The 12 Basic English Tenses: Future Continuous

Future Continuous

The Future Continuous tense is often used in English as a way to talk about something happening at a given point in the future.

How do we make the Future Continuous tense?

The structure of the Future Continuous tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb WILL	+	auxiliary verb BE	+	main verb
		invariable		invariable		present participle
		will		be		base + ing

For negative sentences in the Future Continuous tense, we insert not between will and be. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and will. Look at these example sentences with the Future Continuous tense:

	subject	auxiliary verb		auxiliary verb	main verb
+	I	will		be	working	at 10am.
+	You	will		be	lying	on a beach tomorrow.
-	She	will	not	be	using	the car.
-	We	will	not	be	having	dinner at home.
?	Will	you		be	playing	football?
?	Will	they		be	watching	TV?

Contraction with Future Continuous

When we use the Future Continuous tense in speaking, we often contract the subject and WILL:

I will	I'll
you will	you'll
he will she will it will	he'll she'll it'll
we will	we'll
they will	they'll

In negative sentences, we may contract with won't, like this:

I will not	I won't
you will not	you won't
he will not she will not it will not	he won't she won't it won't
we will not	we won't
they will not	they won't

How do we use the Future Continuous tense?

The Future Continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the future. The action will have started before that moment but it will not have finished at that moment. For example, tomorrow I will start work at 2pm and stop work at 6pm:

At 4pm tomorrow, I will be working.
past	present	future
4pm
		At 4pm, I will be in the middle of working.

When we use the Future Continuous tense, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about. Look at these examples:

• I will be playing tennis at 10am tomorrow.
• They won't be watching TV at 9pm tonight.
• What will you be doing at 10pm tonight?
• What will you be doing when I arrive?
• She will not be sleeping when you telephone her.
• We'll be having dinner when the film starts.
• Take your umbrella. It will be raining when you return.