Future perfect: making future clear
Similar to present and past perfect tenses, future perfect allows the speakers to speak about the completion of an activity in relation to a point of time in the future or an even that occurs at a time after the activity. Future perfect tense makes it possible for speakers to make predictions, talk about future possibilities, and talk about two events occurring in the future. The indicator of future perfect is will + have + PP (past participle form of verb).
Example
Lotus in 2019
- Lotus is adjusting its operations in accordance with the ESG framework
- It is currently discussing business possibilities with several business countries.
Lotus in 2020
| First quarter | engage in business trades with companies in Southern Africa |
| Second quarter | review and improve employee evaluation procedure |
| Third quarter | complete adoption of International Financial standards |
| Fourth quarter | start employee training |
Future perfect
By 2020, Lotus will have discussed business possibilities with Asian countries.
It will have fully adopted international financial standards after reviewing its employee evaluation procedure.
By the end of the fourth quarter it will have engaged in trades in Africa, reviewed employee evaluation procedure, and completed adopting IFRS standards. (‘will have’ was omitted in the case of the other two verbs to avoid redundancy)
Lotus will have started employee training in soft skills before 2021.
It has to* have completed reviewing evaluation procedures before starting training employees.
In other words, the company will not start the training until** it has reviewed the procedures.
* a condition to finish an activity before beginning another one using ‘have to’
** another form of conditioning using ‘until’
While this tense is seldom used in everyday settings, it is quite common in Business English because it allows businesspersons to discuss future activities and possibilities. It can be used to discuss future budgets, general corporate performance, strategies, sequence of future activities and their conditions. It can also be used to express speculations such as predicting stock prices.
Other ways to talk about the future
In order to express the degree of possibility of the occurrence of an action in the future, the word will has to be substituted with modals such as could, may, and might. Conditionals can also be used to express future possibilities of an action or event.
Example 1: The employee training may not start in the fought quarter, because the evaluation procedure review may take longer to finish.
Example 2: If the procedure review is completed before the fourth quarter, employee training will start on time.
