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

---

noun

1. 1. the future perfect tense

   2. a verb in this tense

Etymology

Origin of future perfect

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

"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 Totonaca language unites the perfect, in the person spoken of, with the third person singular of the future of the substantive verb, to form a future perfect.

From The Philosophic Grammar of American Languages, as Set Forth by Wilhelm von Humboldt With the Translation of an Unpublished Memoir by Him on the American Verb by Brinton, Daniel Garrison