the kids will have gone to bed. Alright? So, before you arrive, certain things

will already have happened. For that, we're using that future perfect tense. All of this

is happening in the future. You're going to arrive in the future, and these things that

I'm going to describe are going to happen in the future. Everything is in the future,

but in that future, what will happen first? So, before you arrive, we will have eaten

dinner and the kids will have gone to bed. "Will have eaten", "will have gone", okay?

So here, we're linking it to another action in the future. Here, we linked it to another

time in the future. Okay?

Next, we use it with certain expressions. There are certain common expressions that

you'll often find when using this tense, or when you're reading this tense. Words like:

before, right? We saw that. Before you arrive, or by the time you arrive. By the time I finish

university, okay? Or: by 9:00, alright? By Monday, by next summer, okay? These are some

common words and expressions that you can use when you're using the future perfect tense.

Now, let's look at the structure of the future perfect tense. So, I've divided the board

into three sections for positive sentences, negative sentences, and for questions. So,

let's go through them step by step.

So, with a positive sentence, we're basically going to follow this structure. We take the

subject, which is any one of these words, or any other word which is functioning as

a subject. We add "will have" always, doesn't matter which subject, and then you have to

add the past participle of the verb. What does that mean? It depends if we're talking

about a regular verb or an irregular verb. They change, the past participles are different.

For a regular verb, it's simply the same past tense form that you've always used, alright?

Like work - worked. Brush - brushed. Dance - danced, okay? That's the past participle

form. It's the same as the simple past tense. Now, with the irregular verbs, you have to

learn that third form, okay? So, for example, "leave, left, left", "I see, I saw, I have

seen", right, seen. So, that third form is what we need to use, and that is the past

participle of the irregular verb, alright? Now, when you study the verbs, you'll understand

what is exactly that irregular form, and there's always a list of irregular verbs in most grammar

books. Okay? Alright.

So, let's look at the positive sentence now. So, you would say: I will have arrived. Let's

say 24 hours from now, I will have arrived in Tokyo. Okay? You will have arrived. We

will have arrived. You can repeat it after me. They will have arrived. He will have arrived.

She will have arrived. It will have arrived. For example, the delivery, the parcel, okay?

The email, etc. Okay? That's with the regular verb.

Let's continue with the regular verb first, okay? To make it negative, it's really easy.

All we're doing is we're just adding "not", okay? I will not have arrived by that time.

You will not have arrived. We will not have arrived. They will not have arrived. He will

not have arrived. She will not have arrived, and It will not have arrived, okay? So, that's

really easy.

Now, let's look at the question. With the question, it would be: Will you have arrived?

So here, it gets a little bit separated, right? So, you have the "will" first, then you have

your subject, and then "have" + the verb, the past participle. So, "Will you have arrived

by 8:00?" Will they have arrived home by then? Okay? Will she have arrived tomorrow? Okay?

By tomorrow? That's how the question would be with the regular verb.

With the irregular verb, basically you just need that third form, which is the past participle,

and then you follow the same structure, right? You will have left by that time. They will

have left. "Left" is the third form of the verb "to leave", okay? And, if you want to

make it negative, you would say, "They will not have left." Again, we're just adding the

"not", alright, to make it negative. There is a contraction, which I will show you soon.

But, for now, this is the basic structure, alright? And then, again, the same thing if

you're asking a question with the regular or irregular verb, doesn't matter. You're

following the same structure. So, "Will they have left by that time?" Will she have left?

Okay? That's basically it.

Sometimes, when you're asking a question, you might want to put in a phrase, a kind

of like a question word or a phrase, like "By what time will they have arrived?" So,

I could write that, yeah? I could say "By what time", and then I'll have to not make

it capital, but just write with a small letter, okay? Because I'm continuing it. By what time

will they have arrived? Okay? That's it. And if you've understood this, you've understood

the structure of this tense. And basically, just remember the "will have", and that's

the key.

Now, let's look at how we form contractions with the future perfect tense. So, let's look

at this sentence: I will have moved. That's a sentence in the future perfect tense. But

very often, in informal English, in conversational English, we use contractions or shortened

forms. So, let's see how to do that.

So, instead of saying "I will", we can say, "I'll". Say it after me: I'll, okay? It's

a little bit tricky sometimes, to get that "l" sound out, but you can. But make sure

you are saying the "l" sound if you want to use the contraction. Because otherwise, it

will sound like "I have moved", and that's different, okay? So, how did we get to this?

We basically cancelled this part here and added an apostrophe, and then we joined these

two words and so it became "I'll". Say it after me: I'll have moved. You'll have moved.

Let's just say this part, okay? Because this is the part we want to focus on. Later, you

can say it by itself or in a sentence. We'll. They'll. He'll. She'll.

Let's say a couple of sentences: They'll have moved. She'll have moved. Okay? So, you need

to hear that "l" part before you go on. So, that's for the positive sentence.

Now, with the negative sentence, it's going to be a little bit different. So, what happens

- the normal negative sentence is "I will not have moved", right? But, when we contract

it, it's not logical. It doesn't follow the normal rules, we just have to use another

word. There's a kind of a linguistic history why this happens, but it doesn't matter for

you. For you, unless you're really, really interested, you can look it up. But for now,

just learn this form, and so, instead of saying "I will not have moved", you just say, "I

won't". Instead of "will not", we say "won't". Say it after me: I won't have moved. You won't.

We won't. They won't. He won't have moved. She won't have moved by then. Okay? So, that's

basically it. That's how we form the contractions in the future perfect tense.

Now, let's look at some of the spelling changes we need to make when using the future perfect

tense. So, the changes will be in the verbs, right? Either you're going to use a regular

verb or an irregular verb. The first part of the structure is, more or less, the same.

You use the subject, then you use "will have", then you have to use the past participle.

So, that's what we're going to look at. The past participle of regular verbs and of irregular

verbs.

So, with regular verbs, it's just the regular past simple form. So, let's look at some patterns

of spelling changes that you need to make. With most verbs, all you have to do to form

that past participle or past simple form is add -ed, right? That's all we're doing, we're

adding -ed. Just like here: work becomes worked. Check becomes checked. So, most verbs, we

just add an -ed.

With some verbs, however, we need to make other changes. If the verb already ends with

an e, then we don't need to add -ed, we just add -d. For example: live becomes lived. Change

becomes changed. Alright? So, all we added there was just a -d.

Next, let's look at another pattern of words. If you have a word that ends - a verb, actually

- that ends with a y, and before the y you have a consonant, which means any other which

is not a vowel. A vowel is A, E, I, O, U. But if you have a y, and before the y you

have a consonant like here: try, right? It ends with y, and before it is a consonant,

then what we do is we cancel the y and add -ied. So, try becomes tried. Study becomes

studied. Right? Same thing. I will have tried my best. I will have studied for the exam.

Right? Like that.

And the last pattern that we can kind of see, or one of the main patterns, is for verbs

that end with what's called a c-v-c pattern. So, "c" stands for consonant and "v" stands

for vowel. So, we look at the verb from the end. Let's look at this one, starts with a

c at the end, then we have a vowel, and then another c for consonant, right? C-v-c. So,

when you see a verb like that, when we look at it from the end and it has this pattern,

then you double the last letter. So, ship becomes shipped. They will have shipped your

order, right? We see that here. Or, hug. To hug means to embrace, like to embrace a child

or embrace somebody that you love is to hug. So, this also has a c-v-c pattern. So, the

last letter gets doubled. Hug - hugged. Alright? There you go.

So, these are some of the main changes with the regular verbs. Now, with the irregular

verbs, that's the third form, and you pretty much have to learn them, and you probably

know lots of them already. Because you've heard them, you've read them, and you may

know many more than you actually realize. But these are just some of them that I've

given to you, a few of the most common.

For example: go becomes gone in the third form, alright? We're talking about that third

form, that past participle that we need to use with the future perfect tense. I will

have gone. Do becomes done. He will have done his homework. Give becomes given. They will

have given. Take becomes taken. We will have taken. Write becomes written. She will have

written the report. Okay? And these are just a few of them. There are many more. You can

find a long list of them in any good grammar book, or online.

Now, let's practice what we've been learning. So, we're going to take some positive sentences,

some negative ones, and one question. And we're going to change them all into the future

perfect tense. Alright.

Number one: By the time he gets to the airport, the flight __________ (arrive). We want you

to use the verb "arrive". So, how can you express that in the future perfect? By the

time he gets to the airport, the flight - yes - will have - and then "arrive" is a regular

verb, so it becomes "arrived". Okay? Will have arrived. Good.

Let's look at number two: Next August, we ________ (be) - using the verb "be" - We _________

married for 25 years. What would that one be? Next August, we - yes - will have - and

what's the form of "be" that we have to use here? That's an irregular verb. What's the

third form? Will have been married for 25 years. Okay? "Will have been", "Will have

arrived", these are all future perfect tense. Okay.

Number three: By 3:00, he __________ (give) his presentation. And we want to use the verb

"give". So, what would that be? By 3:00, he will have - give becomes what? Given, okay?

This is another irregular verb. The three forms of that are "give, gave, given". And

here, we need that third form. Alright.

Number four: By 9:00pm, we ___________ (have) dinner. Now, the verb you're going to use

is "have". Don't let that confuse you. So: We - what do we say? We will have - what's

your verb? The verb you have to use - this you have to say anyway, right? Will have.

Now, you have to take the verb, just like you took "give" and made it "given", you take

"have" and make it what? We will have had dinner. Yes, we have this kind of construction

in English. We will have had dinner. Why? Because the expression here is "to have dinner",

so that's your verb. Just like here, the expression was "to give a presentation". Alright? Or

here, "to be married". So, whatever that verb is, you use the third form of that. Okay?

Alright, very good.

Now, let's make some sentences negative. I __________ (finish) work by 8:00pm. The verb

is "finish", but now, we're going to make it negative. So, what will that be? I will

not have finished, right? Because finish becomes finished, right? I will not have finished

work by 8:00pm, okay? Or, if we wanted to contract it, what could we say? I won't - I

won't have finished work by 8:00pm, okay? Very nice.

Number six: They ____________ (do) their homework. What does that become? They will not have

- what does do become? It's an irregular verb, and the third form is - they will not have

done their homework. Alright? Very nice.

Now, for the last one, let's make a question. So: ______ he __________ (eat) by then? How

do we start the question? Which word first? The word "will" - Will he have - what's the

form of the verb we need here? It's an irregular verb. Will he have eaten by then? Okay? Alright.

So, how did you do on those? Did you feel good? You're getting the hang of it? You're

getting used to it? That's the way. Practice is always the best way to perfect something.

Now, let's look at some common mistakes that are made when using the future perfect tense.

So, sometimes, the mistake is in the verb form for regular verbs. Let's look at an example,

and then you can help me to fix it. "By Monday, he will have start his new job." So, where's

the mistake? The mistake is in the verb itself, in the regular verb. What should it be? By

Monday, he will have - not "start" but "started", right? We have to change it to that form.

He will have started his new job. So, sometimes that regular verb isn't changed properly.

So, make sure that when you're writing it and using it, you do change it.

Sometimes, the mistake is in the verb form for an irregular verb. For example: In the

next few years, they will have teach thousands of children. So, again, where's the mistake?

In the verb form itself. This is an irregular verb. Let's go through it again: In the next

few years, they will have _________ thousands of children. So, what's the third form of

"teach"? It is "taught", taught. They will have taught thousands of children. Okay? Good.

Spelling. Sometimes, the mistakes are in spelling. We looked at some of those earlier. For example:

By next month, we will have planed the conference. That's what the person wanted to write, but

they made a little mistake in the spelling. Where's the mistake? Can you find it? So,

the mistake is actually in the spelling of the verb. So, let's look carefully: By next

month, we will have - whoops. That's wrong. Look, it's - the verb is "plan", right? So,

there's c-v-c, right? So, it should be "planned", right? We need to - in this case, we needed

to double the last letter.

And sometimes, the mistake is in the question form. Let's look at what this student wrote:

You will have finished shopping by that time? Now, if somebody said that, will I understand

them? Yes, I will understand them. But is it correct? No, it's not correct. And if you

write that in a test or an exam or an email, it doesn't sound very good. It's not correct.

So, how could we fix it. It's really easy. Remember the form for the question? How will

it start? It will start like this: instead of "you will", which is like a sentence, we

change the order and we write "Will you have finished shopping by that time?" okay? So,

remember, questions start with "will you", "will they", "will we", "will he", right?

That's the way we start the questions.

Now, these are just a few examples that I gave you, but they're just to show you the

kind of mistakes that are possible. So, be careful not to make mistakes with the verb

form for regular verbs or irregular verbs, the spelling of the verbs, and especially

with the questions.

So now, let's review. We have learned how to use the future perfect tense and when to

use it. And you know how to use it when you can do three things: make a positive sentence,

a negative sentence, and a question, such as we have on the board.

So, let's have a look at them. He will have retired. Here, we have a regular verb, "to

retire" means to stop working, because you reach a certain age. So, we could say, "By

next year, he will have retired." Or: By next year, he will not have retired. Or, we could

ask a question: Will he have retired by next year? Okay? When you can move quickly between

those sentences, you've got it.

Let's take an example with an irregular verb: She will have spoken to John by next week.

Or: She will not have spoken to John by next week. Or: Will she have spoken to John by

next week? Alright? Again, here we have the irregular verb "speak", which became "spoken".

So yes, you have to learn those as you go along.

But I think you've done an amazing job. You stuck with me till the end, and I know that

you're serious, and I'm sure that you've mastered a lot of this already. So, what you can do

now is write some sentences of your own. Practice saying some sentences of your own to talk

about your life, to talk about people in your life. What will you have achieved by next

year? What will you have done by next year? What will have completed by next year? Write

out some sentences. Write out some plans, write out your vision for the future, okay?

And you can use this tense and practice it.

Then, when you're ready and you feel that you're comfortable with this tense, move on

to our next class, which is on the future perfect continuous tense, which is also called

the future perfect progressive tense. Alright? And if you'd like to do a little more practice

on this, you can always do a quiz at www.engvid.com . So, thanks very much for watching, and I

wish you the very best with your English.