To deliver a message with the right amount of information, we use different elements of grammar. One such important part is the tenses. There are three main tenses, namely present tense, past tense, and future tense, that help us denote the time when an action occurs.
These main tenses are further divided into various aspects within themselves that indicate the time of action in a more precise and unique manner. Today’s topic, the future continuous tense, is one such part that belongs to the future tense. In a general sense, future continuous tense is an aspect that denotes an action that will be happening in the future.
It is usually used to talk about future happenings rather than now. However, there are several rules that we need to follow. So, let us get into a detailed discussion below.
What is future continuous tense?
By definition, we can say that the future continuous tense is an aspect of the future tense that denotes what is going to happen in the future. Its basic aim is to provide the information that an action will occur in the future and will certainly continue for a particular period or length of time.
In simple words, future continuous tense is a verb tense usually used to indicate an action happening at a given point in the future. Thus, this tense is also known as the future progressive tense. It talks about something that will occur and continue to an expected amount of time.
Form
Forming a future continuous tense is not very hard but different from that of the other tenses.
Here, we use the auxiliary verb will after the subject, followed by another auxiliary verb be. So, the phrase will be remains constant in the future continuous tense structure. After that, the main verb enters. The main verb is used in its present participle form. That means the root form of the verb is added with the suffix –ing.
So, a future continuous tense is formed with the combination of will be, followed by the main verb in its present participle form.
Let us look at some examples.
- She will be dancing tomorrow.
- I will be presenting in the class next week.
- They will be playing tomorrow’s match.
Furthermore, we can also form negative and question sentences with future continuous tense.
For a negative sentence, we simply apply not in between the two auxiliary verbs. For example;
- She will not be dancing at the fest.
- I will not be coming to school tomorrow.
And for a question sentence, we exchange the first auxiliary verb with the subject. The rest remains the same. For example;
- Will she be coming anytime soon?
- Will you be attending tomorrow’s class?
Uses
Now, let us have a quick look at the common uses of the future continuous tense.
- To describe an ongoing action at a particular time in the future.
- To make guesses or predictions of the future.
- To enquire politely about something.
So, these are some of the common uses and basic forms of future continuous tense. While they may seem easy, their uses can get tricky.