The future perfect tense

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TENSE TIME KEY PHRASES STRUCTURE

Future perfect Refers to completion of future action Will have Compound tense: haber conjugated in the future past participle

The future perfect tense is indicative, and it refers to an action that will have taken place in the future at or by a specified time, for example, I will have finished this book by Friday or Ill have this book finished by Friday. The future perfect tense also can be used to express probability or conjecture, as in the sentence He has probably already left.

Formation of the future perfect

The future perfect is a compound tense, which means that an auxiliary verb is required before the main verb. The auxiliary verb haber is conjugated in the future tense and is followed by the past participle of the main verb, as follows.
habr past participle habrs past participle habr past participle habremos past participle habris past participle habrn past participle

Uses of the future perfect

To express what will have happened
The future perfect expresses an action that will have taken place by a specified time in the future. In English one can say, I will have written this letter by three oclock or, more commonly, I will have this letter written by three oclock. In Spanish, these sentences both translate as Habr escrito esta carta para las tres.

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Habr pintado la casa para el sbado. Habremos ledo el libro para el jueves. Cundo habrs hecho esto? Habris comido para las siete. l no lo habr visto para entonces. Habrn vendido su coche para maana.
EJERCICIO

I will have the house painted by Saturday. We will have read the book by Thursday. When will you have this done? You all will have eaten by seven oclock. He wont have seen it by then. They will have sold their car by tomorrow.

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Traduccin
1. In two weeks, I will have lived here for four years.

2. By next year, McDonalds will have sold another billion (mil millones) hamburgers.

3. She wont have prepared dinner by five thirty.

4. When will they have the work finished (terminar)?

5. We will have known each other for twelve years this August.

6. Will you all have your dresses ironed (planchar) by this afternoon?

7. Will you have all this clothing washed by tonight?

8. He wont have the pharmacy (la farmacia) opened by then.

9. We have to go now; if we go later, theyll [m.] have left already.

10. If you give all the food to the dog, hell have all of it eaten by tomorrow.

11. You neednt worry: Im sure theyll have told her everything by now (para este momento).

12. I suppose that everyone will have gone to bed by midnight (la medianoche).

13. At this rate (A este paso), youll have fried more potatoes than McDonalds by the end of the week.

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practice makes perfect

Spanish Verb Tenses

14. If you lose this election, you will have lost more elections than anybody (nadie).

15. If you win this election, you will have proven that it is possible to fool (engaar) all the people all the time.

To express probability
The future perfect is used to express probability or conjecture with regard to something that took place in the recent past. It is in the conjecture aspect where the future perfect differs from the present perfect. Note the difference in the following two sentences.
PRESENT PERFECT FUTURE PERFECT

l lo ha hecho. l lo habr hecho.

He has done it. He must have done it. or Hes probably done it.

The first sentence simply reports an action; there is no uncertainty on the speakers part. However, in the second sentence, although the speaker appears reasonably certain, there is still a little room left for doubt. It is this slight uncertainty that is expressed in the use of the future perfect.
Lo siento. Me habr dormido. Nos habremos perdido. Habrs estado aqu. Habris ledo el libro. Quin habr escrito tal cosa? Adnde habrn ido?
EJERCICIO

Im sorry. I must have fallen asleep. We must have gotten lost. You must have been here. You all must have read the book. Who could have written such a thing? Where could they have gone?

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Traduccin
1. Fernando must have sent these flowers to me.

2. He must have paid our bill. How nice!

3. Fido must have stolen these slippers (la zapatilla).

4. Where could my little dog have gone?

5. Abdul looks (verse) pretty (bien) mad; Farrah must have told him everything.

The future perfect tense

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6. The kitchen stinks (oler mal)! Dorothy must have made dinner again.

7. That is a lie! You must have heard it from Roger.

8. How does he know these things? He must have read my diary (el diario).

9. When could this have happened?

10. Arthur must have known that Mary burned (quemar) all his love letters (la carta de amor).

11. You must have known that he was married.

12. I must have been crazy (in order) to buy vitamins (la vitamina) over the telephone (por telfono).

13. Bears must have eaten our food.

14. It must have been terrible to discover that cockroaches were the real owners of your house.

15. She must have given you a fake (falso) telephone number.

EJERCICIO

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Traduccin
VOCABULARIO

ahorrar hacer un cheque la hipoteca el inters mudarse olvidar pobre tomar en consideracin ltimo una vez

to save (money) to make out a check mortgage interest to move to forget poor to take into account last ever

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practice makes perfect

Spanish Verb Tenses

I cant believe it! By the end of this month (Para finales de mes), I will have paid for this house completely. I never thought that this would happen. I thought that I would either move or die before making out that last miserable check. When I make out that last check, taking into consideration all the interest Ive paid, I will have bought this house almost three times. A year from now, I suppose that Ill have forgotten that the bank owned (tener) more of this house than I did for many years, and the bank will have forgotten that I had ever (alguna vez) existed. I must have been crazy to think that a forty-year mortgage would make me feel as if I were a mature adult. It only made me feel poor. In two years, Ill have saved thousands of dollars and taken at least two long vacations. I wish I were in Tahiti right now.

The future perfect tense

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