Future continuous

The “future continuous” refers to an unfinished action or event that will continue to occur after the present moment.

It is used for a considerable variety of purposes. In addition, it can be used to project ourselves into the future. 

How is the future continuous formed in English?

 Unlike other tenses (even continuous tenses), ‘Future Continuous’ can work with both ‘Will’ and ‘Going to’. But this should not worry us because both are very similar in practice. You should get used to it, as it occurs in other futures in English.

Thus, by way of example, affirmative sentences in ‘Future Continuous’ have either the following structure: Subject + ‘will be’ + verb + ing; or: Subject + ‘To be’ + ‘going to be + verb + ing. We will also see its negative and interrogative forms!

What is the “Future Continuous” used for?

For temporary actions that will be in progress at a certain time in the future. Actions that are happening at the time of the future that we indicate:

• I will be playing tennis with Pedro at 10 am tomorrow.

Estaré jugando tenis con Pedro mañana a las 10 a.m.

1. For things that are already planned – Actions that have already been planned in advance

• Lucky you! At this time tomorrow, you will be swimming in the Caribbean.

¡Eres afortunado! Mañana a esta hora estarás nadando en el Caribe.

1. It arises: First conditional – Conditional one: If + Present / When + Present Subjunctive, Future continuous

• If you arrive early, I will be waiting for you.

Si llegas temprano, estaré esperándote / te estaré esperando  (Si (If) + Present, Future)

Structure of the ‘Future Continuous’ in English

To construct its affirmative form, the simple future of the auxiliary verb TO BE and the main verb with the ending ING are used:

The interrogative form is constructed by placing the auxiliary WILL before the pronoun followed by the verb TO BE in its infinitive form and the main verb with the ending ING:

The negative form is achieved by placing the negation NOT between the auxiliary WILL and the verb TO BE, followed by the main verb with the ending ING:

Here we see other examples:

• Susan will be cooking tonight.

Susan estará cocinando esta noche.

• Will Susan be cooking tonight?

¿Estará Susan cocinando esta noche?

• Susan will not be cooking tonight.

Susan no estará cocinando esta noche.

• We will be visiting our friends this afternoon.

Nosotros estaremos visitando a nuestros amigos esta tarde.

• Will we be visiting our friends this afternoon?

Estaremos nosotros visitando a nuestros amigos esta tarde?

• We will not be visiting our friends this afternoon.

Nosotros no estaremos visitando a nuestros amigos esta tarde.

The future continuous verb tense is used primarily to express actions that will be occurring at a specific time in the future, to make predictions about the future, and to politely ask for information about the future.

It is important to note that the future continuous is only used with action verbs because it is possible to do so for a duration. (Action verbs describe activities like running, thinking, and seeing. Stative verbs describe states of existence, like being, looking, and knowing). Using the present participle construction will + be + with a stative verb would sound very strange.