Verbs: Expressing the Future — Important Questions

By Sunday, she will have completed her project.

Step 1: Future Perfect tense is formed as: will + have + past participle. Step 2: 'By Sunday' signals a deadline – an action that will be FINISHED before that future point. Step 3: 'Will complete' is Simple Future – it does not show completion before a deadline. Step 4: 'Will be completing' is Future Continuous – shows an action in progress, not completed. Step 5: 'Is going to complete' is the going to form for intention, not showing prior completion. Only 'will have completed' correctly expresses an action that will be finished before Sunday.

By 5 p.m., he will have been working here for six hours.

Step 1: Future Perfect Continuous = will + have + been + verb-ing. Step 2: This tense is used when an action starts before a future moment, continues up to that moment, and is still ongoing at that moment. Step 3: 'Will work' is simple future – no sense of duration or continuity. Step 4: 'Will be working' is Future Continuous – shows an ongoing action at a future time but does NOT emphasise the duration from a starting point. Step 5: 'Has been working' is Present Perfect Continuous, referring to past-to-present. Only option B has the correct form: will + have + been + working.

I am going to join

Step 1: Arjun made this plan YESTERDAY – so the decision already existed before the moment of speaking. Step 2: When a decision is pre-made (not spontaneous), 'going to' is the correct choice. Step 3: 'I'll join' is used for spontaneous decisions made at the moment of speaking. Step 4: 'I will be joining' (Future Continuous) suggests an action in progress at a future time, not a pre-planned decision. Step 5: 'I shall join' – 'shall' is rarely used in modern English except in offers or suggestions with 'shall I/we'. Since the plan was made previously, 'going to' is correct.

Making an offer

Step 1: 'Shall I' and 'Shall we' are used in questions in modern English. Step 2: 'Shall I' is used specifically to make OFFERS – when the speaker is volunteering to do something for another person. Step 3: 'Shall we' is used to make SUGGESTIONS – proposing an activity for a group. Step 4: A request would use 'Will you please...?' or 'Could you...?' Step 5: A promise uses 'I will/I'll...' in a statement, not a question. 'Shall I carry those bags?' is the speaker offering help, so it is an offer.