Learn how to use future perfect tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kellie: Working Hard on an English Report. In this lesson, you’ll learn about the future perfect tense. |
| John: The conversation takes place at Lucy’s flat, and is between Lucy and Jack. |
| Kellie: They’re boyfriend and girlfriend, so they’ll be speaking informally. |
| John: Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| John: You look very busy. You haven’t lifted your nose out of that economics textbook since I arrived. |
| Lucy: I’ve been given a project to complete. The bank wants to expand into the Asian market but they want as much background information on the banking system there as possible so I’ve been asked to do some research. |
| John: Wow, that sounds like important, high level stuff. They must be really impressed with you. You will have taken over the company before you turn 30! |
| Lucy: I just want to do my best. I may be overstepping my mark, but I’m also writing a proposal suggesting that instead of entering Asia alone, they should try and build a working relationship with a bank based there. By next year, they will have entered the market. |
| John: Sounds like a sensible idea. |
| Lucy: I hope they think that too! I’m working flat out because the deadline is this weekend. I have to present it to my boss and hopefully it will find its way to the board of directors. |
| John: I hope you will get credit for your hard work. You deserve it. You even cancelled a date with me because of this. |
| Lucy: Sorry… this is my chance to impress some important people and make a name for myself. By the time I finish this project, I will have missed a lot of important things. |
| John: It’s okay. Just don’t forget I exist! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kellie: So they’ve asked Lucy to do a project! They must be happy with her work. |
| John: Yes, it sounds like it! It may be that it’s a part of her graduate course, but from the dialogue, it sounds like something they’ve asked her to do. |
| Kellie: Projects are a good chance to prove yourself. |
| John: Yeah, they are. If it’s a project that they need doing because they need the research, then asking Lucy to do it shows that they trust her to do a good job. |
| Kellie: It certainly sounds important to the bank. |
| John: It’s also a good way of testing Lucy, to see if she has the research skills and the ability to complete the project. She may be working alone, so that will be a good test and assessment of her motivation and time-management skills. |
| Kellie: And if she’s working in a group, it’s a good test of her ability to work with others and delegate tasks. |
| John: Yeah. For someone on a graduate course who wants to progress to management, it’s a good opportunity to show that she can do that. |
| Kellie: I think she’s taking it further though. |
| John: Yep, she said that she’ll be doing more than they required, and I hope that they appreciate her effort and like the work she does. |
| Kellie: Me too! Let’s hope she doesn’t take it too far or cause problems. |
| John: Let’s! |
| Kellie: Okay, it’s vocab time now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.The first word we shall see is: |
| Kellie: to not lift your nose out of [natural native speed] |
| John: to be so interested and concentrated on something (usually a book) |
| Kellie: to not lift your nose out of [slowly - broken down by syllable] to not lift your nose out of [natural native speed] |
| John: Next: |
| Kellie: project [natural native speed] |
| John: an individual or group task with a specific goal |
| Kellie: project [slowly - broken down by syllable] project [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to expand [natural native speed] |
| John: in business terms, it means to make the company or market bigger |
| Kellie: to expand [slowly - broken down by syllable] to expand [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to overstep the mark [natural native speed] |
| John: to do more than your position allows |
| Kellie: to overstep the mark [slowly - broken down by syllable] to overstep the mark [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: proposal [natural native speed] |
| John: an idea or suggestion put forward to others |
| Kellie: proposal [slowly - broken down by syllable] proposal [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: working relationship [natural native speed] |
| John: an official and business connection with another company or person |
| Kellie: working relationship [slowly - broken down by syllable] working relationship [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: deadline [natural native speed] |
| John: the time and date by which a task should be completed |
| Kellie: deadline [slowly - broken down by syllable] deadline [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: credit [natural native speed] |
| John: acknowledgement of being the person behind an idea, or the person who completed the work |
| Kellie: credit [slowly - broken down by syllable] credit [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to make a name for oneself [natural native speed] |
| John: to do some work or complete and action that makes other people take notice of you and be impressed |
| Kellie: to make a name for oneself [slowly - broken down by syllable] to make a name for oneself [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Kellie: Our first vocab item is “to not lift your nose out of”. |
| John: Have you ever been so engrossed in your work or in a book, that your nose has nearly touched the page because you’re so close to it? |
| Kellie: I can’t say that I have, no! |
| John: You’re no use! This idiom means that someone is concentrating so hard on something, that they don’t look away from it, like Lucy and her project. It’s usually reserved for books or paperwork. For TV or computer screens, we’d say “you can’t take your eyes away from it.” |
| Kellie: Okay. Next is “to overstep the mark.” |
| John: Lucy was worried about this. She’d been set the task of doing a certain project, but she took it upon herself without being asked, to do more. It may be that the employer will be happy with her initiative, but they may also think that she’s gone too far and done too much work. |
| Kellie: And that would be overstepping her mark. |
| John: Yes. She was set boundaries on that project and she went further than she needed to. |
| Kellie: Finally, we have “credit”. |
| John: There is financial credit, of course, but this is a different credit. It means to be acknowledged for the work that you are doing, on a project or a task. |
| Kellie: Like Lucy and her project. |
| John: Yes. If it’s a success and her project is taken forward and used, she should be acknowledged as doing the hard work – she should get the “credit” for it. |
| Kellie: Okay. Let’s move onto the grammar now. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the future perfect tense. |
| John: This tense is used to describe an action that will have happened before another future action. For example - you will have learned about the future perfect tense by the time this lesson finishes. That is the future perfect tense in action. |
| Kellie: Can you explain how the sentences are structured? |
| John: The basic structure is to use either “will have” or “going to have” followed by the past participle verb. In the example I just gave, the verb was “learned”. |
| Kellie: And “will have” and “going to have” are almost interchangeable, right? |
| John: Yeah. In other future tenses, they are quite different but in the future perfect tense there really isn’t a difference. In the dialogue, John says “you will have taken over the company by the time you are 30”. He could easily have said “you are going to have taken over the company by the time you are 30” as it would have the same meaning. |
| Kellie: Right. |
| John: Lucy says that “by next year, they will have entered the market.” Again, she could have said “by next year, they are going to have entered the market.” |
| Kellie: Seems straightforward! |
| John: It is, but there’s one thing to be careful of. When using the future perfect tense, much like the simple future tense, if a clause begins with a time expression such as “when” or “by the time”, then the verb in that clause must be in simple present form. |
| Kellie: Can you give us an example? |
| John: In my first example at the start of the grammar section, the second clause was “by the time this lesson finishes”. It started with a time expression, “by the time”, so the verb needed to be in simple perfect - “finishes”. |
| Kellie: Let’s go through some more examples. |
| John: In the dialogue, Lucy says “by the time I finish this project, I will have missed a lot of important things.” If we break the sentence down into the two clauses, the first is “by the time I finish this project”. |
| Kellie: That starts with a time expression - “by the time”. |
| John: It does, so the verb included is in simple present form again – “finishes”. The second clause has no time expression and is “I will have missed a lot of important things” so the verb is the past participle, “missed”. |
| Kellie: Maybe we should try one more example… |
| John: As you asked so nicely, okay! “By the time I graduate, I am going to have completed a hundred essays”. The first clause begins with a time expression so the simple perfect “graduate” is used. The second clause doesn’t begin with a time expression, so the past participle “completed” is used. |
| Kellie: Thank you! |
Outro |
| Kellie: Ok, well that’s all for this lesson. |
| John: Make sure you check the lesson notes, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Kellie: Bye! |
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