[Grammar] Will Future/Future continuous/Future perfect

[Metathron]

Hi guys,

I'm having problems with an exercise where three tenses are possible. This is the gap fill, with the correct answers already filled in:

SEAN: What do you think (1) WE'LL BE DOING this time next year?

SOPHIE: Well, I don't know about you, but (2) I WILL BE SITTING in the sun on a Greek island somewhere. (3) I'LL HAVE FINISHED all my exams, and (4) I'LL HAVE WON enough money on the lottery to pay for my trip. How about you?

SEAN: I think (5) I'LL BE PLAYING in a band, here in Liverpool. One day a famous manager (6) WILL HEAR me play, and (7) WILL ASK me to make a record. Five years from now (8) I'LL HAVE SOLD so many records that (9) I'LL HAVE RETIRED. What about you James?

JAMES: I'm a bit more of a realist than you two. I think (10) I'LL still BE STUDYING because I've got a feeling that when our exam results come out next week, (11) I WON'T HAVE PASSED any of them.

© English File Upper-intermediate Student's book: Oxenden, Latham-Koenig (OUP)

I'm fine with the future continuous, and with the future perfect (kinda), but why the need for future simple (will future) and not the future perfect in numbers 6 and 7? Because of "one day"? I just know that my students will ask me why this/that and I'd like to give them at least some kind of an answer?

Thanks in advance

[MrPedantic]

Hello Meta,

This is how I see it (omitting "one day", which does indeed interfere with the future perfect, and adding "in August 2009" for clarity).

Let xxx = the period of playing in a band; H, the manager hearing me play and asking me to make a record:

1. In August 2009, I'LL BE PLAYING in a band, here in Liverpool. A famous manager WILL HAVE HEARD me play, and WILL HAVE ASKED me to make a record.

[NOW]----xxxxxxxxxxxHxxxxxxxxxxxx[August 2009]xxxxx>

2. In August 2009, I'LL BE PLAYING in a band, here in Liverpool. A famous manager WILL HEAR me play, and WILL ASK me to make a record.

[NOW]----xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx[August 2009]Hxxx>

(Thus both are possible; but the future perfect looks back on the "hearing and asking", from the point of view of August 2009, while the ordinary future suggests that the "hearing and asking" occurred around August 2009.)

All the best,

MrP

[e2e4]

Originally Posted by Metathron

Hi guys,

I'm having problems with an exercise where three tenses are possible. This is the gap fill, with the correct answers already filled in:

SEAN: I think (5) I'LL BE PLAYING in a band, here in Liverpool. One day a famous manager (6) WILL HEAR me playing, and (7) he WILL ASK me to make a record. Five years from now (8) I'LL HAVE SOLD so many records that (9) I'LL HAVE RETIRED.

© English File Upper-intermediate Student's book: Oxenden, Latham-Koenig (OUP)

I'm fine with the future continuous, and with the future perfect (kinda), but why the need for future simple (will future) and not the future perfect in numbers 6 and 7? Because of "one day"? I just know that my students will ask me why this/that and I'd like to give them at least some kind of an answer?

Thanks in advance

Hopefully this is not going to annoy you since I am a learner but wanna say this

I have some problems and not I am having problems in the first sentence.

6), 7), One day a famous manager will hear me playing and ___ ask me to make a record. (he will not hear my complete play but only part of my playing. Also I think that there is to be he will ask or just ask and not will ask)

Why not future continuous? One day he will hear Sean (and ask) if by chance call by the place where Sean (usually) plays. The manager, for sure, will not be sitting there all the time, listening to Sean.

In addition

Five years from now I'll have sold enough records to go on merited retire. (ment)

[David L.]

One day a famous manager (6) WILL HEAR me play, and (7) WILL ASK me to make a record

Yes, you are right. 'one day' limits you to the moment of some future day in which the manager first hears you, whereas the Future Perfect refers to a period of time.
I may be a nobody today, but one day, I will/I'll be a star. Then, I will have/I'll have great satisfaction knowing that all those so-called managers along the way will have heard about me as I climbed to the top, and be eating their hearts out."

(I couldn't think of a Future Perfect rendition that sounded natural, of 'will hear me play'. )

[e2e4]

Originally Posted by David L.

Yes, you are right. 'one day' limits you to the moment of some future day in which the manager first hears you, whereas the Future Perfect refers to a period of time.

If I may ask please let me know which preposition is right one here or maybe both of them.

limits you to the moment in which.. or
limits you to the moment at which..

also I have a doubt about

..will have heard about me as I climbed to the top or
..will have heard about me as I have climbed to the top

is it possible to use past simple in such sentences which are pointed to the future?

also what about this one

..will have heard about my climb up to the top and be eating their hearts out.


Thanks

[David L.]

If I may ask please let me know which preposition is right one here or maybe both of them.

limits you to the moment in which.. or
limits you to the moment at which..

You have raised a really interesting point : that being, of all the ways I might have written that sentence, what was my perspective/my frame of reference that I phrased it that way?

I wrote, "...to the moment of some future day in which..."

Normally, it would be 'to the moment at which...'
and
'...some future day on which..."

What I was struggling with, was trying to hone it down to, was 'a single moment in a day' (trying to avoid any idea of a time period, like 'day' suggesting 'a whole day'.
So - the idea becomes: 'some single moment in a day, at some time in the future.'
or
'to some single moment of some future day, within which occurs that single moment'.

I was conscious of not trying to confuse this post by any suggestion of a 'span of time' when it is not in fact being referred to.

also I have a doubt about

..will have heard about me as I climbed to the top or
..will have heard about me as I have climbed to the top

is it possible to use past simple in such sentences which are pointed to the future?

Let's look at what I was meaning, in the sentence as I wrote it, and how 'have climbed' alters the meaning.


"..will have heard about me as I climbed to the top"
the preposition 'as' indicates that something happens during the time when something else is taking place: over the period of time as I "climbed to the top", they 'will have heard about me'.

They will have heard about me as I have climbed to the top.
the sentence now means: BECAUSE I have climbed to the top, these manager 'will have/must have heard' about me, because NOW I'm such a big star. It could actually mean they have only heard about me since, and because, I am now at the top, with no reference to a span of time along the way to stardom.

[e2e4]

I see the "moment" like an almost infinitesimally short period of time at which something normal starts to happen. (or finishes its happening)

But the strangest things completely happen in such short periods!!

For example, the manager could be shocked by the Sean's playing.

If some known substance changes its existence, but by way of releasing a huge energy by the process, it happens in the moment as an almost but rather not infinitesimally period of time.
The moment is shorter, the energy is better in its quality and of course bigger in its quantity.

If the change really happened in the infinitesimally short period of time (or in the shorter period of time which we can not imagine) the whole known world would stop its existing.

In such case when manager's mind changes from one mind's state (level, condition) to another mind's state it can happen in the moment. No other energy is released but maybe some kind of bio-energy only, whome (which) is not easy to see but only feel by the person whose mind changes by way he feels better or worse. If the manager has just realised the Sean's playing which he probably hasn't been expecting that time his mind changes and his bio-energy increases. All happens in the very moment.

This way, I can recognise the preposition in right.

As I said at the beginning of this post, for normal things, I would use the preposition at if it wasn't an oversight I usually do like a learner who doesn't have enough hours of using the language.

P.S. You're welcome to correct my use of the prepositions in the text.