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future perfect

American  
[fyoo-cher pur-fikt] / ˈfyu tʃər ˈpɜr fɪkt /

noun

  1. a verb construction, in English made up of the auxiliary verb will followed by a verb in the present perfect, used to express an action or state to be completed at or before a particular point of reference in time to come, such as By this time tomorrow, you will have given your speech and Next month she will have been cancer-free for six years.


adjective

  1. designating a verb construction used to express an action or state to be completed at or before a particular point of reference in time to come.

future perfect British  

adjective

  1. denoting a tense of verbs describing an action that will have been performed by a certain time. In English this is formed with will have or shall have plus the past participle

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

    1. the future perfect tense

    2. a verb in this tense

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of future perfect

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"As the future perfect turns into the present perfect, we can apply ourselves to creating a tolerable present and future — for ourselves and for the rest of life," Nijhuis writes.

From Salon • Apr. 1, 2021

Sociologist Karl Weick argues that we can make sense of the future only if we envision it as having already happened — that we think in the future perfect.

From Washington Post • Oct. 6, 2017

In the 19th century there was a huge number of utopias written about future perfect lives, but the Second World War changed that.

From The Guardian • Sep. 12, 2015

Some people live in the past; poets often live in the future perfect, imagining their current actions from the point of view of future recollection.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 24, 2015

The future perfect is formed by suffixing the particles te ar�zu or tar�zu to the root; e.g., aguete ar�zu or aguetar�zu 'I shall already have offered.'

From Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language by Spear, Richard L.

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