How To Master The Russian Future Tense With Ease

As a Russian learner, when you talk about what’s going on, you use the present tense.

But what about when you need to describe events that are going to take place down the line?

To fill you in on talking about what’s coming up, this article on the Russian future tense includes:

• When to use the Russian future tense
• The future of the verb “to be”
• The imperfective future tense
• The perfective future tense

Get ready to express yourself with ease when talking about the future in Russian!

What Is The Russian Future Tense?

The Russian future tense is used for something that happens in the future (будущее) right?

In other words, it’s an action that the speaker expects to happen. That’s pretty much how it works both in English and in Russian.

Usually, when people talk about tenses they list off the present, past, and future as if that’s the end of the story.

However, in English, there are actually quite a few different kinds of future tense. These are formed with helping verbs and each one has a slightly different meaning.

Consider the following and how they convey different information:

• I will cook a large meal
• I shall cook a large meal
• I’m going to cook a large meal
• I’ll be cooking a large meal
• I’m cooking a large meal on Tuesday

Here’s the good news. The Russian future tense is a bit more simple than in English. Actually, it’s a lot more simple.

While English has a lot of future tenses, there are only two future tenses in Russian – the imperfective future and the perfective future. 

The good news is that if you know how to conjugate verbs in Russian, then you already know most of the grammar for making and recognising the forms.

So far, Russian learners 1, grammar villain 0!

Aspect In The Russian Future Tense

Like other Slavic languages, Russian verbs have both tense as well as something called verbal aspect (глагольный вид).

As such, all verbs in Russian have either the imperfective aspect (несовершенный вид) or perfective aspect (совершенный вид).

The difference between each aspect has to do with the completeness of an action.

To sum things up:

• if an action is done to completion, then it uses the perfect aspect
• if an action is habitual, ongoing, or incomplete then it uses the imperfective aspect

Ok, that’s a lot of words and terms. So let’s look at some examples of verbal aspects in action.

If you were to say “I will drink coffee” the aspect is unclear without any more context. However, in Russian, we know if the act of coffee-drinking was finished or not depending on what verb is used.

Notice how the English translation for each is a bit different to reflect the verbal aspects of выпить and пить. Each of them has a different focus on the result of drinking coffee.

One good way to demonstrate the difference is with the verb pair говорить (imperfective) сказать (perfective). Both verbs refer to verbal communication but have different focuses.

The verb говорить translates best “to speak” or “to talk” and expresses something that’s ongoing and not focused on the end result.

On the other hand, with the verb сказать (to say, to tell), the focus is on the end result of communication. In other words, you can talk for a while, but saying something focuses on the end.

You can also think about certain verbs of motion to see the difference.

• будет приходить (He/she/it will be coming)
  • focus on the process

• придёт (He/she/it will come)
  • focus on the finished arrival

The Imperfective Future In Russian

First let’s go over how to make the imperfect future. Remember this is the one you use for actions that happen regularly, habitually, and when the completion of the action isn’t specified.

As with the English future tense, forming the future imperfective involves using a helping verb.

Here, you use the future tense of the verb быть (to be). These буду-verbs kind of fulfil the same role that “will” and “going to” do in English.

As with most verbs in Russian, you have to conjugate it to match the subject.

So forming a phrase with these verbs is quite direct. You just need to use the right form and then add an infinitive.

• Я буду готовить (I’m going to cook, I’ll cook)
• Ты будешь смотреть (You’re going to watch, you’ll watch)
• Она будет писать (She’s going to write, she’ll write)
• Они будут есть (They’re going to eat, they will eat)

So you can make any imperfective future with the буду verbs and an infinitive.

It’s important to remember that since this is the imperfective future you can only use imperfective verbs after буду.

• Ты будешь петь (imp) (You will sing) YES
  • Ты будешь спеть (perf) (You will sang) NO
• Она будет писать (imp) (She’s going to write) YES
  • Она будет написать (perf) (She’s going to wrote) NO

Here are some other examples of the imperfective future

• Она будет заниматься йогой каждый день (She will do yoga every day)
• Что будете делать завтра (What are you going to do tomorrow?)
• Я не буду читать завтра утром (I’m not going to read tomorrow morning)

Other Uses Of The буду Verbs

The verbs буду, будешь, etc are also used as the future form of the verb быть (to be). As such you can use them by themselves to describe future locations, professions, descriptions, among other things.

• Я буду в Риге (I will be in Riga)
• Мы будем на окраине (We will be on the outskirts (of the city))
• Она будет дипломатом (She will be a diplomat)
• Вы будете сильнее (You will be stronger)

Note – the future of быть is always imperfective. There is no perfective future for it.

The Perfective Future Tense

Russia’s other future tense is a bit harder to describe. The main thing is that it has to do with the completeness of an action. If an action will be done to the end, then you should go with the perfective future.

• Он прочитает статью (He will read the article – to completion)
• Я выпью кофе (I will drink the coffee – to the end)

There’s more good news here. The perfective future is very simple to form. Verbs in this tense conjugate just like present-tense verbs do.

The only difference is that you’ll use the perfective stem instead of the imperfective stem.

• Я сделаю домашнее задание (I will do my homework)
  • the homework will be finished

• Ты напишешь письмо Анне (You’ll write a letter to Anna)
  • the letter will be finished

• Остальное придёт (The rest will come)

The only exceptions are the very small group of irregular verbs like дать and съесть as well as any verbs formed from them.

• Мы с Иваном съедим торт (We (Ivan and I) will eat (all of the) cake)
  • There will be no more cake

• Они передадут находки (They will give over their findings)

Thoughts On The Russian Future Tense

Russian grammar can be very complicated at times with things like the large case system and Russian verbs of motion. Thankfully the Russian future tense is pretty straightforward compared to other languages.

With only two grammatical structures to learn, you don’t have to learn any new conjugations and you can build up quickly using words you already know.

The only real trick to mastering the Russian future tense is making sure you know when to use which aspect. In other words, pay attention to the completeness of an action.

So now it’s time to get some practice under your belt. And what better way to master talking about the Russian future tense than through the StoryLearning method.

By reading short stories in Russian, you'll quickly get used to the Russian future tense, and have fun while you're doing it.

So happy practising and talking about what you’ll do next whether it’s perfective or not. And until next time – Удача из удач! (Best of luck!)

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.