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future - Is this correct: "Water will be being drunk by Michael"?


I started with "Michael is drinking water", which I could convert to "Water is being drunk by Michael", which I could change to the past tense as "Water was being drunk by Michael".


That leads me to believe that I could change "Water is being drunk by Michael" to the future tense as: "Water will be being drunk by Michael". Am I right?


(In case somebody suggests "Water will be drunk by Michael", I believe that has a different connotation because I would derive it from "Michael drinks water" to "Water is drunk by Michael" and then change the tense to future to get "Water will be drunk by Michael".)



Answer



Syntactically, yes, the sentence is correct. It's the Passive Future Progressive.


The direct derivation is:



Michael will be drinking water. >>> Water will be being drunk by Michael.



But the real question is, what do you want to mean by it, and in what situation?


You would have to be referring to a particular moment or point in time in the future. As in the Active Voice:



Fifteen minutes from now, Michael will be drinking water.



And to change it to the Passive Voice, the Subject would have to be worth emphasizing as well:



Fifteen minutes from now, the drugged water will be being drunk by Michael.



Compare with (and this is the direct derivation as well):



Michael will drink water. >>> Water will be drunk by Michael.



In short, if you're just trying your hand at Passive construction, it might be good practice. But it's always better to learn structure together with the meaning and application.


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