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Is there any big difference between these two sentences: We will have been married for 25 years by friday/ on friday

We will be married for 25 years by friday/ on friday?

train bee 282
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  • The perfect tenses are like a CAD software program that allows you to position the point-of-view. You're always looking at the same room or the same object, but seeing it from different positions. The "positions" are temporal with tenses. – TimR Nov 21 '23 at 11:43
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    Your second version - We will be married for 25 years by Friday, is stylistically poor, possibly ungrammatical. Avoid it. – FumbleFingers Nov 21 '23 at 12:19
  • ...the verb format in #2 above is even more obviously "awkward" with a continuous participle rather than a past participle. I will be living away from home for a week by Friday is truly awful. And note that we can replace *by* by *on* (or even discard the preposition completely) with the more natural form: I will have been living away from home for a week [on] Friday. But if you do this with the second version, you end up with something that's either obviously ungrammatical, or has a completely different meaning. – FumbleFingers Nov 21 '23 at 12:32
  • @FumbleFingers I agree 100%. I would simply not use the second version. It's what I would call "lazy grammar" rather than wrong. Might be fine in very informal conversation when someone is not being particular about their grammar, but it would probably lose marks in an exam/test. – Billy Kerr Nov 21 '23 at 12:58
  • @BillyKerr: True, dat. The "natural" version We will have been waiting for ages by then looks a bit intimidating, but in practice it would normally be contracted to *We'll've bin waiting...* (which arguably looks even worse, but it certainly doesn't sound unusual or complicated! :) – FumbleFingers Nov 21 '23 at 13:07

2 Answers2

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The coupled is already married.

[1] We will have been married for 25 years by friday/ on friday.

[2] We will be married for 25 years by friday/ on friday.

[1] has the auxiliary verb pair have been. The sentence hence conveys correctly that

we are married, and the marriage will be reaching its 25th anniversary this friday.

[2] says will be married. It hence does not convey the fact as accurately. Although the 25 years should clear any doubts, the sentence is just less sound. As what @FumbleFingers says, this is stylistically poor.

Seowjooheng Singapore
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When a couple celebrates twenty-fives of marriage it means the marriage ceremony was performed at a specific date in the past, and this state of being married is ongoing until something happens which interrupts this union.

When we want to express an action that began in the past and continues to the present day we use the Present Perfect.

We have been married for 25 years. ✅

When we want to say a certain event will be completed before or at a specific point in the future, we can use the Future Perfect

We will have been married 25 years by Friday. ✅

Note that days of the week in English are always capitalised, and the omission of preposition "for" is facultative here.

The OP's second sentence is awkward, it would probably be marked incorrect in an English test or exam.

We will be married for 25 years by friday/ on friday?

The Future Simple has many functions and uses: planned events/actions, expressing opinions about future events and also stating facts among others.

We'll fly to Dublin next Friday.
The train to Manchester will leave at 09.45.
I'm sure he'll pass his driving test on Friday.
Christmas Day will fall on a Monday this year.
We will be married for 25 years this/in June.

The preposition "by" in "by Friday" means no later than. It would be correct to say:

  • We will have driven 50 km by 09.45 ✅
    but the Simple/pure Future would be highly unusual, and possibly ungrammatical in:
  • We'll drive 50 km by 09.45
Mari-Lou A
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