Duo Russian Grammar

57) Compound Future

Imperfective future

There is another way of expressing the future in Russian besides the perfective covered earlier, namely (you guessed it) the imperfective. Its primary use is to show some prolonged or repeated activity in the future rather than to focus on a single action done at some particular point in time. (It tends to be overused by foreign learners).

To form the imperfective future, use the appropriate variation of будет and an infinitive of an imperfective verb:

  • Завтра я буду спать = I'll be sleeping tomorrow
  • Они будут весь день учиться = They are going to be studying all day.
  • Летом я буду больше бегать = I'm going to run more in the summer.
  • Будете есть торт? = Will you eat the cake?

It is quite useful for describing what you will generally be occupied with at a certain moment or day ("at 3 p.m. I'll still be working") in the future.

I will not do this!

There is one more important verb to discuss here. «Стать» (to become) is used with an infinitive in negative sentences to express a decision not to do something, both in past and in future.:

  • Я не стану смотреть этот фильм! = I will not watch this movie!
  • Вчера она не стала готовить обед. = Yesterday she did not cook lunch (because she chose not to).

We mostly skip the past use because English does not actually distinguish between the past action that just did not happen and the past actions that were not taken because a person decided not to. Стать is also used (to a degree) in positive past sentences to mean "started doing the prolonged activity". Quite a rare thing in future.