[Grammar] Future Perfect Simple vs Future Continuous

[Gotanno]

If the Future Continuous is used to describe or predict events or situations continuing at a particular point in the future and the Future Perfect Simple is used to talk about a future event that will finish before a specified time in the future (often with: before, by+fixed time or in+amount of time)

Then why is the following correct :

• Future Perfect Simple: "By 2030 the number of people of working age will have grown to around 30 million"

but the following is not correct:

• Future Continuous: "By 2030 the number of people of working age will be growing to around 30 million" - if it is perfectly fine to say: "By the year 2030 it is estimated that well over one billion people will be learning English"?

I'm stumped because I thought "by" would limit the usage to Future Perfect Simple, but, as we can see from the above, this is not necessarily the case?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tarheel]

Re:

"By the year 2030 it is estimated that well over one billion people will be learning English"?


​

So if I'm still alive then and have access to a computer with Internet access I could still be doing this? And by then I'll even know how to explain perfect continuous? (And future perfect simple?)
;-)

P.S. Remove one "is" from the sentence with two of them.

 

[Gotanno]

Did the editing but I'm still confused...

 

[Skrej]

'By 2023' is simply clarifying the timeline being discussed. Starting from this point in time, and ending in 2023, these things will be true.

The growing will be done by 2023. The learning will not be done by 2023, there will just be over 1 billion people learning English.

 

[Tarheel]

Did the editing but Im still confused :/

Well, you did it right. Are you saying it was a lucky guess? (You took out the extra is. (There is still a misplaced colon in that sentence though.))

No need to thank me for something I haven't done yet. Instead, click on the Thanks button. (Next we'll look at two of the sentences.)

 

[Tarheel]

If the Future Continuous is used to describe or predict events or situations continuing at a particular point in the future and the Future Perfect Simple is used to talk about a future event that will finish before a specified time in the future (often with: before, by+fixed time or in+amount of time)

Then why is the following correct:

• Future Perfect Simple: "By 2030 the number of people of working age will have grown to around 30 million"

but the following is not correct:

• Future Continuous: "By 2030 the number of people of working age will be growing to around 30 million"

Use the form of the previous sentence, thus:

By 2030 the number of people of working age will be around 30 million.

(Maybe future continuous doesn't work there.)

• "By the year 2030 it is estimated that well over one billion people will be learning English"?

By a certain year (2030) it is estimated that over one billion people will be doing something (learning English).

 

[Tdol]

Future Continuous: "By 2030 the number of people of working age will be growing to around 30 million" - if it is perfectly fine to say: "By the year 2030 it is estimated that well over one billion people will be learning English"?

The second is using a lower limit, so the numbers can continue to grow over it. In the future perfect simple, you're setting an upper limit, which gives a future point of completion.

"By 2030 the number of people of working age will be growing to around 30 million"- This could work better with a different verb like By 2030 the number of people of working age will be approaching 30 million. The perfect suggests some sort of completion, in this example of the growth at a certain stage, while the continuous is interested in the process going on.