This Time Next Year…
I can distinguish a future snapshot from a completed milestone.
Try the activities, then check your answers.
Try the activities, then check your answers.
Choose a short recording.
Your situation
A small exhibition team is planning a launch. At ten on opening day, they expect to be welcoming visitors. By then, they expect to have installed every display. Mira also imagines the following year: she will be running another exhibition, and she hopes she will have trained two assistants.
Read the situation transcript
A small exhibition team is planning a launch. At ten on opening day, they expect to be welcoming visitors. By then, they expect to have installed every display. Mira also imagines the following year: she will be running another exhibition, and she hopes she will have trained two assistants.
Will the installation be in progress or complete at the opening, according to the plan?
Compare your idea
Complete: they expect to have installed every display by then.
How it works
A future snapshot uses will be doing: it imagines an activity at a particular future time. A milestone uses will have done: it imagines looking back at completed work from that time.
Use the forms to make plans clearer, but do not present forecasts as guarantees. By then sets a latest point for completion; at ten places the snapshot. Hopes and assumptions can be stated explicitly.
Snapshot: at + time, will be + -ing. Milestone: by + time, will have + participle.
Reference situation
At ten, we’ll be welcoming visitors.
This is the opening-day snapshot.
Contrasting viewpoint
By then, we’ll have installed every display.
This is the planned completed milestone.
Hear the examples
At ten, we’ll be welcoming visitors.
This is the opening-day snapshot.
By then, we’ll have installed every display.
This is the planned completed milestone.
This time next year, I’ll be running another exhibition.
The activity is imagined in progress.
I hope I’ll have trained two assistants by then.
The completed milestone is explicitly a hope.
One mistake worth avoiding
Instead of: By opening time, we will have installing the displays.
Say: By opening time, we will have installed the displays.
Future perfect needs the participle installed.
You say
Hear the prompt, answer aloud, then deliberately reveal or hear one possible model. Check it and retry with a changed detail.
Your turn 1
Describe an activity you imagine at a future point.
Compare a possible model
Reveal the model text
This time next year, I’ll be studying another language.
Check yourself: Create a snapshot, not just a prediction with will.
Retry with one detail of your own. Other wording is welcome when it meets this check.
Your turn 2
Name a completed milestone you hope to reach before it.
Compare a possible model
Reveal the model text
By then, I hope I’ll have finished the beginner course.
Check yourself: Keep completion and uncertainty clear.
Retry with one detail of your own. Other wording is welcome when it meets this check.
Your turn 3
Connect a snapshot with a prerequisite milestone.
Compare a possible model
Reveal the model text
At opening time, we’ll be greeting visitors, and we’ll already have checked every display.
Check yourself: Give progress and prior completion different forms.
Retry with one detail of your own. Other wording is welcome when it meets this check.
Two guided self-checks
Say or write your answer before opening a model.
Self-check 1
Choose progress or completion: “At ten, we’ll be welcoming visitors.”
Compare a model and explanation
Progress at the future point.
The sentence looks inside the activity.
Self-check 2
Use install to express completion before opening.
Compare a model and explanation
By opening time, we’ll have installed the displays.
Use will have plus a participle.
Check your understanding
Choose one answer to each question, then check your answers. One of the ten questions is listening.
Automatic scoring needs JavaScript. Use the answer key after attempting all ten questions.
Answer key with explanations
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At ten, the team will be ___ visitors.
welcoming: Future continuous uses be plus welcoming.
-
By ten, they will have ___ every display.
installed: Future perfect uses have plus installed.
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Which phrase sets a completion deadline in this plan?
By then: By then means no later than that future point.
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Which sentence gives a future snapshot?
This time next year, I’ll be running an exhibition.: Will be running imagines an activity in progress.
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Which sentence gives a completed milestone?
By then, I’ll have trained two assistants.: Will have trained looks back on the expected completed result.
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Correct “We will have install every display.”
We will have installed every display.: Use the participle after will have.
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Does a future-perfect statement guarantee success?
No: The form presents a future expectation, not evidence that it must happen.
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What will already be complete by the opening?
Installing the displays: The audio explicitly predicts installation will be complete by then.
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Which pair separates progress and completion?
At ten, we’ll be welcoming visitors; by then, we’ll have installed the displays.: The correct pair assigns the right aspect to each intended viewpoint.
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What is the useful planning distinction?
What will be happening versus what will already be done: Both forms can refer to the same future time from different aspectual viewpoints.
Take it with you
I can distinguish a future snapshot from a completed milestone.