Another use of Future Perfect tense?

Question

In a section on the Future Perfect tense my textbook gave this sentence from a marketing letter.

"As a guest who has stayed with us in the last year, you will have experienced our excellent service."

Is that really an example of the future perfect tense? There is no future time involved. However the sentence sounds presumptuous to me if "will" is removed.

Can anyone explain?

Thanks,

John. (baffled ESL teacher)

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Anonymous"As a guest who has stayed with us in the last year, you will have experienced our excellent service."

I see what you mean.
But could you give us an example of what you would consider a proper use of the future perfect?

When you reach the top of the mountain, you will have climbed ten thousand feet. .
Since you have reached the top of the mountain, you will have climbed ten thousand feet. Hmmm.

You're right. There's no future time involved in the last version.

Do you accept that the usage is correct? I've heard it all my life - 75 years as a native speaker.

We could look at it as a form of conditional:
If you have stayed with us in the last year, you will have experienced our excellent service.

I would agree that the meaning of your example is: Since you have stayed with us in the last year, etc.

CalifJim · Answer

It's the "future of probability".
In its simple form it has to do with a proposition about the present that the speaker feels is likely to be true.

(Knock, knock, knock on the door.)
-- That will be Ken. He said he'd be stopping by.
= That is probably Ken knocking on the door. ...

Similarly with the perfect version, but it's a proposition about the past that is regarded as probable:

You will have experienced our excellent service.
= You have probably experienced our excellent service.
= You have (by now) most likely experienced our excellent service.

Compare:

If you've been downtown lately, you will have noticed that the post office has been torn down. They're building a new one, you know. ( ... you have probably noticed ...)
Having been an employee here for several weeks now, Larry will have seen that most of the men do not wear suits and ties. (... Larry has probably seen that ...)
_________

Don't confuse the name of a tense with its uses. There are often uses of a tense that seem to contradict the name of the tense. Here the name has the word "future", but the usage is more like the present, or the name has the words "future perfect", but the usage is more like the present perfect.

CJ
_____________

That said, Palmer (The English Verb) calls this usage "epistemic will". He says,

"It is tempting to refer to the meaning of will as probability, alongside possibility and necessity for may and must. But the word 'probable' does not provide a good paraphrase. A better paraphrase is again in terms of conclusion: 'A reasonable conclusion is that ...'."

and, drawing a contrast between will and must, he says,

"Unlike must, will does not draw its inference from evidence. There is a contrast between

John will be in his office.
John must be in his office.

A possible reason for uttering the first sentence might be that he usually is there or that he is there when he is not at home. A reason for the second might be that the lights are on in the office or that he cannot be found anywhere else."

As an example in the past he gives

They'll have been on holiday all last week.
_________

So, using Palmer's recommendations, the paraphrase of your original is:

As a guest who has stayed with us in the last year, [a reasonable conclusion is / it is reasonable to conclude] that you have experienced our excellent service.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks Avangi.

Your example, "When you reach the top of the mountain..." is a standard example of the normal use of the future perfect tense.

The meaning in the original is as you say. Since/Because you stayed with us in the last year, etc.

Perhaps "will" has a different function here. Some type of modifier?

John.

Avangi · Answer

AnonymousPerhaps "will" has a different function here. Some type of modifier?

John.

Hi, John.

I call to your attention the recent addition to CJ's post, regarding Palmer (The English Verb), and his view on this.

- A.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

This is my two cents worth.

I think future perfect is a tense which we rarely use in our everyday life. But it can creates confusions for learners as to how to use it "syntactically" correct. In my opinion, the type of contexts future perfect can be used will be with phrases such as " by the time" or "when...".

"As a guest who has stayed with us in the last / past year...." Present perfect context used with past time marker is considered improper, if not incorrect by the conventional grammar rules. So I would aviod it personally.

The rest of the future perfect sentence seems to be syntactially confusing to me as it has mixed present perfect with past time markers and assumed future.

Anonymous · Answer

I want to thank CalifJim for his explanation. I think it is definitively correct.

I haven't studied Spanish, Italian or German and had never heard of the "future of probability."

Interestingly, several Google searches haven't shown any reference to it purely in English Grammar - but there are many references to its use in other European languages.

Does anybody know of any references to the "future of probability" that describe its use in English?

Calif Jim's examples were self explanatory, but I'd like a little more.

Thanks,

John.

Another use of Future Perfect tense?

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