Future and

Conditional Perfect

The FUTURE PERFECT TENSE is the past of the future, in a manner of speaking. It shows something that will be complete at some point in the future.

By the year 2050 we will have found a way to make a car run on water.

2050 is the future. Some time before then, a car running on water will be a reality. In 2050, our future, that invention will be a past (completed) act.

The conditional perfect is a little trickier. It refers to a point in the past when something would have been completed. There’s always an implied “if clause.”

I would have eaten all the cake (if I could have).

Although the time isn’t specified, it is always some point in the past.

You should be able to predict these two tenses.

• Perfect means that you’ll have, in English, “has,” “have,” or “had” in Spanish, a form of “haber” In BOTH, a past participle (hablado)

• Future means that you’ll have, in English, the word “will” in Spanish, the future of “haber”

• Conditional means that you’ll have, in English, the word “would” in Spanish, the conditional of “haber”

Following are the future perfect forms of “haber”:

habré habremos

habrás habréis

habrá habrán

Put these helping verbs with a past participle

to form the future perfect: future perfect

↓ ↓

habré hablado – I will have spoken

Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.

Following are the conditional perfect forms of “haber”:

habría habríamos

habrías habríais

habría habrían

Put these helping verbs with a past participle

to form the future perfect: conditional perfect

↓ ↓

habría hablado – I would have spoken

Click here to go to a brief practice exercise.

Click here to go to another practice exercise.

Click here to go to your FUTURE PERFECT homework.

Click here to go to your CONDITIONAL PERFECT homework.