Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners - Robin Torres-Gouzerh 2016
The future perfect
5 The perfect tenses
The future perfect tense expresses an action that will begin and end in the future. It is formed with the future tense of have plus a past participle: he will have understood.
I will move to Boston in July. I will see you in September. By the time we meet again, I will have moved to Boston.
She will have finished painting the kitchen before she goes out to have dinner with Paul.
She will already have eaten when ) get there.
Exercise 5.8 Complete each sentence by changing the verb(s) in parentheses to the appropriate tense(s).
Example We’re ten minutes late. By the time we get to the movie theater, the movie will have already begun (already + begin) and we will miss(miss) the beginning of the story.
1. This traffic is terrible. We’re going to miss the departure of the Greyhound bus. By the time we ... (get) to the Greyhound station, the bus I need to take ... (already + leave) the station.
2. Merrick and Toy got married last October. It’s January, and Merrick and Toy ... (be) married for four months. By December,
they ... (be) married for three months. By February,
they ... (be) married for five months.
3. We have been together for a long time. By my next birthday, we ... (be) dating for three and a half years.
4. What? He broke his ankle again? At this rate, he ... (suffer) two dozen fractures by the time he ... (retire) from triathlon competitions.
5. I don’t understand how those triathlon competitors do it. They began the race three hours ago. By the time they get to the finish line, they ... (run) and ... (swim) nonstop for eight hours!
6. Go ahead and take the day off. By tomorrow morning, I ... (take) care of those court cases for you.
7. The traffic was awful this afternoon. By the time we ... (get) to the Greyhound bus station, Mike’s bus ... (already + arrive).
8. This morning, I came to visit my grandmother at ten o’clock. It is almost 11 and I am still walking in the park with my grandmother. I ... (walk) with my grandmother for an hour. By ten thirty, I ... (walk) with my grandmother for half an hour. By noon, I ... (walk) with my grandmother for two hours.
9. Jules was born in 1950. By the year 2010, he ... (live) in Berlin for 60 years.
10. I’m so tired of sitting on this plane. Do you realize that by the time we arrive in Tokyo, we ... (travel) for 20 hours straight?
Exercise 5.9 Complete each sentence, using appropriate tense(s) for the verb(s) in parentheses.
1. Tomorrow, after he ... (go) to the movies, Tyler ...(meet) Barbara for a drink downtown. This means that by the time he ... (meet) Barbara, he ... (watch) the movie.
2. Since the beginning of the summer, Elizabeth ... (read) three novels. Right now, she ... (read) 1984, a novel written by George Orwell. She ... (read) it for the past two weeks. She ... (intend) to finish it by next week. In her lifetime, she ... (read) many science fiction novels, but this is one of the most fascinating novels she ... (ever + read).
3. A couple of days ago, Elizabeth ... (begin) to read 1984. It’s a dense novel. She ... (not + finish) reading it yet. She ... (read) it because one of her good friends
recommended it.
4. Right now, the children ... (take) a nap.
They both ... (fall) asleep an hour ago.
They ... (sleep) for an hour. It’s likely that they ... (sleep) for another half hour or so.
5. Yesterday morning, Cecilia woke up and ate breakfast. She ... (already + eat) breakfast when she ... (leave) her apartment. She ... (usually + try) to eat a healthy breakfast before she ...(head out) to class. I usually … (not + eat) breakfast
before I ... (go) to work. But I often ... (get) hungry before mid-morning. Tomorrow, I ... (try) something different, and before I ... (go) to work, I ... (eat) breakfast.
6. Cecilia is in my history class. She ... (study) history this semester. She ... (also + take) some other classes.
Her classes ... (begin) at eight in the morning every day.
7. Marie is in yoga class every afternoon from six to seven thirty. Three days ago, I ... (go) by her apartment to see if she ... (want) to jog with me around Town Lake.
8. Don’t try to call Marie on her home phone at seven in the evening, because she ... (attend) her yoga class at that time.
9. Yesterday, Francis ... (lock) himself in the darkroom between three and four o’clock in the afternoon. I ...(come) by to see him at three thirty. When I ... (get) there, Francis ... (mix) the chemicals he ... (use) to develop his pictures. He ... (work) on his pictures for 30 minutes by the time I arrived.
Exercise 5.10 Complete each sentence, using appropriate tense(s) for the verb(s) in parentheses.
1. Paul: May I borrow some money? My payment ... (be) supposed to go through this morning, but for some reason the bank ... (not + have) received it yet. I ... (need) to pay my rent by six o’clock, but I ... (not + have) any money.
Patricia: Sure, I’d be glad to, but I ... (not + know) how much money I have in my account. How much ... (you + need)?
Paul: About 400 dollars. I promise I ... (pay) you back as soon as my bank ... (take) care of the problem.
2. Pierre: Hello?
Patricia: Hello, may I speak to Paul?
Pierre: He ... (not + be) at home right now, sorry.
Patricia: Could you please tell him that Patricia ... (call). If he ... (get) home before noon, could you tell him to meet me at Cafe Bourville? I ... (sit) at one of the tables on the terrace ... (study) German.
3. Yesterday, while I ... (sit) in class, I ... (begin) to feel ill. The person who ... (sit) next to me ... (ask) me if I was feeling okay. I ... (try) to assure her that everything ... (be) okay, but she ... (do) not listen to me. The professor ... (talk), and I didn’t want to interrupt him, so I just ... (sit) there trying to focus on the lecture. Finally, after I ... (feel) ill for about 20 minutes, I ... (raise) my hand and ... (ask) to be excused.
4. About five hours ago, David ... (lie) on the couch reading a novel. Suddenly, he ... (hear) a loud bang at the door and ... (get) up to see who it might be. He ... (look) through the peephole and then ... (open) the door. Someone ... (just + leave) a book on the doormat and ... (take off).
5. Next month, I ... (take) a week’s vacation. I haven’t been able to do so in over a year, so I ... (really + look) forward to it. First, I ... (go) to the south of France to visit my brother. After I ... (leave) Marseille, I ... (go) to Berlin to see a friend who ... (study) political science there. Esther ... (live) there for two years, so I presume that she ... (know) the city well. For whatever it’s worth, she ... (promise) to be my tour guide while I ... (stay) there. I ... (never + be) to Europe, so I’m pretty excited about the whole trip. Berlin is one of those cities I ... (always + want) to visit.
Exercise 5.11 For each sentence, determine whether the form of have is used as a verb or as an auxiliary verb.
Examples They have cleaned everything. auxiliary verb
They have no money. verb
1. He has three sisters.
2. She has eaten the entire cake.
3. They have four cats.
4. He had finished the exercises.
5. He has a pencil, but it needs sharpening.
6. We have run all the way over here.