Future Continuous

This time next week I’ll be lying on the beach drinking a nice cool beer! I wish that were true. Unfortunately, this time next week I’ll be sitting at my desk working. Oh well, that’s life!

In the sentence “This time next week I’ll be lying on the beach drinking a nice cool beer” we are using the future continuous tense. The future continuous is another one of the many tenses of the English language. If you want a quick overview of the tenses, check out the 12 Basic English Tenses over at English Club

We form the future continuous by using the auxiliary verb will together with the infinite be and the present participle of the main verb. We normally contract the subject and will (I will = I’ll) especially in conversation.

Look at these examples:

This time next week I’ll be lying on the beach.

We’ll be sleeping at 2am.

She’ll be driving to work at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

As you can see in the box below, the form is the same for all the persons.

To make a negative statement we use the word not after the auxiliary verb will.  We normally use the contraction of will and not which is won’t.

Look at these examples:

I won’t be working at this time tomorrow.

He won’t be living here at Christmas time.

They won’t be joining us for dinner.

To make a question we simply place the auxiliary verb before the subject.

Look at these examples:

Will you be sleeping at midnight tonight?

Will she still be living here in January?

What will you be doing at this time tomorrow?

We use the  future continuous tense to talk about an action that will be in progress at a particular time in the future. To help us understand, we can compare the future continuous to the present continuous.

If I say “I am working” it describes an action that is in progress at the moment.

If I say “I will be working at 11am tomorrow” it describes an action that will be in progress at at 11am tomorrow.

The statement “I will be working at 11am tomorrow” does not mean I will begin working at 11am tomorrow. Maybe I will begin to work at 9am and finish at 5pm. So if I am talking about a time between 9am and 5pm I can say ” I will be working at…”. We normally state a specific time when we use the future continuous.

For example, if a friend says:

“I’ll call you at 10 tomorrow morning”

I could reply:

“Don’t call me at 10, I’ll be working. You can call me at one o’clock. I’ll be on my lunch break. I won’t be working then.”

We often use the expression “this time next week/month/year” with the future continuous. For example, if it is Tuesday morning at 11am and I am working but next week I am going on holiday to Spain, I could say:

This time next week I’ll be lying on a beach in Spain.

Here are some more examples:

This time next year she’ll be living in London.

This time next month we’ll be celebrating Christmas.

This time tomorrow I’ll be driving to Galway.