Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, we're going to talk about how to make questions using the future perfect tense. I'll review how to make questions with the simple future perfect and with the progressive or the continuous version. I'll introduce how to make it when we use it and a few example sentences. Let's get started.
I want to begin then with a quick review of future perfect tense and when to use it. You might have seen the video about the future perfect tense or the future perfect progressive tense. This is the same as that. To review though for this lesson, we use the future perfect tense to refer to actions that will or that won't, will not, be finished at a specific time in the future. This is very specific to this simple future perfect tense. To give a visual representation, if we're talking in our conversation in the present here now, there's some point in the future like tomorrow or 8:00 p.m. or Monday, for example. By this point in time, something, some action will or will not be finished by this point in time. I've marked this with a star and a question. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. We're using questions for this lesson. I've used a question mark for this. This is for the simple, the simple future perfect.
For progressive, however, which we'll also review quickly today. For progressive, this is for actions that will be continuing at a specific point in the future. This is one difference between the simple form and the progressive form. With the simple form, the action either will or will not be finished. With progressive form, the action will or will not be continuing. Let's take a look now at how to make future perfect questions. Let's begin with the simple version, future perfect simple questions.
To make a basic future perfect simple tense question, we begin with "will," then we add our subject, like "I, he, she," for example. We follow with "have," then we use the past participle form of the verb and any additional information. This is where we include our deadline or our cutoff point. I'll share some examples of this in just a second. If, however, we want to make a future perfect progressive question, we can use a very similar pattern. We begin again with "will," plus subject, plus "have." But to make the progressive form, we need to use "have been." And instead of the past participle form of the verb, we use the progressive or the continuous form of the verb, the "ing" form of a verb.
As we did with the simple future tense, simple future perfect rather, we then include any additional information. This is where we include our deadline or our cutoff point, our future reference point. That comes at the end of the sentence, the end of the question. If you want to make a negative, we simply replace "won't" for "will." Instead of using "will" at the beginning of this sentence, we use "won't." This tends to be used when we're confirming something. I'll show you an example of this at the end of the lesson, but we use this "won't" when we're asking about something we thought was true and we want to confirm that with another person. It's kind of a specific case. Again, I'll show you an example.
For now, though, let's practice making a few basic sentences with these patterns. All right. Over here, I want to use the verb "finish" for this sentence. "Will he have something, his report by Monday?" We see that Monday is our future point here. We also see we have "will he have." There's no "been" here. This tells us that it is a future perfect simple tense sentence. We need to use the past participle form of the verb. "Will he have finished his report by Monday?" means by this point in time in the future, Monday, will the report be finished? Will it not be finished? That's the question. We'll say either, "Yes, his report will be finished by Monday," or, "No, his report will not be finished by Monday." "Will he have finished his report by Monday?" He will have or he won't have.
Okay. Let's move along. "Will you have something by 8:00 p.m.?" The verb I want to use here is "eat." Again, we have "will you have." There's no "been" here. That's a good hint that we should use the past participle form of the verb, "eat." The past participle form of "eat" is "eaten." "Will you have eaten by 8:00 p.m.?" Perhaps, this is a dinner invitation, for example. "Will you have eaten by 8:00 p.m.?" The answer to this might be, "No, we won't have eaten," or, "No, I won't have eaten because I'm working," or, "Yes, I'll have eaten already," for example. We can use the future perfect tense to reply to this question as well. "Yes, I will have eaten." "No, I won't have eaten yet," for example. You can mix "yet" and "already" into your answers.
Okay. Let's continue along to the next example. "Will we have been something on this project for a month as of tomorrow?" Here, we do see "been." "Will we have been?" This is a big hint that we should use, the progressive or the continuous form of the verb. Our verb here is "work," so the progressive form is "working." "Will we have been working on this project for a month as of tomorrow?" "As of tomorrow" means tomorrow is kind of our landmark point. "At this point in time, at this specific point in time, tomorrow, will we have been continuously working on this project for a one-month period?" In other words, we began working on the project one month ago, one month in the past. We've been working continuously and we're still working on the project. This is a confirmation question. "Will we have been working on this project for a month as of tomorrow?" You could say, "Yes, we will have been working for a month," or, "No, we won't have been working for a month yet." Something like that could be the reply.
This is probably a confirmation question about how long a project has been in progress. I want to finish though with an example of this "won't" that I mentioned earlier. I made a conversation, actually. Let's take a look. A says, "Let's meet at 6:00 p.m." Let's imagine it's an office. "Let's meet at 6:00 p.m." B says, "Won't you have left the office by then? You have a dinner meeting." A says, "Oh, right." This is a very common example of when we might use this "won't" pattern. Like I said, it's used to confirm. A perhaps forgets his or her schedule, and therefore, suggests a six o'clock meeting. "Let's meet at 6:00 p.m." B, however, remembers the schedule and B asks this question to confirm the future plan. "Well, won't you have left the office by 6:00 p.m.?"
At this point in time, you will be gone. You will have left the office at some point before this, right? Using this "won't you" sounds like it's a confirmation. Isn't that right? Because you have a dinner meeting. A then remembers, "Oh, right." This is a very common way we might use this, but as you can see, it's kind of a specific situation where some person forgets a future schedule or a future planned action, another person in the situation remembers it though and they ask to confirm. You might see it used in something like this. However, we tend to use this more in the positive to ask positive questions about the future, about future activities.
I hope that that helps you make questions with the future perfect tense and with the future perfect progressive tense, not just simple. If you have any questions or comments or want to practice making some sentences, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and we will see you again soon. Bye-bye.

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