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Subject:	incorrect future perfect?
From:	Brad Johnston <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:	Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
Date:	Thu, 5 Mar 2009 06:37:43 -0800
Content-Type:	multipart/alternative
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IMAHO, the student is right to be troubled. The sentence should read:
 
( a ) We will finish the project tomorrow, or
( b ) We will have finished the project by tomorrow, or 
( c ) By tomorrow, we will have finished the project.
 
Past perfect: By the time something happened, something else had already happened.
 
Future perfect: By the time something happens, something else will have already happened.
 
Totally risk-free, non e cosi?
 
.brad.05mar09.

--- On Wed, 3/4/09, Cynthia Baird <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Would anyone care to comment on this sentence?  It came up in a literacy textbook I have to use, and a student had real difficulty with accepting this as a logical sentence.  I gave him my explanation about why I thought the sentence was problematic, but I would like to hear from some of you to know if I was right or wrong in my assessment of the sentence.
 
The sentence read as follows:
 
We will have finished the project tomorrow.
 
I know the sentence contains a future perfect, and I risk Brad's comments, but so be it.


      

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