Future Continuous Tense

Definition: The Future Continuous Tense, also known as Future Progressive Tense, is used to talk about actions which will be in progress at a time in the future. For example, "He will be meeting us next week". Future Continuous Tense indicates ongoing nature of an action (meeting) which will occur in future.

Rules:

1. Helping verbs "will be" or "shall be" are used in sentence.
2. 1st form of verb + ing is used as main verb in sentence.
3. Helping verb "will" is used with subject (He, She, It, You, They and names) whereas helping verb "shall" is used with subject (I and We).

Structure of Future Continuous Tense

To make a correct sentence, it needs to understand structure of Future Continuous Tense. Here are formulas to make positive, negative, interrogative and interrogative negative type sentences of this tense.

Positive Sentence Formula

• Subject + helping verbs ("will be" or "shall be") + (1st form of verb+ing) + object

Examples

1. I shall be playing football tomorrow.
2. You will be going to school tomorrow.

Negative Sentence Formula

• Subject + ("will not be" or "shall not be") + (1st form of verb+ing) + object

Note: In negative sentence, "not" is used between helping verbs, so it becomes "will not be" or "shall not be".

Examples

1. I shall not be playing football tomorrow.
2. You will not be going to school tomorrow.

Interrogative Sentence Formula

• Helping verb ("Will" or "Shall") + subject + helping verb ("be") + (1st form of verb+ing) + object

Note: In Interrogative sentence, helping verb ("Will" or "Shall") is placed at the beginning of sentence and helping verb "be" comes after subject.

Examples

1. Shall I be playing football tomorrow?
2. Will you be going to school tomorrow?
3. When will you be leaving for office?

Note: The words "what, where, when, how, etc." will be used before "will" or "shall" in such kind of interrogative sentences.

Interrogative Negative Sentence Formula

• Helping verb ("Will" or "Shall") + subject + not + be + (1st form of verb+ing) + object

Note: In Future Progressive Tense, interrogative negative sentences are just like interrogative affirmative sentences with only use of "not" after subject.

Examples

1. Will those children not be making a noise?
2. Why shall we not be reading old books?

Rule: Must put Question Mark (?) in the end of interrogative and negative interrogative sentences.

Important Points

This tense is also used for those actions which are planned in present time but they will occur in future.

For example: She will be inviting us next month.

Different Forms of Future Continuous Tense

Future Continuous Tense Examples

Positive Sentences

1. He will be starting a business.
2. She will be sending me a letter.
3. I shall be giving you a pen tomorrow.
4. They will be buying a new car.
5. We shall be playing football.

Negative Sentences

1. He will not be starting a business.
2. I shall not be giving you a pen tomorrow.
3. Students will not be taking exams at the end of semester.
4. They will not be buying a new car.

Interrogative Sentences

1. Will he be starting a business?
2. Shall I be giving you a pen tomorrow?
3. Will students be taking exams at the end of semester?
4. Will they be buying a new car?
5. What shall we be playing tomorrow?

Negative Interrogative Sentences

1. Will those children not be making noice?
2. Shall I not be staying there till Sunday?
3. Will the postman not be coming soon?
4. Will she no be sending me a letter?

1. Present Simple (Indefinite) Tense
2. Present Continuous Tense
3. Present Perfect Tense
4. Present Perfect Continuous Tense

5. Past Simple (Indefinite) Tense
6. Past Continuous Tense
7. Past Perfect Tense
8. Past Perfect Continuous Tense

9. Future Indefinite (Simple) Tense
10. Future Continuous Tense
11. Future Perfect Tense
12. Future Perfect Continuous Tense

1. How Many Tenses in English
2. The Sequence of Tenses