John will have arrived yesterday

[joham]

Is John will have arrived yesterday' correct/good English?

 

[emsr2d2]

No.

 

[5jj]

Is John will have arrived yesterday' correct/good English?

It's possible. The speaker is asserting his/her certainty of a past action.

The certainty is greater than if must/may/might/could have arrived had been used.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd happily accept "John will have arrived the day before" or "John will have arrived a day earlier" because we are clearly looking ahead to some time in the future. For me "yesterday" only means "the day before today", not "the day before the day we happen to be talking about".

 

[5jj]

For me "yesterday" only means "the day before today", not "the day before the day we happen to be talking about".

As in: Mary is due to land in New York today, so John will have arrived yesterday, He always gets there a day before her so that he can get make sure the apartment is ready.

Compare:
It's midday. Peter will be landing in Moscow about now.
The phone's ringing. That will be Emma. She said she'd call about this time.

There is certainty, not futurity, in all of these.

 

[emsr2d2]

As in: Mary is due to land in New York today, so John will have arrived yesterday, He always gets there a day before her so that he can get make sure the apartment is ready.

Compare:
It's midday. Peter will be landing in Moscow about now.
The phone's ringing. That will be Emma. She said she'd call about this time.

There is certainty, not futurity, in all of these.

Fair point.

 

[hetzer]

I'm shocked many of you say it's OK to say "John will have arrived yesterday." In my school, we tell them not to use "will" with "yesterday."
Out of curiosiy, is it OK to say "John will go there yesterday.", if the certanity is emphasized?

Thank you in advance.

 

[5jj]

Out of curiosiy, is it OK to say "John will go there yesterday.", if the certanity is emphasized?

No. John will have gone there yesterday. Will expresses the present certainty; have gone tells us that the situation is in the past.

 

[5jj]

I'm shocked many of you say it's OK to say "John will have arrived yesterday."

As I suggested in an earlier post, many of the modals can be used to express a degree of certainty. This certainty can be about the present or past. In the following, I start with the greatest certainty, and move down to the lowest.

He will/won't be there now. He will/won't have been there then.
He must/can't be there now. He must/can't have been there then.
He should be there now. He should have been there then.
He may/may not be there now. He may/may not have been there then.
He could/couldn't/might/might not be there now. He could/couldn't/might/might not have been there then.

 

[Raymott]

I'd like to add to the explanation, though 5jj is correct.
When we say, "John will have arrived yesterday", we are saying that we believe that John arrived yesterday, but we have no direct confirmation of that, so we can't quite say, "John arrived yesterday." What we are expressing is the belief that, when we find out for certain, we will find out that he arrived yesterday.

 

[hetzer]

Thank you for your kind explanation.

I understand one of your example "He will/won't be there now. He will/won't have been there then." well, but what makes me puzzled is you use a sentence like these with a past indicator, "yesterday."
In the titled sentence "John will have arrived yesterday", does it means something like this; "I'm sure he arrived yesterday"?

I still wonder, as a non-native, if I can use this kind of expressions someday!

 

[Barb_D]

Yes,exactly - I'm (pretty) sure he arrived yesterday. Read 5jj's examples again to see when you would use this.