Future Perfect + in/by

Question

Hi, everyoneI have got  some questions about Tense and Preposition.    We will have arrived in  Sydney  in approximately 11hours.  We  will be arriving in Sydney    in approximately 11 hours.Which tense is correct in this case ?    We  will have arrived in Sydney   by  11 AM . Future Perfect should be used with  'by time expression'                   not 'in time expression'?Thanks,Gooday!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

(1) We will have arrived in Sydney in approximately 11 hours.
(2) We will be arriving in Sydney in approximately 11 hours.
(3) We will have arrived in Sydney by 11 AM.

I wouldn't say that (1) is necessarily wrong, but it's unusual to my ear.
(2) is fine.
(3) is fine.

Future perfect should be used with 'by time expression' not 'in time expression'?

That's probably very good advice.

CJ

TasmanTiger · Answer

Thank you, CJ

I got it, and

I was wondering why Future Perfect is not compatible with Preposition 'in'.

Can you be a little more specific?

CalifJim · Answer

TasmanTigerI was wondering why future perfect is not compatible with preposition 'in'.
Can you be a little more specific?

I would like to be more specific, but I don't know if there is any really logical reason why these things are incompatible. In fact, they are not really incompatible, but I'd say that "by" phrases are just more common than "in" phrases when you have a future perfect tense.

I can give you my best guess, though, and my guess is that the future perfect looks backwards in time at future events, and "in" does not. "will arrive" happens at one point in time. "will have arrived" lasts forever after the arrival.

x = now

..............x.............>>>[will arrive]..........
< in 10 minutes>

This says that 10 minutes will pass, and then the arrival will happen.
will ... in ... makes it precise when the arrival will happen.

___________

..............x...........[arrival]....<<<[will have arrived - - - - - - - - - - -
< in 10 minutes >
< in 20 minutes >
< in 3 hours >

This says that 10 minutes will pass, and then we will be able to say that the arrival has happened.
That means the arrival might happen in 2 minutes, or in 5 minutes, or in 9 1/2 or 10 minutes. We don't know when the arrival actually happens. We only know that after 10 minutes, we can say that the arrival has happened. That means that after 20 minutes, after an hour, after any amount of time we can still say that the arrival has happened.

will have arrived seems so imprecise that a precise word like in doesn't seem to fit with it.

I hope this helps a little because I don't think I have any better way to explain it.

CJ

TasmanTiger · Answer

I got impressed about your excellent explanation.

Not yet do I fully understand what you say.

I'll try to read yours over and over again until I get the picture.

I'm afraid I was bothering you!

Thanks a lot,

TT

Future Perfect + in/by

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