Name: Future perfect, or future perfect continuous? Ask BBC Learning English
Uploaded: 2026-01-16T17:38:19.000Z
Duration: 2 min 47 s
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Future simple

That was Ali's question, but we also want your questions.

You can email us@learningenglishbc.co.uk now back to the future perfect.

We're going to look at two similarities and five differences.

Now, both these tenses look to a point in the future and then look back.

Now, for both these tenses, we need a time reference.

Now, that might just be a date or time with by.

Or it could be some other way that makes the time obvious.

The future perfect refers to actions that will be completed before a time in the future.

We make it with will, have, and that's often will, of and the past participle.

By the end of today, I will have found five new clients.

Because we're talking about completion, we can use it with the question how many?

By the end of today, I will have emailed these seven people, I will have had three meetings and I will have finished a project.

The future perfect continuous refers to something that will still be in progress at a point in the future.

Now we make it with will, have and been, which often together is will have been and the ing form.

By 3 o', clock, I will have been talking about work for five hours.

By the end of this week, we'll have been planning this project for five days.

Here we're focusing on the action itself and the length of time spent doing it.

We can use it with the question how long?

By next week I will have been working here for hours.

Remember, we don't usually use ING forms with state verbs.

So we use the future perfect with state verbs.

By September, I will have been knowing my wife for 23 years.

By September, I will have known my wife for 23 years.