The Future in the Past - The future in the past in English: rules and examples, use, education. Future Continuous in the Past: continuous future in the past Would have time

In English everything is possible. Even such an absurd name for a whole group of times - Future in the Past - the future is in the past. How can this be, you ask. How did it get into the past context? It’s very simple - we are talking about an action that was the future for a certain moment in the past. Let's give an example right away:

He said he would come at 5 o’clock. - He said he would come at 5 o’clock.

At the time he said this, it was not yet 5 o'clock. That is, the action “will come” is future in relation to the past action “said”. This is your time Future in the Past.

There are four time groups Future in the Past:

1. Future Simple in the Past
3. Future Perfect in the Past

Formation of tenses Future in the Past: formula

Time Future in the Past are formed in the same way as their analogues from the group Future, only instead will And shall are used would And should . Should used only for first person singular and plural, but there is a tendency to use would for all persons and numbers:

In the interrogative form, the auxiliary verb would (should ) placed before the subject:

• Would I work?
• Would we be working?
• Would he have worked?
• Would they have been working?

In a negative form not is placed after the auxiliary verb would (should ) :

• I wouldn't work.
• We wouldn't be working.
• He would not have worked.
• They would not have been working.

Used as abbreviated forms "d in the affirmative form for both auxiliary verbs and wouldn't’ t (shouldn't’ t ) in negative form:

• He'd be working.
• They wouldn't have worked.
• We shouldn't work.

Using Future in the Past: example sentences

Time Future in the Past are used in when the predicate of the main sentence is expressed by the verb in. Purpose of use Future in the Past– show that the action in the subordinate clause will occur later than the action in the main clause.

Let's give examples Future in the Past:

I thought that you would be late. - I thought you would be late. (Future Simple in the Past)

I knew we wouldbepacking next Friday. – I knew that we would be meeting next Friday. (Future Continuous in the Past)

He said he would have read the book by the time I needed it. “He said he would finish the book by the time I needed it.” (Future Perfect in the Past)

He said that by that time he would have been driving for two hours. “He said that by then he would have been driving for two hours.” (Future Perfect Continuous in the Past)

So the times Future in the Past denote a future action relative to a specific moment in the past. As can be seen from the examples, the sentence necessarily contains a verb in the past tense in the main clause; without it, use Future in the Past impossible.

If you have already come across a topic like "", you will understand that times Future in the Past arose precisely thanks to the rules of coordination. Interestingly, in English grammar books the tenses are Future in the Past are not allocated to a separate group at all, but are considered within the framework of the rules for coordinating tenses and ways of expressing future actions described from the past. In addition, about the use would instead of will we learn when studying, the rules for coordinating times also apply to it:

He says: “I won’t buy this car.” - He says: “I won’t buy this car.”

He said he wouldn’t buy that car. “He said he wouldn’t buy that car.”

She hopes she will have finished the courses by the beginning of spring. “She hopes to finish the course by early spring.”

She hoped she would have finished the courses by the beginning of spring. “She hoped that she would finish the course by the beginning of spring.

From these examples it is clear that the times of the group Future express future action relative to the present moment, and tenses of the group Future in the Past- a future action relative to a past moment.

Finally, it remains to say that Future in the Past usually used after speaking verbs ( say , tell ) and mental activity ( think , know , believe , expect , hope etc.)

Application of tenses Future Continuous in the Past, Future Perfect in the Past And Future Perfect Continuous in the Past– is significantly limited, but Future Simple in the Past occurs quite often.

Theme of the times Future in the Past We looked separately at how domestic textbooks treat it, since it is present in schools and can cause difficulties for students. But I believe that it is more logical not to highlight these tenses, as English-speaking grammarians do, so as not to create unnecessary confusion.

Now try the following test Future in the Past to consolidate the acquired knowledge:

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Test

Future in the Past: exercises

The English language is full of unusual phenomena and paradoxes. And even the future here could end up in the past. We are talking about a group of tenses, Future in the Past, identified by some linguists, expressing action in the future for a certain moment in the past. Let's look at a simple example:

In the past, when the speaker was ten years old, professional prospects were his future. And although such a “future” was not brought into practice, nevertheless, in English it is very important to show the fact that this action was “future” for a certain moment in the past, and not for the present time.

If you take a closer look at the offer … I would be a doctor, we can understand that this sentence is in the future simple tense I will be a doctor, “transferred” to the past due to the placement of an auxiliary verb will into the past tense form would .

Formation of temporary forms

The Future in the Past group includes 4 temporary forms, presented with examples in the following table:

It should be noted that similar Russian sentences use the ordinary future tense.

Affirmative sentences with predicates in these tense forms are formed according to the following schemes:

At the same time, Future Simple in the Past is a fairly common form, while the other three require a rather narrow context and therefore are rare.

Negative verb forms are formed by adding a particle not to auxiliary verb would , For example:

Education interrogative form The Future in the Past would have to be constructed by bringing forward the auxiliary verb would and placing it before the subject. However, if you think about the scope of use of the tenses Future in the Past, it becomes obvious that such sentences are almost impossible to find in living English speech, and the schemes for constructing interrogative sentences will remain diagrams on paper that will never be filled with a living context. The fact is that the tense forms of Future in the Past are not used independently; they are used only in subordinate clauses that express mainly indirect speech and therefore require coordination of tenses. It is for this same reason that many linguists and teachers (including the author of this article) do not consider it advisable to consider the Future in the Past as a separate group of times. This is rather a manifestation of the same tenses of the Future group in conditions of coordination of tenses and indirect speech. However, due to the fact that in many domestic textbooks this group is considered separately, we describe it in this article in order to help our readers understand the intricacies of using these tense forms.

So what about questions? Let's compare the presentation of general questions in direct speech, where the usual tense forms of the Future are used, and in indirect speech, which requires coordination of tenses through the use of the Future in the Past:

As you can see in the examples given, no moving of the auxiliary verb to the first position in the sentence occurs, because in the case of the Future in the Past we don’t even have to deal with interrogative sentences - only with subordinate clauses. What makes such a subordinate clause “interrogative” is the conjunction “if” in the meaning “whether”. By the way, if the same conjunction if in the meaning of “if” does not allow any will and would after itself, then if in the meaning of “whether” gets along well with these verbal forms, mainly with would (such combinations are more common).

If we look at how special questions are conveyed using Future in the Past, we get the following:

In such subordinate clauses, allied words are used, similar to the interrogative pronouns in the corresponding questions.

Let's also consider examples of presenting an alternative question and a question to the subject in indirect speech:

As can be seen from the examples above, the possibilities of conveying interrogative sentences in indirect speech through the Future in the Past differ only in the choice of the conjunction if or the conjunction word corresponding to the interrogative pronoun.

A disjunctive question completely loses its structure when translated into indirect speech and is displayed in the same way as a general question:

From all of the above it follows that Future in the Past is not an independent group of tenses, but the result of the rules for coordinating tenses in the context of a narration about the future from the past.

Education of Future in the Past

All forms of Future in the Past are formed similarly to the corresponding forms of Future with the replacement of shall and will by the forms should and would.

Abbreviations used in colloquial speech:
would='d
should='d
They'd have played.
should not=shouldn’t=’d not
I should’t have played =I’d not have played .
would=wouldn"t=’dnot
She wouldn't be playing. = She’d not have played .
Shouldn't I have played?
Wouldn't he have played?

Future in the Past Simple

Future in the Past Perfect

Using the tenses Future in the Past

1. Future in the Past Simple used to express simple, ordinary actions or a sequence of actions in the future, observed in the past.

He said he would soon take up French. – He said that he would improve his French soon.(pull up - future action, observed from the past, said relative to the past)

2. Future in the Past Continuous used to express a long-term action that will occur at a certain point in the future, or a future action resulting from circumstances. Both actions relate to the past.

And she thought that at this time next Sunday she would be approaching her beloved Paris. “And she thought that at this time next Sunday she would already be approaching her beloved Paris.

3. Future in the Past Perfect used to express an action that will be completed at a certain point in the future relative to the past.

He realized that he would have finished his task long before midnight. - He realized that he would finish his work long before midnight.

4. Future in the Past Perfect Continuous used to express a continuous action that will begin before a certain moment in the future relative to the past and will continue until that moment or will still continue at the moment. This form is rarely used even in book style.

He said he would have been living here for ten years next year. – He said that he will live here for 10 years next year.

Note: Although Future in the Past tenses denote future actions, the actual time of these actions can be much wider.
I said I should come today, and so I"m here! (actual tense is present)

I said that there are four future tenses that we can use in the past tense. Today we will look at Future Continuous in the Past- future continuous in the past.

We use it when in the past (for example, last summer), we talk about actions/events that will happen in the future, focusing on their duration.

Look at the examples: “They hoped that they would rest all day. He thought she would be studying for an exam all evening».

In all these sentences we are talking about long-term processes. It is easy to construct such sentences. Now I will teach you this.

But since in the first part we use the past tense, then according to the rule of tense coordination, we cannot use the future tense in the second part. Therefore we must make the Future Continuous past. It's very simple!

We just need to replace will with would.

……..they would be play ing football all day.
……..they will play football all day.

……..he would be study ing the whole evening.
……..he will study all evening.

Now let's connect the two parts together. In writing, to connect two parts of a sentence, we often use the word that, which is translated as “what.” But in colloquial speech we usually omit that.

The education scheme will be as follows:

Actor + said/thought/told + (that) + actor + would be + -ing verb

She said (that) she would be work ing all day.
She said she would work all day.

They thought (that) he would be driv ing all night long.
They thought he would drive all night.

He knew (that) they would be walk ing.
He knew that they would walk.

Negation in the form of Future Continuous in the Past in English

We can add a negation to the first or second part to make the sentence negative.

Denial in the first part

Since the Past Simple tense is used in the first part, the negation is formed using the auxiliary verb of this tense did and the negative particle not.

They are usually abbreviated like this:

did + not = didn’t

In this case, the action itself will now be in its initial form, that is, it will not change in any way (say, tell, hope). Scheme for the formation of such a sentence:

Actor + didn't + say/think/tell + (that) + actor + would be + verb with -ing

He didn't know (that) he would be study ing at that time.
He didn't know what he would do at this time.

She didn't think (that) she would be cook ing the whole evening.
She didn't know what she would be cooking all evening.

Denial in the second part

To make the second part negative, we need to put not after would.

We can shorten:

would + not = wouldn't

The outline of such a proposal would be as follows:

Actor + said/thought/told + (that) + actor + wouldn’t + be + -ing verb

He said (that) he wouldn't be sleep ing the whole morning.
He said he wouldn't sleep all morning.

They thought (that) they wouldn't be walk ing.
They thought that they would not walk.

Interrogative form in the Future Continuous in the Past in English

If we want to ask a question, then we need to change the first part a little. To do this, we put the auxiliary verb did in the first place in the sentence, and the action itself in the initial form.

The proposal outline will be as follows:

Did + actor + say/think/tell + (that) + actor + would be + -ing verb

Did she say(that) she would be watch ing a movie?
She said she would watch the movie?

Did they know(that) they would be work ing?
Did they know they would work?

We have discussed the theory, and now let's consolidate the use of Future Continuous in the Past in practice.

Reinforcement task

Translate these sentences into English and write them in the comments under the article:

1. He didn’t think that she would rest all evening.
2. She knew that they would study from 5 to 8.
3. They expected that he would not sleep at this time.
4. He said that he would play tennis all evening.
5. She hoped that she would not work at this time?
6. They told us that they would fly all morning.

Leave your answers in the comments below the article.

Since you are on this page, then you have definitely heard about such an illogical time as Future in the past. Of course, this is a little strange, but it is true, in English this is possible. For some reason, school textbooks on the English language do not talk about this form, although it is a very useful structure that will be needed for everyday conversations.

Let's start with an example: would never quit! – After the first week in the gym, I decided that I would never quit.

Many would probably use an auxiliary verb Will and the sentence would already sound like this: After the first week in a gym, I decided I will never quit! But you can’t say that; most likely, it’s ideal from the point of view of our native language, but it’s completely unsuitable for English. We'll look at when to use Future in the past later.

There are four forms of The Future in the Past in English and they are familiar to you:

- Future Simple in the past - Just the future in the past
- Future Continuous (Progressive) in the past - Future continuous in the past
- Future Perfect in the Past - Future perfect in the past
- Future Perfect Continuous (Progressive) in the past - Future perfect continuous in the past.

All these forms occur quite often in colloquial speech, but most often Future Simple in the past.

Education Future in the past

You know exactly how all future forms are formed, we usually use will, but in this structure will is replaced by auxiliary verbs or and an infinitive without the particle to. Should used for the first person plural and singular (1st person singular and plural), Would used for the first, second and third person plural and singular (1st, 2nd, 3rd person singular and plural), but mostly used for all persons.

Formula Future in the past – Subject + should/would + verb + the rest of sentence

Let's start with the simplest. Let's look at the table of formation of the Future in the past simple, all three forms: affirmative, negative and interrogative, and the same with other tenses.

Education table Future Simple in the past

Rules Future Simple in the past is the most used tense in the English language, and it is simple. There is no need to be fancy, you just need to remember to change will to would. Don't forget about the abbreviation: He thought I'd (wouldn't) win the election.

Examples:

- I knew he' d kiss me – I knew that he would kiss me.
-Mark said he' d go to the doctor – Mark said he would go to the doctor.

Education table Future Continuous in the past

Formula for the Future Continuous Tense in the Past: would or should + be + V-ing. (V-ing = verb in -ing form).

Examples:

— I was dreaming how I' d be sunbathing on the beach – I dreamed of sunbathing on the beach.
- They thought I' be jogging tomorrow morning - They thought that I would run tomorrow morning.

Education table Future Perfect in the past

A simple diagram of the Future perfect tense in the past: should or would + have + V3 (Past Participle).
When we talk, we usually use this shorthand: I thought I’d’ve found the keys by now.

Examples:

—My wife hoped I should have repaired the car by five o’clock - My wife hoped that I would repair the car by five o’clock.
—David promised that he' d have called me back by 12 pm – David promised that he would call me back by 12 o’clock.

Education table Future Perfect Continuous in the past

Formula for the Future Perfect Continuous in the Past: should or would + have + been + V-in g.

Examples:

-Luke said he' have been driving for six hours by the time we came – Luke said that he would have been driving for six hours by the time we arrived.

Usage and examples of Future Perfect in the past

There is no such time in Russian. But if we start thinking differently, we can say that we have something similar to this form. For example: He said he would come. “He will come” in Russian is a verb of the future tense, and “said” is a verb of the past tense. It turns out that in our language there is still such a concept as the future in the past, the difference is that in our language there is no auxiliary verb would, which shows that the action took place in the past.

So what is the Future in the Past? This is an event that should happen in the future, but from the perspective of the past. To try to put it more simply, this is when we talk about past events and we want to refer to what was the future at that moment.

These forms can be used for plans, predictions, and events that happen—and don't happen. Let's look at example sentences from all times.

Future Indefinite in the Past

Designation of an action that was future from the point of view of the past.

Let's look at examples in the active voice.

Examples:

- She promised she' d find my parcel - She promised that she would find my parcel.
- I knew he' d be late again - I knew he would be late again.
— Rita had a feeling that the wedding would be a disaster - Rita felt that the wedding would be a disaster.
— When he was a child he believed he'd be a coach. But now he is a doctor – When he was a child, he believed that he would become a coach. But he became a doctor.

Passive voice in the past future (Future in the past passive):

— My parents believed that their book would be published— My parents believed that their book would be published.

Future Continuous in the past

Denotes an action taking place at a certain moment, which was the future from the point of view of the past.

Examples:

— I felt sure that they’ d be discussing the same problem when I called – I was sure that they would discuss the same problem when I called.
— Liza said that she’ d be studying at 5 o’clock today – Lisa said that she would study today at five o’clock.
— I asked Alice what she’ d be doing after her divorce with Tim – I asked Alice what she would do after her divorce from Tim.
- They knew we should be meeting her later on – They knew that we should meet her later.

Future Perfect in the past

The future perfect in the past is used to denote an action completed up to a certain point, which was the future from the point of view of the past.

Example:

— When I called her, she said she’ d have finished the book by next week – When I called her, she said she would finish the book next week.
— He wondered whether we should have reached the place by midday - He was wondering if we would get to this place by midday.
— I thought I shouldn't have found my wallet by this time – I thought I wouldn’t find my wallet by this time.

Future Perfect Continuous in the past

Denotes an action continuing for a certain period of time up to a certain point, which was the future from the point of view of the past.

—Victoria said that she would have been teaching Chinese for 13 years next month - Victoria said that next month she will teach Chinese for 13 years.

We can also talk about the future in the past using other future expressions.

1. Am/is/are going to becomes was/were going to:

- I was going to do yoga, but I feel tired now – I was going to do yoga, but I’m tired.
- I was going to ask Charles for money, but I changed my mind - I was going to ask Charles for money, but I changed my mind.

2. Be about to becomes was about to:

- I was about to confess to stealing the painting, but Rob advised me not to do it - I was going to confess to stealing the painting, but Rob advised me not to do it.

3. Be on the verge/brink /point of smth, doing smth becomes was/were on the verge/brink/point of smth, doing smth.

Examples:

— Our company was on the verge of financial disaster – Our company was on the verge of financial disaster.
— The two countries was on the brink of war – Two countries were on the brink of war.

The Future in the Past tense is not used with the words: when, while, before, after, if, unless, during, as soon as. You should use if you have the words listed above at the beginning of a sentence. One more thing, you definitely noticed that after the form Future in the Past the verbs hope, know, believe, say, tell are used.

As can be seen from the examples, the Future in the past in English is very easy to master and today you can use this form in colloquial speech. In this article, you learned when to use this form, the correct formation of each tense, and also several other expressions that you can use for variety so that you don’t get bored when communicating in English.

Exercises and answers

And now, in order to consolidate the material to the end, we suggest doing a test and translating sentences from Russian into English.

Exercise 1. Translate the sentences using Future in the past.

1. I knew that people around me would call an ambulance, so I did not stay at the scene of the accident.
2. He thought that he would buy her a ring the next day.
3. We hoped that the party would be fun.
4. Natalie promised that she would return the money by noon.
5. I hoped that my husband would not be working when I came home.
6. The daughter said that she would come home late.
7. Richard told us that by April he will have been working at this school for three years.
8. Andrey believed that he would pass the tests by the end of the month.
9. She thought that she would win the competition.
10. They promised that they would finish the project by 12 noon.
11. I thought that Harry would help us.
12. I knew that you would be upset.
13. We knew that in a week we would be lying on the beach.
14. I knew that if I didn’t call, he would try to contact me all day.
15. I asked my sister if next year it will be 13 years since she has lived in Spain.
16. Peter decided that he would go on holiday to England.
17. I thought that she would prepare everything for our arrival, but I was mistaken.
18. I was sure that Rita would leave by the time I arrived.
19. I knew that after midnight I would sleep.
20. I believed that he would pass the exam.

You can download the answers to the exercise by clicking on the button below: