Future Perfect Stories with Exercises and Answers (Free PDF)

The Last Line before the Film

By two o’clock on Saturday afternoon, Bela and her Uncle Doru had printed frame grabs of all thirteen handwritten title cards from the family film and laid them across the kitchen table. The silent film ran for eleven minutes. It had been shot on a handheld camera sometime in the 1970s, and the original filmmaker had placed handwritten cards between scenes the way early cinema used intertitles. Uncle Doru was going to show it to relatives tomorrow evening, and he wanted accurate English captions so everyone could follow the cards.

“By the time the door opens tomorrow,” Uncle Doru said, scrolling through the caption file on his laptop, “we will have checked every card at least twice and exported the finished version.” He paused at the last entry. “I just want that one right.”

The last card was the problem. The handwriting on it was small and close together, and the filmed copy had a faint shadow crossing the first letter of the third word. Bela had typed what she thought it said, but she was not certain.

Her cousin Radu leaned over her shoulder. He was fourteen, a year older than Bela, and he liked to decide things quickly. “It says ‘surprised,'” he said. “You can see part of the curve at the top.”

“Maybe,” Bela said. She did not want to argue before she had checked. “By the time we finish this card, we will have read through all thirteen. Let me look at the others first.”

She went back to card four, which was sharply lit and clear. The filmmaker had used the word ‘promised’ there, in the same cramped style. The first letter dropped noticeably below the printed line, the way a lowercase p does when handwritten quickly.

Bela held card four next to the printed frame grab of the last card. The blurred first letter in the last card also dipped below the line in the same place.

“Look,” she said. “In card four, the p goes under the line—here.” She pointed to it. “The first letter of the blurred word does the same thing. An s stays above the line. This one doesn’t.”

Radu leaned closer. “Okay,” he said slowly. “That does look the same.”

“And watch the next scene after the card,” Bela said. She advanced the clip. In it, a young woman held out her hand, and the man across the table placed his palm flat on top of hers, as though confirming something agreed. “If the card says ‘surprised,’ she is reacting to something unexpected. But that gesture isn’t surprise—it’s someone keeping a word. The card says ‘he had promised her.'”

Uncle Doru compared card four and the last card side by side. “She’s right,” he said. “By the picnic scene, the filmmaker will have set this up twice—once on card four and once here. That’s the small joke. The promise is the whole point.”

Radu made a face. “‘Surprised’ would have broken it.”

“It would have,” Bela said.

She typed the correction and read the full caption sequence aloud from the first card to the last. Uncle Doru ran the export. The progress bar moved steadily and finished.

“By six tomorrow evening we will have tested the projection and loaded the captions,” Uncle Doru said, closing the laptop. “That gives us a clear hour before anyone arrives. We will have done everything we need to do.”

Bela stacked the printed cards and put them in the folder with the caption file. By tomorrow the guests will have sat down, the film will have started, and card four will have quietly prepared them for the last line—the one Bela had read, compared, and gotten right.

Questions

1. What type of film were Bela and Uncle Doru preparing captions for?
2. Why did Bela decide to examine card four before agreeing with Radu’s guess?
3. How did the action in the scene after the title card support Bela’s reading of the word?
4. How does Uncle Doru’s schedule show that he wants the film ready before his relatives arrive?

Future Perfect Practice

1. Choose the future perfect form: By tomorrow evening, Uncle Doru and Bela __________ all thirteen handwritten title cards.
   • will have checked
   • will check
   • had checked
   • are checking
2. Complete using the future perfect of ‘finish’ (three words): By five o’clock, Bela __________ her project.
3. Put the supplied words in order to make an affirmative future perfect sentence.
   • have
   • the
   • will
   • guests
   • arrived
4. Which sentence describes an action completed before a specific future deadline?
   • By six o’clock, we will have tested the projection.
   • At six o’clock, we are testing the projection.
   • By six o’clock, we tested the projection.
   • At six o’clock, we will test the projection.
5. Complete this new example using the negative future perfect of ‘finish’ (four words, no contraction): By noon tomorrow, I __________ my new film.

Your turn: Write two sentences describing two goals you will have achieved by this time next year.

Listen to this story (audio)

Eight Days to the Moon and Back

On July 16, 1969, at 13:32 UTC, Apollo 11 lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Three astronauts are aboard: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. What follows is a documented sequence of milestones, viewed forward from that launch morning—events that history has since confirmed in full.

By 14:00 UTC on July 16, the spacecraft will have reached Earth orbit. The crew will spend time there running checks before the engines push them toward the Moon. That moment marks the true beginning of the outward journey.

Collins pilots the command module, named Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin will later transfer to the lunar module, named Eagle, which is designed to land on the surface. Collins will not land with them; he will remain in orbit while the other two descend.

By 18:00 UTC on July 19, Apollo 11 will have entered lunar orbit. The following day brings the critical separation. At 17:44 UTC on July 20, Eagle undocks from Columbia.

By 21:00 UTC on July 20, Eagle will have landed on the lunar surface. The confirmed time is 20:17 UTC—earlier than that hour. Collins, still orbiting above in Columbia, will not have set foot on the Moon. He will have completed orbit after orbit while waiting.

The surface work begins in the early hours of July 21. Armstrong steps onto the Moon at 02:56 UTC; Aldrin follows at 03:15 UTC. By 04:00 UTC on July 21, both astronauts will have taken their first steps on the lunar surface. They collect samples and take photographs. By 06:00 UTC, both will have returned inside Eagle.

Eagle lifts off from the Moon at 17:54 UTC on July 21 and docks with Columbia at 21:35 UTC. By 23:30 UTC on July 21, all three crew members will have reunited inside the command module. The lunar module is released, and the journey home begins around 04:55 UTC on July 22.

On July 24, 1969, at 16:50 UTC, Columbia splashes down in the Pacific Ocean. By that moment, the crew will have traveled for about eight days and three hours and will have completed the flight. The timeline that looked forward from launch day on July 16 will have closed.

Questions

1. Which spacecraft is designed to land on the surface of the Moon?
2. Why does Michael Collins stay in orbit rather than walk on the lunar surface?
3. How will Armstrong and Aldrin’s experience differ from Collins’s by 04:00 UTC on July 21?
4. Why is the crew’s reunion inside Columbia given a later time than the docking?

Future Perfect Practice

1. Fill in the three-word future perfect form: By 18:00 UTC on July 19, Apollo 11 __________ (enter) lunar orbit.
2. Which sentence correctly uses the negative future perfect to describe Collins on July 20?
   • Collins will not have set foot on the Moon.
   • Collins will not setting foot on the Moon.
   • Collins has not will set foot on the Moon.
3. Put the supplied words in order to make an affirmative future perfect sentence. Begin with The.
   • will
   • Eagle
   • have
   • The
   • landed
   • module
4. Complete the sentence with the past participle form: By 06:00 UTC, both astronauts will have __________ (return) inside Eagle.
5. What meaning does ‘will have completed’ express in the story’s timeline?
   • An action that will be finished before a specific future time.
   • An action happening continuously at the present moment.
   • An action that was canceled before it could begin.

Your turn: Describe two goals your team will have completed before your science project is due next week.

Listen to this story (audio)

The Parcel That Travels Twice

Sena and her cousin have been writing to each other since they were ten, but neither of them has ever sent something made by hand. Her cousin lives two towns away—close enough for a day trip, far enough that they visit only a few times a year. One evening in October, Sena suggests an exchange: each of them will sketch the view from their own front window, mail the original, and keep a photo copy at home so neither drawing truly disappears.

Her cousin agrees immediately. “By the time November arrives, we’ll both have sent our sketches,” he types back. “And received each other’s,” Sena adds.

Sena spends a Saturday morning on her drawing. She sketches the narrow street outside—the hardware store across the road, the two oak trees with leaves already turning orange. She is careful with the window frame in the foreground, because that detail proves the view is genuinely hers. When she finishes, she photographs the postcard on the kitchen table, addresses the back, and walks it to the mailbox.

That evening she sends her cousin the photo online, just to show him what is coming. He replies within minutes. “It already feels like I have it. Does that count?”

Sena stares at the message. Sending is not the same as arriving, and arriving is not the same as displaying. She opens her notebook and writes three column headers: Sent / Arrived / Displayed. Under Sent she writes today’s date. Under Arrived she writes a few days—if delivery goes normally. By the time the card reaches him, it will have traveled through a collection box, a sorting center, and a delivery bag. That takes time. A photo won’t have gone anywhere except a screen.

She types back: “No, a photo doesn’t count. By the time your card is on my wall, it will have made a real journey.”

Her cousin sends one question: “So when do we call it done?”

Sena looks at her notebook. She counts forward three weeks and circles the third Saturday in November. By that date, if the postal system runs normally, each of them will have received the other’s original and will have had a few days to find a frame. She tells him the date and adds that it is a target, not a promise; if either card is delayed, they will simply move the date forward.

“That works,” he writes. “It’s a real finish line.”

Sena pins the photo copy of her sketch above her desk. It is a record of what she has sent, not a replacement for what she hopes to receive. Somewhere between their two towns, her cousin’s drawing is already moving—a rectangle of card with his handwriting on the back and a street she has never seen from her own window. By the third Saturday, if all goes well, she will have held it. That is what the wait is for.

Questions

1. Why does Sena take a digital photo of her drawing before walking to the mailbox?
2. What is the main reason Sena refuses to count a photo on a screen as an arrived postcard?
3. Why does Sena describe the third Saturday in November as a target rather than a promise?
4. How is the photo above Sena’s desk different from the card she is waiting for?

Future Perfect Practice

1. Complete with the future perfect of ‘send’ (three words): By November, both cousins __________ their original sketches.
2. Choose the future perfect form: By the third Saturday, Sena __________ her cousin’s postcard if the mail runs on time.
   • will have received
   • has received
   • will receive
   • had received
3. Complete with the contracted negative future perfect of ‘go’ (three words): Before Sena prints or forwards it, the digital image __________ anywhere except a phone screen.
4. Which sentence correctly describes an action completed before a deadline?
   • By that date, each cousin will have had time to buy a frame.
   • By that date, each cousin will had time to buy a frame.
   • By that date, each cousin will having time to buy a frame.
   • By that date, each cousin have had time to buy a frame.
5. Put the supplied words in order to make an affirmative future perfect sentence. Begin with The.
   • card
   • the
   • traveled
   • will
   • have

Your turn: Describe a project you plan to finish soon. Write three sentences using the future perfect (‘will have + past participle’) with specific times or deadlines.

Listen to this story (audio)

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