Construction of will have and past participle is rather interesting. It is used to “express certainty or confidence about the past” (Swan 622).
Examples of will have and past participle
A student is given this sentence to rephrase by using WILL (taken from Spotlight on CAE):
Paul said he would call April to tell her he’s not going to the party, and I’m sure he has.
Rephrased using WILL:
Paul will have phoned April to tell her he’s not going to the party, because he said he would.
The meaning: the speaker is fairly confident that April was told he would not come to the party.
Let’s see some other examples and rephrase them quickly:
- Dear Sir, You will recently have received a form… (We are sure you got that form.)
- I wonder why we haven’t heard from him – do you think he won’t have got our letter yet? (I am fairly confident he did not get the letter.)
- We can’t go and see them now – they’ll have gone to bed. (I’m sure they fell asleep.) [All three examples are taken from Swan.]
- That means workers will have received a total 9pc pay rise in the past three years. (We are quite certain that the rise was 9pc per worker.) [Irish Independent.]
- If, like me, you are a BHP Billiton shareholder, you will have received a handsome 192-page shareholder circular last month …. (If you are also a shareholder, you got the same circular last month.) [Forbes]
That’s an interesting use of a modal!