What is The Future Perfect Progressive Tense?

Future Perfect Progressive Tense

'By the end of this bicycle race, I will have been riding for two weeks straight.'

This is an example of how we use the future perfect progressive tense. What does that mean exactly? Well, the technical definition is that it describes a continuing action that will be completed at some point in the future. The name sounds intimidating because it actually combines a couple different ways that we use verbs, or action words. But it's less intimidating when you break it down.

• 'Future' means it is in the future tense, or going to happen at some point later than now.
• 'Perfect' describes a set of verb tenses that refer to actions that have been completed at a specific point.
• 'Progressive' refers to actions that are continuous, meaning they happen over a long period or while something else is happening.

There is still a lot going on here, so let's break this tense down even further.

Forming the Future Perfect Progressive Tense

Future perfect progressive tense is formed by combining the helping verbs 'will have been' with the main verb in its '-ing' form, otherwise known as the present participle. Here are some examples. Pay attention to the 'will have been' and the '-ing' verbs:

• When I graduate, I will have been attending school for six years.
• By the time she goes home, Jane will have been living in Europe for eight months.
• John will be tired when he gets home because he will have been working for 12 hours straight.
• Even though she will have been backpacking across Europe all summer, Emily will back in time for school to start.

When Do You Use Future Perfect Progressive Tense?

As you might have noticed in our examples, future perfect progressive is a very specific tense, and one that is not used very often. In order for it to be used, a few things need to be present in the sentence.

First, there needs to be a specific point at which the activity ends. Remember, all perfect tenses describe an action that ends at a specific point. Let's look back at an example:

When I graduate, I will have been attending school for six years.

In this example, the ending point is in the first part of the sentence: 'When I graduate.' This is common, though it can also come at the end of the sentence, as in this example:

Even though she will have been backpacking across Europe all summer, Emily will back in time for school to start.

This time the end point is when school starts, but the principle is the same.

In addition to an end point, you also need a reference to how long the action went on. Remember, all continuous tenses refer to an ongoing action that happens over a period of time. Let's look back at two of our examples:

• By the time she goes home, Jane will have been living in Europe for eight months.
• John will be tired when he gets home because he will have been working for 12 hours straight.

In each, we see the specific amount of time the activity went on. It is 'eight months' in the first sentence and '12 hours' in the second.