The ESL Future Perfect Continuous verb tense is one of the last tenses taught to ESL and EFL learners. Thorough coverage of this tense will cover verb conjugation, verb tense forms and verb tense functions. This page provides tips for teaching ESL students the Future Perfect Continuous tense (also called the Future Perfect Progressive).
For a thorough discussion on how to teach verb tenses to ESL and EFL students, see Teaching ESL Verb Tenses.
ESL Future Perfect Continuous Conjugation
The Future Perfect Continuous (or Future Perfect Progressive) is constructed this way:
subject + will have been + -ing.
The verb conjugation is the same for all subjects, however, this verb tense has the longest string of words. So it's often difficult for English language learners to consistently get the order right.
Here are some examples of Future Perfect Continuous verbs with I, you, he/she/it, they, and we.
1. I will have been talking. I will have been walking. I will have been dancing. I will have been eating.
2. You will have been talking. You will have been walking. You will have been dancing. You will have been eating.
3. She/He/It will have been talking. She/He/It will have been walking. She/He/It will have been dancing. She/He/It will have been eating.
4. They will have been talking. They will have been walking. They will have been dancing. They will have been eating.
5. We will have been talking. We will have been walking. We will have been dancing. We will have been eating.
ESL Future Perfect Continuous Forms
Here are the Future Perfect Continuous forms all English language students must learn.
1. Affirmative Usage (e.g., He will have been teaching English as a Foreign language for forty years by the time he retires.)
2. Negative Usage (e.g., She will not have been living there for very long when she moves.)
3. Yes/No Questions (e.g., Will you have been working at your company for many years when you retire?)
4. Short Answers (e.g., Yes, he will have been. No, he won't have been. Or, Yes, he will have. No, he won't have.)
5. WH- Questions (e.g., How long will the children have been sleeping when the alarm goes off?)
ESL Future Perfect Continuous Tense Functions
The Future Perfect Continuous is used to emphasize the duration of an activity that will be in progress before another time or event in the future.
Here are some examples:
She will have been sleeping for only four hours when the alarm goes off.
We will have been driving for fifteen hours by the time we arrive in Los Angeles.
At midnight, I will have been studying English grammar tenses for three hours.
Also, the activity that will be in progress before the other time or event in the future may be something that started in the past.
For example:
He is going to move next year. He will have been living in the same house for twenty years when he moves.
ESL Student Challenges
The Future Perfect Progressive tense can sometimes be used interchangeably with the Future Perfect.
For example:
He is going to move next year. He will have lived in the same house for twenty years when he moves.
It's 11 p.m. At midnight, I will have studied English grammar tenses for three hours.
Remind the student that the Continuous/Progressive tense is used when you want to emphasize the duration of an activity. This will help the ESL learner to distinguish when to use each of these two tenses more effectively.
