Question

Our boat club is trying to raise money to buy a new lifeboat. By the end of this year, we ________ five hundred letters asking for contributions.

• A. will be sending
• B. will have sent
• C. will have been sending
• D. will send

Answer 1

Answer:

B. will have sent

Understanding Future Perfect Tense

• Future Perfect Tense is used to describe an action that will be completed before a specific point in the future.
• The structure of the Future Perfect Tense is: Subject + will have + past participle (V3).
• This tense emphasizes the completion of an action by a certain future time.

When to Use Future Perfect Tense:

• To indicate an action completed before another future action: "By the time you arrive, I will have finished dinner."
• To indicate an action completed before a specific future time or date: "By the end of this year, we will have sent five hundred letters."
• To express an assumption about a past action: "He will have left by now." (This is less common in exam contexts for this specific structure).

Key Indicators:

• Look for phrases that indicate a future deadline or completion point, such as:
  • "by the end of..."
  • "by this time..."
  • "by [a specific future date/year]..."
  • "by then..."
  • "by the time..."

Common Mistakes to Avoid:

• Do not confuse Future Perfect Tense with Future Simple (will send) or Future Continuous (will be sending). The key is the completion of the action by the future point.
• Ensure the verb is in its past participle form.

Example Analysis:

• In the sentence "By the end of this year, we ________ five hundred letters asking for contributions," the phrase "By the end of this year" clearly indicates a future point by which the action of sending letters will be completed. Therefore, the Future Perfect Tense (will have sent) is the appropriate choice.