Future Perfect/ Perfect Progressive: Which Is Better Here?

[Mary Bright]

Tomorrow I ___________ in the sun for two hours.

1) will have been lying
2) will have lain

The sentence was in a book where there are different contest tasks in English. One of my students chose the Future Perfect whereas I preferred the Future Perfect Progressive.

As far as I know, the two variants are possible and there's not such great difference between them. For some reason, they gave 2) as the preferable variant. Can't understand why.

For me the Future Perfect would fit best in a sentence like, for example,

'Tomorrow I will have lain for two hours in the sun and then will have a nice swim', or using by the time... etc.
It obviously shows the completeness of the action.

Maybe I feel it wrong, but I do prefer the Future Perfect Progressive in this sentence. Just would like to know what you think on the point.

 

[Allen165]

Tomorrow I ___________ in the sun for two hours.

1) will have been lying
2) will have lain

The sentence was in a book where there are different contest tasks in English. One of my students chose the Future Perfect whereas I preferred the Future Perfect Progressive.

As far as I know, the two variants are possible and there's not such great difference between them. For some reason, they gave 2) as the preferable variant. Can't understand why.

For me the Future Perfect would fit best in a sentence like, for example,

'Tomorrow I will have lain for two hours in the sun and then will have a nice swim', or using by the time... etc.
It obviously shows the completeness of the action.

Maybe I feel it wrong, but I do prefer the Future Perfect Progressive in this sentence. Just would like to know what you think on the point.

NOT A TEACHER.

I don't like either of those sentences and doubt a native speaker would ever utter them. "Tomorrow I'll lie in the sun for two hours" would be my preference.

"I will have lain in the sun" suggests, to me, that the lying in the sun is continuous. This makes the use of "tomorrow" problematic since it is impossible to lie in the sun continuously from one day to another; eventually it gets dark. But you could say this: "By the end of the day I will have lain in the sun for 5 hours."

 

[Mary Bright]

I think the sentence was taken out from some context or so. Anyway, the thing the сompilers implied to check up is grammar.
Got it and thanks a lot

 

[TheParser]

Tomorrow I ___________ in the sun for two hours.

1) will have been lying
2) will have lain

The sentence was in a book where there are different contest tasks in English. One of my students chose the Future Perfect whereas I preferred the Future Perfect Progressive.

As far as I know, the two variants are possible and there's not such great difference between them. For some reason, they gave 2) as the preferable variant. Can't understand why.

For me the Future Perfect would fit best in a sentence like, for example,

'Tomorrow I will have lain for two hours in the sun and then will have a nice swim', or using by the time... etc.
It obviously shows the completeness of the action.

Maybe I feel it wrong, but I do prefer the Future Perfect Progressive in this sentence. Just would like to know what you think on the point.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) You tell someone that tomorrow you will lie down on the beach at 9 a.m. and get up at 11 a.m. Thus, I think that it is perfect "book" English to observe that tomorrow you will have lain for two hours in the sun.

(2) But, as Senior Member Allen, reminded us, native speakers (at least
here in the States) do not like the future perfect. They often substitute the simple future -- just as Senior Member Allen told us.

(3) Regarding "I shall/will have been lying in the sun for two hours," I feel that such a sentence would be appropriate if it were used in connection with another action.

(a) For example, let's say that you tell your husband that you are going to take the bus to the beach tomorrow. Let's say that he replies that he
will arrive at the beach at 11 a.m. Let's say that you ask him why he is coming to the beach at 11 a.m. And he says something like:

Well, you say that you are going to lie down on the beach at 9 a.m.

When I arrive at 11 a.m., you will have been lying in the sun for

two hours. That is enough. I don't want you to continue to lie in the

sun longer than that. Too much sun is as bad as too little sun.

 

[Mary Bright]

For example, let's say that you tell your husband that you are going to take the bus to the beach tomorrow. And he says something like:

Well, you say that you are going to lie down on the beach at 9 a.m.
When I arrive at 11 a.m., you will have been lying in the sun for two hours. That is enough. I don't want you to continue to lie in the sun longer than that. Too much sun is as bad as too little sun.

I may misunderstand you words, but you say that will have been lying means here that the action will stop or must be stopped (as the wife's husband believes ) in the future. :?:

As far as I was taught the Perfect Continuous Tense aspect, it denotes an action which began in the past and was going on till the time of speaking OR still continues.
Actually, that's how I perceive Future Perfect Continuous. Will have been lying means to me here that tomorrow I'll start lying, as you say, at 9 a.m., and by 11 a.m I'll still be lying in the sun don't know how long.
To the opposite, will have lain means to me that I'll lie in the sun for two hours and stop it. What'd you say?

 

[TheParser]

I may misunderstand you words, but you say that will have been lying means here that the action will stop or must be stopped (as the wife's husband believes ) in the future. :?:

As far as I was taught the Perfect Continuous Tense aspect, it denotes an action which began in the past and was going on till the time of speaking OR still continues.
Actually, that's how I perceive Future Perfect Continuous. Will have been lying means to me here that tomorrow I'll start lying, as you say, at 9 a.m., and by 11 a.m I'll still be lying in the sun don't know how long.
To the opposite, will have lain means to me that I'll lie in the sun for two hours and stop it. What'd you say?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I apologize for not explaining clearly.

(2) Yes, you hit the nail on the head: will have been lying also

indicates to me that, as you said, something continues. So that is

why in my own awkward way I was trying to say that it would be

used by her husband. That is, her husband is saying something like:

When I arrive at the beach at 11 a.m., you will have been lying

there for two hours. So when I arrive, I intend to take you home

because if I do not take some action, you will just continue to lie there

for another two hours.

Another example. Tomorrow I will cook dinner from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

You plan to visit me at 5:30 p.m. So maybe I could say:

Tomorrow when you arrive at 5:30, I shall/will have been cooking for

one and a half hours. (I will still have 30 more minutes to go.)

Maybe someone else can explain it better and more clearly.

In any case, I believe that you are 100% correct in your interpretation

of "will have lain" (= a completed action) and "will have been lying"

(= a continuing action).

 

[Mary Bright]

Your explanation is quite nice. I'm just interested in the way a native perceives these two aspects of the verb, Future Perfect and Perfect Progressive.

In other words, Future Perfect is all right when we don't have another indications of time showing the continuity of an action whereas Future Perfect Progressive looks better with another continuous action or when we have a certain time period.

I'll have made dinner for half an hour (the sentence is no good but what I want is to compare it with the first one)
vs
I'll have been making dinner for half an hour already when you come.

Did I get it well?
If you say yes, I'll be quite satisfied :-D

 

[TheParser]

Your explanation is quite nice. I'm just interested in the way a native perceives these two aspects of the verb, Future Perfect and Perfect Progressive.

In other words, Future Perfect is all right when we don't have another indications of time showing the continuoty of an action whereas Future Perfect Progressive looks better with another continuous action or when we have a certain time period.

I'll have made dinner for half an hour (the sentence is no good but what I want is to compare it with the first one)
vs
I'll have been making dinner for half an hour already when you come.

Did I get it well?
If you say yes, I'll be quite satisfied :-D

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I do not have the confidence to say YES.

(2) So I shall very timidly whisper "I think so."

 

[freezeframe]

In other words, Future Perfect is all right when we don't have another indications of time showing the continuoty of an action whereas Future Perfect Progressive looks better with another continuous action or when we have a certain time period.

Both options in your sentence look strange without another reference point. Both tenses offered are relational.

Without more context you'd just say "Tomorrow I'll lie in the sun for two hours", as someone already said above.

 

[Mary Bright]

Both options in your sentence look strange without another reference point. Both tenses offered are relational.

Without more context you'd just say "Tomorrow I'll lie in the sun for two hours", as someone already said above.

There's nothing left to do but to uselessly ask the compilers of that book why they've made a mistake when having offered that sentence with Future Perfect or Perfect Continuous.
But what I'm really keen on to know is why they gave the Fut. Perf. as the correct answer.
Assuming that the sentence is all right (though not good, of course) and forgetting about the fact that it's wrongly formulated -- which of the tenses would you prefer and why?

 

[freezeframe]

If I may use an analogy here... This is like asking which pile of turds would I prefer when I don't want any turds. :-D

I don't know why someone might choose one over another because I wouldn't say either in isolation.