Russian grammar
The Two Russian Futures: буду делать or сделаю?
Russian gives you two ways to talk about the future, and picking the right one isn't about time at all — it's about whether you mean the doing or the done.
Published 9 September 2026
Russian gives you two ways to talk about the future, and picking the right one isn't about time at all — it's about whether you mean the doing or the done.
Published 9 September 2026
Here's the whole thing in one sentence: Russian has two futures, and aspect decides which you use. If you care about the process — something ongoing, repeated, or that might not finish — you build the compound future with бу́ду plus an imperfective infinitive: я бу́ду чита́ть, "I'll be reading." If you care about the result — one action, seen through to the end — you use the simple future, which is just a perfective verb with ordinary present-tense endings: я прочита́ю, "I'll read it (all)." Same English "will," two different Russian pictures.
That single choice is the only genuinely new idea here. The endings themselves you may already know. So before the tables, get the instinct: am I describing an activity, or am I promising a finished outcome?
This is the easy half mechanically. Take the future of быть ("to be") and follow it with the imperfective infinitive, unchanged. The infinitive never conjugates — only быть does the work:
| future of быть | future of быть | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| я | бу́ду | мы | бу́дем |
| ты | бу́дешь | вы | бу́дете |
| он / она́ | бу́дет | они́ | бу́дут |
Then just bolt an imperfective infinitive on the end:
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| Ве́чером я бу́ду рабо́тать. | I'll be working this evening. |
| Мы бу́дем чита́ть по-ру́сски ка́ждый день. | We'll read in Russian every day. |
| Что ты бу́дешь де́лать за́втра? | What will you be doing tomorrow? |
Notice the flavour: a stretch of time (ве́чером, "in the evening"), a repeated habit (ка́ждый день, "every day"), an open-ended activity. The compound future is at home whenever the focus is on the action unrolling, not on a finish line.
Here is the part that surprises everyone. A perfective verb has no present tense — a completed action can't be happening "right now" — so when you conjugate a perfective verb with the normal present-tense endings, the meaning lands in the future instead. No бу́ду, no infinitive; the verb carries the future on its own.
Compare the imperfective де́лать with its perfective partner сде́лать:
| сде́лать (perfective) → will do & finish | |
|---|---|
| я | сде́лаю |
| ты | сде́лаешь |
| он / она́ | сде́лает |
| мы | сде́лаем |
| вы | сде́лаете |
| они́ | сде́лают |
Those are exactly the endings де́лать takes in the present (я де́лаю = "I'm doing"). The only difference is the little prefix с- that makes the verb perfective — and that prefix flips the whole sentence into the future. Я сде́лаю дома́шнее зада́ние can only mean "I'll do (and finish) the homework."
This is where the choice earns its keep. English hides the difference; Russian makes you commit to it:
| English | Process (imperfective) | Result (perfective) |
|---|---|---|
| I'll read the book. | Я бу́ду чита́ть кни́гу. | Я прочита́ю кни́гу. |
| I'll write a letter. | Я бу́ду писа́ть письмо́. | Я напишу́ письмо́. |
| I'll have supper. | Я бу́ду у́жинать. | Я поу́жинаю. |
Read the left column as "I'll spend time doing this" and the right as "I'll get this done." Бу́ду чита́ть is a cosy evening with a book; прочита́ю is a promise to reach the last page. Both are correct Russian — they just say different things, and a native listener hears the difference immediately.
Because бу́ду already carries the imperfective "process" meaning, it never pairs with a perfective infinitive. Я бу́ду сде́лать is not a thing — it's the single most common beginner mistake in this whole area. If you want the perfective, drop бу́ду entirely and just conjugate the verb: сде́лаю. Keep бу́ду for the imperfective infinitive only.
Both futures lean on the verb of being — if the plain "will be" (Я бу́ду до́ма, "I'll be home") still feels shaky, our guide to the verb быть and the missing "is" sets up exactly the бу́ду forms you're reusing here.
Put each into Russian, choosing the aspect the meaning asks for, then check below. Say them out loud — the point is to feel which future the sentence wants.
If you reached for бу́ду + infinitive on 1 and 3, and a single perfective verb on 2 and 4, the system has clicked. The endings you can drill on a table; the aspect choice only really settles when someone corrects the sentence you got wrong, out loud, in the moment — which is exactly the kind of Russian practice we're built for. Start learning Russian — free.
How many future tenses does Russian have? Two, chosen by aspect: the compound бу́ду + imperfective infinitive for the process, and the simple perfective (present endings, future meaning) for the result.
Why does сде́лаю mean "I will do" and not "I do"? Perfective verbs have no present tense, so present-tense endings on a perfective verb point to the future. Де́лаю = "I'm doing"; сде́лаю = "I'll do (and finish)."
Can you say бу́ду сде́лать? No. Бу́ду takes only an imperfective infinitive (бу́ду де́лать). For the perfective, just conjugate it: сде́лаю.
What's the difference between бу́ду чита́ть and прочита́ю? The first is the activity of reading with no promise to finish; the second reads it right to the end. Same English "will read," two pictures.
PS — the fastest way to internalise this: whenever you plan to say "I'll…", pause for half a second and ask "the doing, or the done?" That half-second is the whole grammar.