Future in the past tenses

The paradigm of the verb in the future perfect continuous

Affirmative	Interrogative
I We	shall have been speaking	Shall	I we	have been speaking

He (she, it) You They

will have been speaking

Will

he (she, it) you they

have been speaking?

Negative

I We	shall not (shan't) have been speaking
He (she, it) You They	will not (won't) have been speaking

§ 51. The future perfect continuous is very rarely used, because situations which require it very seldom arise. It denotes actions which begin before a certain moment of time in the future and go on up to that moment or into it:

I shall have been living there for five years next February.

§ 52. There are four more future tense verb forms in English: the future in the past indefinite, the future in the past continuous, the future in the past perfect, the future in the past perfect continuous, which differ from the previously discussed forms. They refer the actions not to the actual future, but to the future viewed as such from the standpoint of past time.

The future in the past forms are dependent, as they are used mainly in object clauses in reported speech after verbs in the past tense forms.

The most frequently used is the future in the past indefinite (the past simple).

§ 53. Formation. All the future in the past forms are analytical. They are formed by means of the auxiliaries should and would and the corresponding form of the notional verb (should speak, should be speaking, should have spoken, should have been speaking)*.

* The contracted form for both ‘would’ and ‘should’ is ‘d: I’d speak...

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