Latin/Future Perfect Tense

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Last lesson covered pluperfect verbs. This lesson will complete our survey of the three perfect tenses of the indicative active, with the future perfect tense. Though it’s not used frequently in English, it is used a little more frequently in Latin. The endings
 * –erō, -eris, -erit, -erimus, -eritis, -erint

are added to the perfect stem (from the 3rd principal part of regular verbs). You’ll notice the 3rd person plural, -erint, is the only one that is different from the conjugation of sum in the regular future tense (and that is probably because –erunt is already used as an ending for the perfect tense).

For deponent verbs, take the perfect participle, which is the third and final principal part for deponent verbs, and add the future tense of sum as a helping verb.

Exempli gratia, in the 3rd person plural:
 * (regular verb) vocō, vocāre, vocāvī, vocātus
 * vocaverint = they will have called
 * (deponent verb) loquor, loquī, locūtus sum
 * locūtī erunt = they will have spoken

In practice, Latin sometimes uses future perfect tense where we would normally use the regular future tense. It emphasizes that at some point in the future, the action will have happened. It’s a great way of looking at a future task that you are dreading and visualizing it as complete. The Romans were very practical this way, and probably spent less time worrying and more time acting.

Practice
We hope you will have enjoyed this lesson! As always, if there are corrections or questions, feel free to leave a comment on the discuss page. Grātiās et valēte!