The future perfect continuous tense is used to describe actions that will be in progress up to a specific time in the future. It is formed by using the auxiliary verb “will” (or “shall,” in certain cases) and the present participle of the main verb (which is usually the base form of the verb with the ending “-ing,” such as “eating,” “drinking,” “walking”).
Here are some examples of the future perfect continuous tense:
- “I will have been eating breakfast for an hour by 8 o’clock tomorrow morning.” (action that will be in progress up to a specific time in the future)
- “The sun will have been rising in the east for an hour by 6 o’clock tomorrow morning.” (action that will be in progress up to a specific time in the future)
- “She will have been speaking Spanish fluently for many years by the time she graduates.” (action that will be in progress up to a specific time in the future)
In the future perfect continuous tense, the auxiliary verb “will” (or “shall,” in certain cases) is used to indicate that the action will be in progress up to a specific time in the future, and the present participle of the main verb is used to describe the action.
Conjugation Tables
Here are the conjugation tables for the future perfect continuous tense for the verbs “eat,” “drink,” and “walk”:
EAT:
| Subject | Eat |
|---|---|
| I | will have been eating |
| you | will have been eating |
| he/she/it | will have been eating |
| we | will have been eating |
| you (plural) | will have been eating |
| they | will have been eating |
DRINK:
| Subject | Drink |
|---|---|
| I | will have been drinking |
| you | will have been drinking |
| he/she/it | will have been drinking |
| we | will have been drinking |
| you (plural) | will have been drinking |
| they | will have been drinking |
WALK:
| Subject | Walk |
|---|---|
| I | will have been walking |
| you | will have been walking |
| he/she/it | will have been walking |
| we | will have been walking |
| you (plural) | will have been walking |
| they | will have been walking |
Note: The future perfect continuous tense is used to describe an action that will have been in progress for a certain amount of time in the future. For example, “I will have been eating for two hours by the time the movie ends.”