Editing Future (section)

== In grammar ==
In [[grammar]], actions are classified according to one of the following twelve verb tenses: past ([[past]], [[Uses of English verb forms#Past progressive/continuous|past continuous]], [[past perfect]], or [[past perfect continuous]]), present ([[present]], [[present continuous]], [[present perfect]], or [[present perfect continuous]]), or future (future, [[future continuous]], [[future perfect]], or [[future perfect continuous]]).<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Verb tenses |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/verb-tenses |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023202126/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/verb-tenses |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 23, 2016 |website=English Oxford Living Dictionaries |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=27 August 2018}}</ref> The future tense refers to actions that have not yet happened, but which are due, expected, or may occur in the future.<ref name="auto"/> For example, in the sentence, "She will walk home," the verb "will walk" is in the future tense because it refers to an action that is going to, or may, happen at a point in time beyond the present.

Verbs in the future continuous tense indicate actions that will happen beyond the present and will continue for a period of time.<ref name="auto"/> In the sentence, "She will be walking home," the [[verb phrase]] "will be walking" is in the future continuous tense because the action described is not happening now, but will happen sometime afterwards and is expected to continue happening for some time. Verbs in the future perfect tense indicate actions that will be completed at a particular point in the future.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Merriam-Webster |title=Present Perfect |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/present%20perfect |website=Merriam-Webster.com |publisher=Merriam-Webster |access-date=27 August 2018 |format=Web |date=n.d.}}</ref> For example, the [[verb phrase]], "will have walked," in the sentence, "She will have walked home," is in the future perfect tense because it refers to an action that is completed as of a specific time in the future. Finally, verbs in the future perfect continuous tense combine the features of the perfect and continuous tenses, describing the future status of actions that have been happening continually from now or the past through to a particular time in the future.<ref name="auto"/> In the sentence, "She will have been walking home," the verb phrase "will have been walking" is in the future perfect continuous tense because it refers to an action that the speaker anticipates will be finished in the future.

Another way to think of the various future tenses is that actions described by the future tense will be completed at an unspecified time in the future, actions described by the future continuous tense will keep happening in the future, actions described by the future perfect tense will be completed at a specific time in the future, and actions described by the future perfect continuous tense are expected to be continuing as of a specific time in the future.