Future Continuous and Perfect Continuous tenses in Passive Voice

Question

I've read a lot of books/articles which says that Future Continuous in Passive Voice and Perfect Continuous in Passive Voice are not possible, but there are some examples of such combinations at this page. Also there are some samples of Future in the Past in Passive Voice.

So my question is it valid to put following tenses in passive voice?

1. Perfect Continuous
2. Future Continuous
3. Future in the Past Tenses (all of them)

Answer 1

Of course they're possible.

As to whether you'd want to use them, that's another question entirely. Each new auxiliary verb you use further narrows the temporal interpretation of the verb. After a certain point, it just doesn't matter 99% of the time. In other cases, it just sounds weird.

For the perfect continuous, that's likely because of the double be (has been being) that, like had had in pluperfect, even though it may be perfectly justified, often sounds better simplifying it (has been). Depending on the verb you need, you can partially avoid this slight cacophony by using a different auxiliar for the passive, like get, although that doesn't solve the convulatedness.

Continuous with modals will and would work exactly the same:

| It will have been getting written for hours |
| pres. bare inf. past.part. pres.part. past.part. |
| mod.fut. aux.perf. aux.cont. aux.pass. main |

Here I have a sentence, with the morphological form written on the second line, and the purpose of the verb (to generate the future, auxiliary to the passive, etc)

Modal will (or alternatively would) accepts any non-defective verb. Have fits the bill, and merely requires a past participle. That's been, which is used to form the continuous and simply requires a present participle. That's getting, which is one of the auxiliaries that can form the passive (you could also use being here). It needs the past participle of transitive verb, and written is just that.

Of course, if you use another structure other than modal will for the future, like going to it's even crazier:

| It is going to have been getting written for hours |
| pres. pres.part. bare inf. past.part. pres.part. past.part. |
| aux.cont. aux.fut. aux.perf. aux.cont. aux.pass. main |

I suppose if it's really important to emphasize that the fact that it is currently preparing to be in the process of being marked upon at some point in time prior to some time posterior to now, that works great, but really, it's overkill :-)

Answer 2

Let us standardize some terms here. For the sake of comprehensibility the following modern terms are preferred over the old ones:

1. New term: Progressing
   Old terms: Progressive, Continuous

2. New term: Completed
   Old terms: Perfect, Perfected

Therefore I to need rephrase your question to use the more comprehensive terminology:

Is it valid to put following tenses in passive voice?

• Q1: Completed Progressing
• Q2: Future Progressing
• Q3: Future in the Past

Basic Paradigm of Tenses

The English tense system is used to describe the activities of entities.

In the English tense system we are able to perceive one and only one of the following temporal perspectives of an activity:

• Past
• Present
• Future

For each of those temporal perspectives, our speech in English will describe activities in one and only one of the following states

• Progressing
• Completed
• Completing

Each entity involved in the activity, can be in one and only one of the following participation in the activity

• Active
• Passive

I have to standardise the terminology because progressing, progressive, perfect, etc frequently get confused and over-lapped in meaning.

Therefore we have 12 possible combination of tenses, from the cross-product of
{temporal perspective} X {state of activity} X {participation (aka voice)}

resulting in the following paradigm

1. Simple past Active/Passive
2. Past Progressing Activity/Passivity
3. Past Completed Activity/Passivity

4. Past Completed Activity/Passivity subjuncting Progressing Activity/Passivity

5. Simple present Activity/Passivity

6. Present Progressing Activity/Passivity
7. Present Completed Activity/Passivity

8. Present Completed Activity/Passivity subjuncting Progressing Activity/Passivity

9. Simple future Activity/Passivity

10. Future Progressing Activity/Passivity
11. Future Completed Activity/Passivity
12. Future Completed Activity/Passivity subjuncting Progressing Activity/Passivity

Real, abstract and imaginary realms

On top of that, the tense system is used in one of these modes and moods:

• real time
• non-finite
• abstract/imaginary time in subjunction to real time. Such subjunction of time is necessary when you need to speak about activities that are proposed, possible, hypothetical or even impossible, and may or may not happen.

Which gives the English language a paradigm of 48 exclusive tense+mood of speech, in addition to various other non-finite modes.

There is no difference between non-finite activity taking place in real world and non-finite activity in abstract realm, because non-finite activity is itself an abstract activity.

Non-finite activity is either

• Passive. Passive non-finite uses the Completed state.
• Active. Active non-finite uses either the Progressing state or infinite state (aka infinitive).

Example of non-finite active (aka progressing):

Eating pasta was, is and always will be my favourite past-time.

Example of infinitive:

She was here, is here and will always be here to eat pasta.

Example of non-finite passive

I have never been, am not, and will never be afraid of being criticised.

Pivoting/subjunction of tenses

Subjunction is placing a concept/entity under and beside another entity/concept. We could subjunct an imaginary mood under a past tense, in order to define an imaginary activity.

We could also pivot/subjunct a progressing activity under a completed state.

• Subjunction of progressing activity as a past completed state (aka past perfect progressive):
  {past completed {progressing {active participle}} subject}
  {He had been {in the activity of eating} lots of candy}}.
  {He had been {eating lots of candy}}.
  {We had been {in the activity of hoping for a baby}}.
  {We had been {hoping for a baby}}.

• similarly, but passive {past completed {progressing {passivity}}}
  = {past completed {progressing {past participle}}}
  {A lot of candy had been {in the state of being eaten}}.
  {A lot of candy had been {being {eaten}}}.
  {A baby had been {in our delusions as being hoped for}}.
  {A baby had been {being {hoped for}}}.

• subjunction of progressing passivity as a presently completed state
  {presently completed {progressing {passive participle}} subject}
  {The students have recalled {their being exploited as unpaid-interns}}.
  {The students have recalled {being{ exploited}} as unpaid-interns}}.

• Subjunction of progressing active activity as a future completed state:
  {future completed {progressing activity} subject}
  = {past completed {gerund} subject}
  We will have forgotten {{eating} with chopsticks}

• Subjunction of progressing activity as a non-finite frame, which is then subjuncted as a future completed passivity:
  {future completed {progressing passivity} subject}
  = {past completed {gerund} subject}
  We will have been forgotten {losing our life-savings in the crash}.

Recursive subjunction

• Subjunction of completed activity within a presently progressing time frame, which is then subjuncted under a future completed passivity:
  {future completed {progressing passivity} subject}
  = {past completed {progressing {past participle}} subject}
  We will have been despised {having {lost} our life-savings in the crash}.

• Subjunction of completed participle within a presently progressing non-finite time frame, which is then subjuncted under an imaginary passivity, which is then subjuncted as completed past:
  We would have been despised {having {lost} our children in a worthless war}.
  We would have been criticised {not having {invested} our faculties in good education}.

• Someone could analyse the levels of subjunction in this convoluted sentence:
  We would have been regretting not being considered having had sufficiently planned wanting finding ourselves having had to be performing unwanted tasks.

Answer:

• Q1: Completed Progressing Passivity
  {Past completion {non-finite progressing passive activity}}
  He had been {getting laid} by beautiful women.

• Q1.1: Completed frame subjuncting non-finite Progressing Passivity
  The students have recalled {being{ exploited}} as unpaid-interns}}.

• Q1.2: Passively Completed Progressing Passivity
  The soldiers are considered {being {placed}} on active duty.

• Q2: Future Progressing Passivity
  He will be getting killed in a worthless war.
  He will be getting laid by beautiful women.

• Q3.1: Future Passivity subjuncted in Past Activity
  Last year, we were certain he will be awarded a degree within two years.
  Last year, we were certain he will be getting cheated by beautiful women for two more years.

• Q3.2: Future Passivity subjuncted in Past Passivity
  We were told how he will be getting a degree within two years.
  The men were reminded why they will be getting laid by beautiful women for the rest of their lives.

Further examples:

• Imaginary Passivity subjuncted in a past frame, which is then subjuncted in Past Activity
  Last year, we were certain he would be awarded a degree within two years.

• Passive Non-finite
  Not many of you will have the chance to be in audience with the emperor. In the presence of the emperor it is imperative that you not speak unless {spoken to}.