Study this example situation:
| These people are standing in a queue to get into the cinema. |  |
Half an hour from now, the cinema will be full.
Everyone will be watching the film. |  |
Three hours from now, the cinema will be empty.
The film will have finished.
Everyone will have gone home. |  |
I
will be doing something
(future continuous) = I will be in the middle of doing it:
- This time next week I'll be on holiday. I'll be lying on the beach or swimming in the sea.
- You have no chance of getting the job. You'll be wasting your time if you apply for it.
Compare
will be (do)
ing and
will (do):
- Don't phone between 7 and 8. We'll be having dinner.
- Let's wait for Liz to arrive and then we'll have dinner.
Compare
will be -
ing with other continuous forms:
- At 10 o'clock yesterday, Sally was in her office. She was working. (past)
It's 10 o'clock now. She is in her office. She is working. (present)
At 10 o'clock tomorrow, she will be in her office. She will be working.
We also use will be -ing to talk about complete actions in the future .
For example:
- The government will be making a statement about the crisis later today.
- Will you be going away this summer?
- Later in the programme, I'll be talking to the Minister of Education ...
- Our best player is injured and won't be playing in the game on Saturday.
In these examples will be -ing is similar to (be) going to ....
We use
will have (
done)
(future perfect) to say that something will already be complete before a time in the future. For example:
- Sally always leaves for work at 8.30 in the morning. She won't be at home at 9 o'clock - she'll have gone to work.
- We're late. The film will already have started by the time we get to the cinema.
Compare
will have (done) with other perfect forms:
- Ted and Amy have been married for 24 years. (present perfect)
Next year they will have been married for 25 years.
When their son was born, they had been married for three years. (past perfect)
