Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

THE FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE

372

The future perfect progressive is formed with will/shall + have + been + -ing. It

indicates that an event will be in progress at a particular time in the future and

additionally highlights the duration of the event. 

Time or duration adverbials are usually needed to show the time-frame:

By six o’clock

they 

will have been meeting for almost ten hours.

Next January

the captain 

will have been playing for the club for twenty years.

FUTURE IN THE PAST

373

References to events in the past which were still in the future from the point of

view of the speaker normally use past tense verb forms:

He 

was coming until this afternoon and then he changed his mind.

(it was his plan/intention for the future until this afternoon)

Last time we met, your wife 

was going to learn Japanese.

(refers to an earlier point in time when the listener’s wife said ‘I’m going to

learn Japanese’, or something similar)

634 | Future time

Cambridge Grammar of English

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Would/should

is used in such cases instead of will/shall:

Joseph looked at the building where he 

would work for the next six months. 

I knew then that I 

should never see him again. 

(or less formal: … that I would never see him again.)