[naomimalan]

Originally Posted by atlaisha

Hellooooo

Hellooo Atlaisha,

Yes we’re still around. Re your last three questions (21/2 posting), I’d say:

- They’re all acceptable though you’d have to really rack your brains to find a context for n° 2 (“you will have English learned”). For example, France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy, enthusiastic for rapid reforms, could say to his minister of Education, “By September 2008, you will have English learned by every pupil in all the country’s primary schools.” i.e. From September on, see to it that English is taught in every primary school in France. At a pinch, n° 2 might then be acceptable though it still sounds a bit strange: “You will have English taught” would be the correct way of phrasing it.


Though of course, Nicolas Sarkozy wouldn't be speaking in English. Anyway...

-N° 1 and n° 3 mean more or less the same thing to my way of thinking though n° 3 (you will be done with learning English) implies that the poor student being addressed is fed up with learning English. Also it does not imply that he will necessarily have mastered the language by a certain time in the future, it merely means that he will no longer be obliged to learn English. Whereas n°1 implies that he will indeed have mastered the language by a certain time in the future.

. As for the structure “you will have been learning English”, yes of course it is still used by native speakers. The difference between that and examples 1 and 3 is that the person will still be learning English at the future time mentioned by the speaker: In "By September, you will have been learning English for three years", for example, the future time mentioned is September.