Past Future Tenses

The past future tenses also called conditional tenses are used to describe actions, states, or situations that were planned, expected, or hypothetical from a perspective in the past. They are commonly used in reported speech (indirect speech) and conditional sentences (Type 2 and Type 3).

The Four Past Future Aspects

The past future timeframe is divided into four distinct grammatical aspects:

  1. Simple Past Future Tense: Describes actions that were expected, planned, or promised in the past, or hypothetical events in conditional clauses.
  2. Past Future Continuous Tense: Focuses on actions that were expected to be in progress at a specific time in the past.
  3. Past Future Perfect Tense: Describes an action that would have been completed in the past if a certain condition had been met.
  4. Past Future Perfect Continuous Tense: Focuses on the duration of an ongoing, hypothetical action leading up to a point in the past.

Past Future Tenses Summary

TenseMain FocusQuick Example
Simple Past FuturePlanned or hypothetical past actionI would play tennis.
Past Future ContinuousExpected to be in progress in the pastI would be playing tennis.
Past Future PerfectCompleted hypothetical past actionI would have played tennis.
Past Future Perfect ContinuousDuration of hypothetical past actionI would have been playing tennis.

Let’s begin by exploring the Simple Past Future Tense to learn how to express unfulfilled plans, reported speech, and conditional statements in English.