The future continuous tense is used to indicate a future action in progress and requires two auxiliary verbs. It is used for ongoing future intentions, presumed interruptions, and polite questions. Only dynamic verbs can be used, not stative verbs.
Also called future continuous, future continuous is a tense that indicates that a future action will be in progress. Only verbs that have a definite beginning and end for their action can be used in the future continuous. Formed by placing “will be” or “going be” in front of a verb ending in “-ing”, the future progressive is normally used to indicate a presumed interruption of a future action, an ongoing future intention, or to ask a question about future action.
To form a future progressive, two auxiliary verbs are used. Auxiliary verbs are specific verbs used in conjunction with the main verb to shift meaning. Either “will” or “going” is the first auxiliary verb used to form a future continuous. The verb “to be” is the second. Auxiliary verbs are followed by the main verb with an “-ing” ending, as in “will running” or “going to be shopping”.
A future sequence is only used when the action in question is both future and continuing or proceeding. For example, “Tomorrow afternoon I will swim.” Unlike the simple future, “Tomorrow afternoon, I will swim,” which states that swimming will occur at some point during the specified time period, the progressive future indicates that the action continues throughout the afternoon. Most often the progressive form is used in response to a suggestion that an action could be stopped. For example, “I’m going to swim tomorrow afternoon” would be a logical response to someone who says, “I was thinking of having lunch with you tomorrow afternoon.”
Also, the future progressive can be used to ask a question about a future event. Questions asked in progressive future are generally designed to be polite and not presumptive, while indicating that the asker hopes the answer will be affirmative. For example, the question “Are you making dinner tomorrow night?” use the future progressive “kitchen”.
Normally, only dynamic, not static, verbs can be used in the future continuous. Dynamic verbs denote actions that have a clear beginning and end, while stative verbs generally denote states of being, such as ‘loving’, ‘being’ or ‘believing’, which often have no clear beginning or end. For example, saying “tonight at 11 I will love you” seems nonsensical or funny, since one might assume that the speaker’s love is simply a state they are always in, not something that can be limited to a time frame . On the other hand, saying “tonight at 11 I will watch a film” seems more reasonable because in this case the speaker is indicating an event with a very specific time horizon.
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