Main Uses

The future continuous is used to denote:

1) an action or event that will be in progress at a definite moment in the future, which is indicated either by an adverbial phrase or clause (at 2 p.m., at this time tomorrow, when you arrive etc.): At four o’clock on Tuesday afternoon we’ll be flying over Vienna.

2) an action or state that will be going on over a period of time in the future, indicated by adverbial phrases such as all evening, during holidays, from October to November, for the next few weeks or an adverbial time clause (with while) for a parallel future action: I’ll be living in London for three weeks next summer. The Browns will be staying at my place all weekend.

3) a future action viewed by the speaker as part of a regular routine: Will you be going anywhere near the post-office today? – Yes, I’ll be passing it on my way home.

4) a future event which has already been arranged: I’ll be seeing him tomorrow.

NOTE!‘Begoing to’ or the present continuous + time word can frequently be used instead of the future continuous. The main difference between the three is that ‘be going to’ and the present continuous + time word usually refer to planned or intentional futures: I’m going to see her tomorrow – we arranged it last week. I’m seeing her tomorrow, to talk about the new contract.

The future continuous is less intentional: I’ll be seeing her tomorrow at the weekly sales conference. I’ll talk to her about it then.

5) to refer to the present, when we are guessing about what people are doing: Peter and Tom will be lying at the beach in Corfu at the moment.

The Future Simple – the Future Continuous

The Future Perfect

Formation: It is an analytical form which is built up by means of the auxiliary verb to have in the simple future and the participle II of the notional verb. (e.g. He’ll have read the book by that time.)