When to use Future Perfect Progressive Tense

Similarly to Future Perfect, Future Perfect Progressive is used to project oneself to the future when he or she will look back to a point in time which is also in the future. However, the focus here is on the continuity of the event that we are looking back to. For example, if you have exams in June and in June, you look back to the time you spent studying, you can say:

I will have been studying for a long time by June.
She will have been training for 10 years next month.
Kate will have been dating William for 20 years this year.

The focus, here, is on the process of studying, not the result of the action.

Structure of Future Perfect Progressive Tense

Subject + will + have + been + Progressive Participle of Main Verb + Object

Future Perfect Progressive combines the perfect and the progressive aspect in the future. It is the most complicated compound verb in the English language, but once you understand how aspects and tenses form a compound verb, it becomes easy to use. Similarly to other future tenses, the auxiliary verb ‘will’ is used to express future and it must be followed by a verb in first form. Therefore, we are going to need the auxiliary verb ‘to have’ to express perfection in present form. The progression is expressed by the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ which must be in past participle form ‘been’ because it follows the auxiliary verb ‘have’. Finally, ‘been’ is followed be the progressive participle (-ing form) of the action verb as in any other progressive tenses.

Some examples for the structure:
Uncle Bob will have been working there for 10 years by May.
I will have been learning English for only a year next week.

Do you remember that some verbs cannot be used in progressive tenses? To review them, click here.

Take a look at the following table to review how Future Perfect Progressive is formed:

Making the Future Perfect Progressive Tense negative

To create the negative form of a Future Perfect Progressive verb, you need to combine ‘not’ and the auxiliary verb ‘will’. The short form is ‘won’t’. Remember to use the short forms in informal conversations and the long forms in a written, formal context.

Subject + will not / won’t + have + been + Progressive Participle of Main Verb

Examples:
I won’t have been waiting here for 5 hours till he comes back.
Unless you convince me to stay, I won’t have been living here for 20 years.
They will have been practicing long by the time you get home.

Yes/No questions in Future Perfect Progressive

In the English language, questions are generally formed by switching the first auxiliary verb and the subject in a sentence. In case of the Future Perfect Progressive Tense, the first auxiliary verb is ‘will’ that must be switched with the subject.

Will not / Won’t + subject + have + been + Progressive Participle

Some examples:
Won’t you have been living here for 10 years in June?
Will he have been practicing enough by Friday?

Open-ended questions in Future Perfect Progressive

To form open-ended questions, simply put the question word to the beginning of the sentence. The word order folowing the question word remains tha same as in case of yes/no questions. For example:

How long will you have been living here in June?
How long will she have been training for that competition by the summer?

Typical adverbs of the Future Perfect Progressive Tense

The typical adverbs of the Present Perfect Progressive Tense are mostly the same with the typical adverbs of the Present Perfect Tense. However, the focus is always on the continuity of the action at a given moment. These adverbs and time expressions are:

for … years/days/hours, in (2020), by the time …, by (June), before, after, when, if, unless, etc.

Some examples:
By the time you get home, I will have been walking the dogs for 2 hours.
She will have been playing the piano for 5 years in October.
Kiara will have been working late, so she will be tired when she gets home.