Future continuous and future perfect: countdown to launch – future continuous and future perfect exercises for B2
About this lesson
This B2 drill lesson gives future continuous and future perfect exercises: an action in progress at a future moment, or finished before it.
- Grammar
- Will be + -ing (This time tomorrow, I'll be flying to Tokyo.) against will have + past participle (By Friday, I'll have finished the report.), their negatives and questions, and by vs until.
- Topic
- An invented space-tourism company emails a passenger her countdown, from training week to an eleven-minute flight to the edge of space.
- Activities
- Gap-fills, sorting, tables, word order, find-the-mistake quizzes, a memory game, drag-and-drop messages, a chat with a friend in mission control and a final test.
What's inside
Chapter 1The rule
- PictureUnlock
- Study the scheme: future continuous and future perfectGrammar schemeTry it
- Is the sentence correct? Mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
- Sort the sentences: in progress or finished?Sort into columnsTry it
- Choose the right formChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: the missing word after willFill in the gapsUnlock
Chapter 2In the middle of it: will be + -ing
- Fill in the gaps: the future continuousFill in the gapsTry it
- Choose the right words: negatives and questionsChoose the optionUnlock
- Put the words in the right order: questions and negativesUnjumbleUnlock
- Fill in the table: the future continuousFill in the tableUnlock
- Match the situations and the sentencesMatchUnlock
- Find the mistake and choose the right words: will be + -ingQuizUnlock
- Read Marisela's message and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 3Done by then: will have + past participle
- Find the matching pairs: verb and past participleMemory gameUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: the future perfectFill in the gapsUnlock
- Choose the right word: deadline or duration?Choose the optionTry it
- Put the words in the right order: the future perfectUnjumbleUnlock
- Choose the right form: the future perfectChoose the optionUnlock
- Find the mistake and choose the right words: will have + past participleQuizUnlock
- Read Rangi's project update and fill in the gaps: the future perfectFill in the gapsUnlock
Chapter 4In progress or done?
- Choose the right form: in progress or finished?Choose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: future continuous or future perfect?Fill in the gapsUnlock
- Choose the right sentence for the situationQuizUnlock
- Choose the right words: time clausesChoose the optionUnlock
- Match the questions and the answersMatchTry it
- Choose the correct sentenceQuizUnlock
- Read Ffion's message and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 5Real life: Countdown to launch
- Read the email from Halverd OrbitalReal-life documentUnlock
- Read the email again: true or false?True or falseUnlock
- Read the news story and fill in the gaps: future continuous or future perfectFill in the gapsUnlock
- Read the flight director's notes and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
- Choose the right replies: Sunniva texts youChatTry it
- Test yourself: choose the right answerQuizUnlock
Chapter 6Homework
- Choose the right form: plans and deadlinesChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with the future continuous: a busy SaturdayFill in the gapsUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with the future perfect: big goalsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Put the words in the right order: plans and goalsUnjumbleUnlock
- Fill in the table: in progress or finished?Fill in the tableUnlock
- Sort the sentences: correct or wrong?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Match the questions and the answers: plansMatchUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: more past participlesMemory gameUnlock
- Unscramble the past participlesAnagramUnlock
- Find the mistake and choose the right words: everyday EnglishQuizUnlock
- Choose the right sentence: what's true at that time?QuizUnlock
- Choose the right words: by, until and time clausesChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with the future continuous or the future perfect: a busy weekFill in the gapsUnlock
- Read Leopold's out-of-office reply and fill in the gaps: future continuous or future perfectFill in the gapsUnlock
- Read Isadora's postcard and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
Grammar: the future continuous and the future perfect
Both tenses stand at a moment in the future and look at an action from there. Will be + -ing finds it still going on; will have + past participle finds it done. Learners match each tense to its time words, build every form with will and keep will out of time clauses.
Future continuous and future perfect: where will you be?
In the middle of an action at a future time: will be + -ing. Finished before a future time: will have + past participle.
Will be + -ing: in the middle of it
The future continuous puts someone in the middle of an action at a future time: At 9 p.m., we will be watching the game. It often comes with this time tomorrow or at + a clock time, or says why you can't call: Don't call at noon. She'll be teaching.
subjectwill beverb + -ing
This time tomorrow, I'll be flying to Tokyo.
At 9 p.m., we will be watching the game.
Don't call at noon. She'll be teaching.
Will have + past participle: done by then
The future perfect says an action will be over before, or at, a future moment: By 2030, they will have built a new stadium. Its signal words include by, by then and already: When you land, I'll already have cleaned the apartment.
Future perfect: will have + past participle
subjectwill havepast participle
By Friday, I'll have finished the report.
By 2030, they will have built a new stadium.
By the time you wake up, we'll have left.
When do we use them?
Future continuous: in progress
- in the middle of an action at a future moment
- this time tomorrow · this time next week · at 8 p.m. tomorrow · when you arrive
- When you land, I'll be waiting at the gate.
Future perfect: finished before
- finished before (or at) a future moment
- by Friday · by then · by the time you… · by the end of the year · already
- When you land, I'll already have cleaned the apartment.
Won't, Will…? and short answers
Will and won't are the same for every person: I won't be working. She won't have finished. Questions open with Will: What will you be doing? How much will you have saved? Short answers stop at will or won't: Yes, I will.
| Form | Future continuous | Future perfect |
|---|---|---|
| Positive (+) | I will be working. · She'll be working. | I will have finished. · She'll have finished. |
| Negative (−) | I won't be working. (won't = will not) | I won't have finished. (won't = will not) |
| Question (?) | Will you be working? | Will you have finished? |
| Wh- question | What will you be doing? | How much will you have saved? |
| Short answers | Yes, I will. · No, I won't. | Yes, I will. · No, I won't. |
| Every person | I, you, he, she, it, we, they will be + -ing | I, you, he, she, it, we, they will have + past participle |
Polite questions, by and until
Will you be using the car tonight? asks about someone's plans politely, often before a request. By means not later than, so it goes with the future perfect: I'll have finished by six. Until covers all the time up to then: I'll be working until six.
Polite questions · by or until?
Will you be + -ing? asks politely about someone's plans: Will you be using the car tonight? (If not, can I take it?) by = not later than; it goes with the future perfect: I'll have finished by six. until = all the time up to then; it goes with an action that continues: I'll be working until six.
Time clauses and common mistakes
After by the time, when, before, until and as soon as, a present tense replaces will: By the time you arrive, we'll have eaten. Other usual slips are will have went for will have gone and until Friday for a deadline.
Time clauses · will have been + -ing
After by the time, when, before, until and as soon as, use a present tense, never will: By the time you arrive (not: will arrive), we'll have eaten. Tip: the future perfect continuous says how long an action will have gone on at a future moment: By June, I'll have been working here for ten years.
Common mistakes
This time tomorrow I will lie on a beach.
This time tomorrow I'll be lying on a beach.
in progress at that moment → will be + -ing
By noon, the guests will have went home.
By noon, the guests will have gone home.
will have + past participle: go → gone
By the time you will arrive, we'll have eaten.
By the time you arrive, we'll have eaten.
no will after by the time
I'll have finished it until Friday.
I'll have finished it by Friday.
by = not later than
Examples
- This time next week, we'll be skiing in Colorado.in progress
- Don't call at eight. I'll be driving home.in progress
- Will you be joining us for lunch?a polite question about plans
- By the end of the year, I'll have saved $5,000.finished before
- When you get home, the kids will already have gone to bed.finished before
- Sorry, I won't have finished the report by Monday.negative
More lessons on this grammar: Future tenses lessons and exercises
Try the future continuous and future perfect exercises
Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.
What's in the lesson
- 39 auto-checked exercises
- 6 games
- 1 real-life document
- 1 grammar scheme
- 1 picture
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- say what will be in progress at a future moment: At noon tomorrow, they'll be flying over the Atlantic.
- say what will be finished before a future moment: By the end of the day, the bakery will have sold 500 croissants.
- make negatives, questions and short answers in both tenses: Will you be using the printer this afternoon? Will you have finished the essay by Wednesday?
- use by for a deadline and until for a stretch of time: I'll be at the office until six, so call me at home after that.
- keep will out of time clauses: By the time you arrive, the café will have closed.
Future continuous and future perfect: countdown to launch is lesson 1 of English Grammar Practice · B2, and it sits on the future tenses page. It picks up from B1 lessons 5 and 6, Future forms: plans, promises and timetables and Future time clauses: I'll call you when I land, and hands over to lesson 2, Future in the past: it was going to be perfect. With no new vocabulary, the countdown slots in beside whatever course a class uses.
The rule chapter has a picture, the scheme and four first drills, from true or false to the missing word after will. “In the middle of it” drills will be + -ing in gaps, questions, a table and Marisela's note to her house sitter. “Done by then” opens with a memory game of participles, then sets deadlines against durations and fills in Rangi's project update. “In progress or done?” mixes both tenses, time clauses included, and ends with Ffion's moving-day message. In the real-life chapter, students read Halverd Orbital's email to a passenger, a news story and the flight director's notes, answer texts from Sunniva, who works in mission control and take a 12-question test.
The 15 homework tasks mark themselves: forms to choose, a busy Saturday and big goals in gaps, word order, a table, a correct-or-wrong sort, a question match, a second memory game, an anagram of participles, two quizzes, by and until, a busy week, Leopold's out-of-office reply and Isadora's postcard from a bike trip in Portugal.
- Grammar:
- future continuous · future perfect · will be + -ing · will have + past participle · by vs until
- Topic:
- grammar practice · space travel · plans and deadlines · work
Teaching tips
- Draw a line from now to launch day and mark 9:00 and 9:11 a.m. from the Halverd Orbital email. Students say what the passengers will be doing at nine and what will have happened by 9:11.
- Ask about tomorrow at set times: What will you be doing at 7 p.m.? Then ask about a deadline: What will you have done by Friday? Each student answers both, one with each tense.
- Put by and until on a clock: by six is a point you must reach, until six a line that stops there. Students mark the lesson's examples before the deadline-or-duration drill.
- Collect the broken participles from the find-the-mistake quizzes, such as will have went and will have spended, and have students fix them aloud before the memory game.
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The whole course: English Grammar Practice · B2
English Grammar Practice · B2 has 24 drill lessons, one grammar point each: the future perfect and continuous, the third and mixed conditionals, wishes, past modals, the impersonal passive, have something done, participle clauses, reporting verbs and verb patterns. Each has the rule as a scheme, 43 to 47 exercises that check themselves, 15 of them for homework, and no new words.See the course
- 1Future continuous and future perfect: countdown to launch
- 2Future in the past: it was going to be perfect
- 3Past perfect continuous: what had been going on?
- 4Third conditional: if I hadn't missed that train…
- 5Mixed conditionals: where would you be now?
- 6Unless, in case and as long as: on one condition
- 7Wish and if only: is it too late?
- 8Would rather, had better and it's time: the couch crisis
- 9Past modals of deduction: what must have happened here?
- 10Should have and needn't have: what went wrong?
- 11Impersonal passive: it is said that…, she is said to…
- 12Have and get something done: who did the work?
- 13Non-defining relative clauses: the extra information
- 14Participle clauses: having planned everything
- 15Reporting verbs: what did they really say?
- 16Verbs + -ing or to: stop doing or stop to do?
- 17Make, let, allow and get: who makes the rules?
- 18Dependent prepositions: depend on, interested in, a reason for
- 19So do I and neither do I: agree, disagree and insist
- 20Articles with general ideas: life or the life?
- 21As, like and as if: interview like a pro
- 22Negative and echo questions: didn't you know?
- 23To, in order to and so that: what's it for?
- 24No use, no point and worth + -ing: what's worth your time?