244 Part IV: The Grammar You Need to Know – and How to Teach It
Looking forward to the future perfect continuous
You use the future perfect continuous tense for an action that continues up to
a particular point in the future. In the section on the future perfect I used the
example of retirement. However, this isn’t a suitable example for the future per-
fect continuous as you only use it to express an action that’s completed over a
period of time – and the act of retirement happens just once. People arrive at
retirement age and just stop. In comparison, ‘working’ is something we do over
an extended period of time and is therefore more suited to this tense.
The future perfect continuous tense always includes four important parts:
After the subject comes will plus have plus been plus a gerund:
I will have been typing.
You will have been typing.
He/she/it will have been typing.
We will have been typing.
They will have been typing.
In a negative sentence you use not after will or won’t instead.
I will not have been typing.
I won’t have been typing.
You change the word order in a question. So, put will before the subject pro-
noun:
Will you have been typing for hours by then?
With so many verbs in a row the pronunciation naturally becomes very con-
tracted. ‘Will have been’ is reduced and connected to sound almost like one
word. This is represented in phonemes like this: /wiləvbin/.
The main verb that follows, carries much more stress (emphasis) when you
speak.
There’s often little difference in meaning between the future perfect and
future perfect continuous except for the emphasis on the duration of time in
the continuous form. Both of these sentences are grammatically correct but
the second is more likely because 20 years is a long time and would naturally
be emphasised.
I will have lived here for 20 years.
I will have been living here for 20 years.
