Virtuous English Academy
Advanced Future Tenses in English (B2)
- #B2
- #Grammar
- #Rules
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English has many ways to talk about the future, and this lesson covers the advanced ones: the future continuous, future perfect and future perfect continuous. You will learn to express exactly when and how a future event happens.
English has no future tense in the strict grammatical sense — it has a set of forms that each express a different attitude towards what has not yet happened. At B2 you need to control all of them, including the future perfect, the future continuous and the more formal is to structure.
The distinctions are about certainty, evidence and control. Will predicts or decides; going to plans or infers from evidence; the present continuous reports a fixed arrangement; the present simple reflects a timetable outside your control; is to conveys official instruction or scheduled formality.
The two perfect forms let you position events relative to a future moment rather than to now. By December we will have completed the audit places completion before a deadline. This time tomorrow I'll be sitting in Rome places an activity in progress. Both are indispensable in professional English and appear constantly in B2 examinations.
How to form Advanced Future Tenses
| Form | Signals | Example |
|---|---|---|
| will | prediction, instant decision, promise | I'll deal with it. |
| going to | prior plan, evidence-based prediction | They're going to restructure. |
| present continuous | fixed arrangement with others | I'm meeting the auditors on Tuesday. |
| present simple | timetable beyond your control | The quarter ends on Friday. |
| future continuous | in progress at a future time | I'll be presenting at ten. |
| future perfect | completed before a future point | We'll have finalised it by then. |
| future perfect continuous | duration up to a future point | By May I'll have been here five years. |
| is to + infinitive | official arrangement or instruction | The minister is to visit on Monday. |
Advanced Future Tenses: the key rules
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The future continuous (will be + -ing) paints an action in progress at a future moment — and doubles as a polite way to ask about plans.
This time tomorrow we'll be flying over the Alps. Will you be using the car tonight?
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The future perfect (will have + participle) looks back from a future vantage point, typically with by.
By 2030 the company will have doubled in size.
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The future perfect continuous measures duration up to that future point.
In June I'll have been teaching for twenty years.
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Be about to, be due to, be on the point of cover the immediate future.
The ceremony is about to begin; the train is due to leave at 9:14.
When to use Advanced Future Tenses
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Setting and reporting deadlines
The future perfect is the precise form for anything completed before a stated future point.
By the end of Q3 we will have migrated every account.
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Describing your schedule diplomatically
The future continuous asks or states without implying request or obligation.
Will you be using the meeting room this afternoon?
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Formal announcements
Is to signals official arrangements and appears constantly in news and formal notices.
The report is to be published next month.
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Distinguishing plan from prediction
Going to for what has been decided; will for what you believe or decide now.
We're going to appoint internally. I think it'll be Petra.
Future perfect vs. future continuous
Both locate an event relative to a future moment, but one marks completion and the other marks progress.
Future perfect — finished by then
The action is complete at or before the future point. Almost always with by or by the time.
By Friday I will have submitted the tender.
Future continuous — happening then
The action is in progress at that future moment. Used with at, this time and precise clock times.
At three on Friday I'll be presenting the tender.
Advanced Future Tenses in example sentences
- By next spring the building will have been demolished.Future perfect passive.
- This time next week I'll be flying to Seoul.Future continuous with a fixed future moment.
- In June I'll have been working here for a decade.Future perfect continuous measuring duration.
- The committee is to reconvene in September.is to for a formal scheduled event.
- All staff are to report to reception at nine.is to conveying instruction.
- I'm seeing the client on Thursday.Present continuous for a fixed arrangement.
- The conference opens on the twelfth.Present simple for a timetabled event.
- Don't worry — I'll sort it out.will for a decision made at the moment of speaking.
Advanced Future Tenses in a real conversation
Six different future forms appear here — each carries a distinct signal.
Chair:Where will we be by the year end?
Finance:We'll have cleared the backlog if nothing slips.
Chair:And the external review?
Finance:The auditors are to arrive in October. I'm meeting them next week.
Chair:I'll be travelling then, so send me a summary.
Finance:Of course. By November I'll have been leading this for two years.
Common mistakes (and how to fix them)
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By Friday I will finish the project.
By Friday I will have finished the project.
By + future time point signals completion before that moment — future perfect territory.
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Don't call at eight — we'll eat dinner.
Don't call at eight — we'll be eating dinner.
An activity in progress at that future time needs the future continuous; will eat sounds like a decision.
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She will have been visited five countries by then.
She will have visited five countries by then.
A counted result takes the future perfect simple; the continuous is for unbroken duration, and it never uses the past participle of the main meaning twice.
Practise Advanced Future Tenses today
Anchor everything to a fixed future moment and describe your position relative to it.
- Write four future perfect sentences using by plus a date.
- Write four future continuous sentences using this time next week or a clock time.
- Write four sentences with is to, in both the instruction and the announcement sense.
- Describe your next month using six different future forms, one per sentence.
Advanced Future Tenses: frequently asked questions
Does English really have no future tense?
Not in the way it has a past tense. A tense is normally marked by an inflection on the verb, as -ed marks the past. English future meaning is carried by modal verbs and periphrastic structures instead — will, going to, present forms. This is why grammarians speak of future forms rather than a future tense, and why English offers so many alternatives where other languages have one.
When is is to used?
For official arrangements, formal instructions and orders, particularly in journalism and institutional writing: The Prime Minister is to address Parliament. All applicants are to submit two references. It carries a sense of authority or predetermined schedule. It also appears in conditional and hypothetical structures — If we are to succeed, we must act now — where it means in order to.
How does the future perfect continuous differ from the future perfect?
The perfect measures completion, while the perfect continuous measures duration reaching a future point. By Friday I'll have written the report means it will be finished; By Friday I'll have been writing it for a month measures how long the activity will have lasted. The continuous form is relatively rare and is used mainly with explicit periods of time.
Why can I not use will after when or if?
Because English marks future time only once, in the main clause. After time and condition words — when, if, as soon as, before, after, until, unless — a present form carries future meaning: I'll call you when I arrive, not when I will arrive. The exception is when when introduces a genuine question — I don't know when he will arrive — where it is not a time clause at all.