The Future Perfect = will have + past participle. It shows an action that will be complete before a point in the future, often with by, by the time or before: By June I will have finished all the units. By the time he is twenty-five, he will have become a qualified engineer. Negative: won’t have + past participle; question: Will you have finished by Friday? Compare: Future Simple – the action happens in the future (I will finish on Friday); Future Perfect – the action is complete by Friday (I will have finished by Friday). By shows a deadline (not later than); until shows duration (up to that time). Career vocabulary: qualification, experience, skills, career path, apply for a job, job interview, CV.
Worked examples
By the end of the year, I will have completed two internships and written my CV.
She won’t have saved enough money by next summer.
Class activity
“Time capsule”: a student describes their life in ten years (By 2036 I will have...); the class discusses which sounds realistic.
Practice
1
Complete: By next May we ___ (finish) the whole course.
will have finished
2
Future Simple or Future Perfect? “I will call you at six.” / “I will have called everyone by six.”
Future Simple; Future Perfect
3
Write a Future Perfect sentence about your career.
For example: By the age of thirty I will have worked in two different countries.
4
Why do we use “by” and not “until” in “I will have finished by Monday”?
By gives a deadline (not later than Monday); until would show how long something continues.