The Future Perfect Tense
The future perfect tense is used to talk about actions that will have been completed before a specific deadline in the future.
As a reminder, you form it by combining the future tense of the helper verb haber with a past participle (which typically ends in -ado or -ido).
| Pronoun | Future of haber | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| yo | habré | reducido |
| tú | habrás | bajado |
| él / ella / usted | habrá | aumentado |
| nosotros / nosotras | habremos | protegido |
| ellos / ellas / ustedes | habrán | destruido |
To set a future deadline for these milestones, you will frequently use the preposition para (by) followed by a time expression.
| By the year two thousand fifty, we will have reduced global warming. | Para el año dos mil cincuenta, habremos reducido el calentamiento global. |
| By next year, the temperature will not have reached two degrees. | Para el próximo año, la temperatura no habrá alcanzado los dos grados. |
Probability in the Past
In Spanish, the future perfect has a second, very common use: expressing probability, assumptions, or guesses about the recent past.
When you see or hear the future perfect without a future deadline, it often translates to "must have" or "probably" in English.
| It is eight o'clock; the temperature must have already gone down. | Son las ocho; la temperatura ya habrá bajado. |
| The temperature must have gone down by one degree. | La temperatura habrá bajado un grado. |
Even if the action clearly happened in the past, we use the future tense of haber to show that we are making an educated guess about it rather than stating a known fact!
| They probably used renewable energy yesterday. | Ellos habrán usado energía renovable ayer. |
| The factory probably destroyed the sustainable resources. | La fábrica habrá destruido los recursos sostenibles. |