Polish Future Tense
Content
– The future tense, as the name suggests, is used to talk about things that will happen or will be happening in the future.
– Unlike english, polish uses the future, not the present, in subclauses denoting time or condition.
Example:
Mieć (have)
Pomogę im, jeśli będę miał czas.
This translates in English to “I will help them if I have time”. The word “have” in English is written in the present tense, but this verb in polish must be written in the future.
– Both the imperfective and perfective forms of verbs are used in the future tense. However, imperfective verbs are constructed with the verb być, and perfective verbs are expressed in the future using the present tense conjugations (Perfective verbs cannot be used to express the present tense).
Click here for information about imperfecive and perfective verbs
– Być (be) Conjugation:
| Singular | Plural | |
| 1st Person | będę | będziemy |
| 2nd Person | będziesz | będziecie |
| 3rd Person | będzie | będą |
Future Tense Conjugation
With Imperfective Verbs
These can be formed in 2 ways:
1. With the conjugated form of być + the infinitive of the imperfective verb
2. With the conjugated form of być + the past tense 3rd person form of the imperfective verb.
Both forms are widely used.
Gotować (cook)
Ja będę gotować jedzenie (I will be cooking food).
Ja będę gotował jedzenie (I will be cooking food).
Czytać (read)
My będziemy czytali książkę (We will be reading the book).
My będziemy czytać książkę (We will be reading the book).
Note:
– Sometimes, mostly for stylistic purposes, the imperfective verb is placed before verb być. If this is the case, only the 1st option can be used (i.e. the imperfective verb must stay in the infinitive form).
Sprzątać (clean)
Ja tego sprzątać nie będę (I will not be cleaning this).
NOT Ja tego sprzątał nie będę
With Perfective Verbs
These verbs are formed using present tense conjugations.