These questions ask you to view an action from a point in the future. Your task is to decide whether that point falls inside the action or comes after its completion.
Place the future point on a timeline
Start by finding the stated future time. Then mark the action's beginning and end, using any interval, deadline, promise or target in the sentence. If the future point lies between the beginning and end, present the action as underway with will be followed by the -ing form. If the action must end before that point, look back from the future point and use will have followed by the past participle.
| Timeline relationship | Form and viewpoint |
|---|---|
| The stated moment falls inside a continuing activity | Use will be plus the -ing form to show progress at that moment. |
| The action must be finished before a deadline or later point | Use will have plus the past participle to show a completed result. |
Words such as at, by and by then are useful signals, but meaning remains decisive. At often locates a moment within an activity. By usually sets a completion boundary. Still check the whole premise: a promised finished result cannot remain in progress at the deadline, and a known interval cannot already be complete halfway through.
The traps
| Tempting shortcut | How to reject it |
|---|---|
| Using the future continuous at a deadline that guarantees completion | The continuous form leaves the activity underway. A completed promise or finished total requires the future perfect. |
| Using the future perfect at a time that lies within an activity | The perfect form moves the action before the viewpoint. When the timeline shows that the activity is still underway, use the future continuous. |
| Using simple will for an action already underway at the future moment | Simple will places an event in the future but does not give the required inside view. Use will be plus the -ing form. |
| Using a present-tense form because a schedule fixes the activity | The schedule may establish the interval, but the sentence asks for a view from inside that future interval. That viewpoint needs the future continuous. |
| Using simple will when the sentence requires a finished result by a boundary | A simple future statement does not show that the result will already exist at the later point. Use will have plus the past participle. |
Try it
Tomorrow's schedule assigns Lena to inspect the upper floor from 9:30 until 10:30. At 10 a.m., she ___ it.
- inspects
- will have inspected
- will be inspecting
- is inspecting
Select all sentences that use the future continuous or future perfect correctly.
- The builders promise the stage will be ready by 9 a.m. on Monday; at 9 a.m. they will be assembling it.
- At 3 p.m. tomorrow, the swimmers will be crossing the lake halfway through their race.
- Guests arrive throughout the reception from seven until ten; at eight, the hosts will have welcomed every guest.
- By 31 December, the volunteers will have scanned all 8,000 archive cards.
Complete the sentence with the correct form of the verb in brackets: The agreed monthly deposits will continue at the same rate. By next July, Arun ___ (save) the full course fee, with none of the target amount left to save after that date.