Future perfect tense verbs are verb tenses that use the helping verbs
will have and
shall have and the past participle of the verb.
They show actions that will occur before another action in the future.
By Friday, our team will have won the homecoming game.
By next year, I shall have graduated from high school.
The Perfect Tenses: A Brief Overview
Remember that
tense is an attribute of a verb that shows the time that the verb occurred.
Every verb has
three simple tenses.
1. Present Tense
2. Past Tense
3. Future Tense
Every verb also has
three perfect tenses.
Perfect tense verbs are formed with the helping verbs
have, has, had, will and
shall.
All perfect tenses use these helping verbs and the past participle of the verb. We'll get into what
past participle means in just a minute.
1. Present Perfect Tense Verbs are formed with the helping verbs
has and
have.
2. Past Perfect Tense Verbs are formed with the helping verb
had.
3. Future Perfect Tense Verbs are formed with the helping verbs
will have and
shall have.
Okay, you've read that these verbs are formed from the
helping verbs will have and
shall have and the past participle of the verb.
So, what do I mean by
past participle?
Well, every verb has what are called four
principal parts.
This means that we can take any verb and break it into these parts. Past participles are simply one of those principal parts of a verb.
Here is a chart showing you some examples of verbs broken into their principal parts.
Present |
Present Participle |
Past |
Past Participle |
learn |
(is) learning |
learned |
(have) learned |
won |
(is) winning |
won |
(have) won |
graduate |
(is) graduating |
graduated |
(have) graduated |
If you'd like to learn more about
past participles, click here.
Future Perfect Tense
Now that you know about past participles and perfect tenses, let's focus on these guys a little bit more.
Remember that they are formed with the helping verbs
will have and
shall have and the past participle of the verb, and they are used to show an action that will occur before another action in the future.
will have or shall have |
+ Past Participle |
 |
Future Perfect |
will have |
+ learned |
 |
will have learned |
will have |
+ won |
 |
will have won |
shall have |
+ graduated |
 |
shall have graduated |
There you have it! Now you know how to form this verb tense.
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