The Future of Být | Czech Grammar

The little set of forms budu, budeš, bude, budeme, budete, budou is one of the most useful things you can learn in Czech, because it works two jobs at once. First, it is the future tense of být itself — "I will be", "it will be". Second, the very same forms are the auxiliary that builds the future of all imperfective verbs — "I will work", "we will be waiting". There is no separate "future of být" hiding somewhere; this one paradigm covers both uses, and once you own it you can talk about the future at all.

The forms

Person	Form	"will be"
(já)	budu	I will be
(ty)	budeš	you will be
(on / ona / ono)	bude	he / she / it will be
(my)	budeme	we will be
(vy)	budete	you (pl./formal) will be
(oni / ony / ona)	budou	they will be

Look closely at those endings — -u, -eš, -e, -eme, -ete, -ou — and you will recognise the class I -e- conjugation sitting on the stem bud-. The future of být is morphologically just an ordinary class-I present tense. That is a gift: you already know the shape.

Job one: the future of "to be"

In its first role, budu simply means "I will be". Use it wherever English uses "will be" with a location, an adjective, a noun, or an existential "there will be".

Zítra budu celý den doma, tak se zastav.

Tomorrow I'll be home all day, so drop by. (location)

Neboj se, všechno bude dobré.

Don't worry, everything will be fine. (adjective)

Na svatbě bude hodně lidí, co neznám.

There'll be a lot of people I don't know at the wedding. (existential 'there will be')

Budeš večer doma, nebo někam jdeš?

Will you be home this evening, or are you going somewhere?

When the complement is a profession or role, Czech can put it either in the nominative or, more formally, in the instrumental — both are correct: Budeš učitel or Budeš učitelem ("You'll be a teacher").

Až vyrostu, budu veterinářka.

When I grow up, I'll be a vet. (said by a girl — nominative role)

Job two: the imperfective future auxiliary

In its second role, budu is the engine that drives the future of imperfective verbs. You take the relevant form of budu and add the infinitive of the lexical verb: budu pracovat ("I will work / I'll be working"), budeme čekat ("we'll be waiting"). The budu form carries the person and number; the infinitive stays unchanged.

Person	"to work" (pracovat)
(já)	budu pracovat
(ty)	budeš pracovat
(on/ona/ono)	bude pracovat
(my)	budeme pracovat
(vy)	budete pracovat
(oni/ony/ona)	budou pracovat

Příští rok budu studovat v Praze.

Next year I'll be studying in Prague.

Co budeš dělat o víkendu?

What are you going to do this weekend?

Celé odpoledne budeme malovat obývák.

We'll be painting the living room all afternoon.

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This construction only works with imperfective verbs. Perfective verbs build their future a different way — their present-tense form already means the future (napíšu = "I'll write it"). Never combine budu with a perfective infinitive. See budu vs the perfective future.

The trap: don't add a second být

Here is the single most common error English speakers make. English says "I will be working" — a form of be plus the -ing verb. The instinct is to translate that be into Czech as být, producing the impossible budu být pracovat. But budu already is a form of být — it carries all the "be-ness" you need. You attach the lexical infinitive directly to it, with no second verb in between.

❌ Budu být pracovat celý den.

Incorrect — budu is already a form of být; you don't add a second one.

✅ Budu pracovat celý den.

I'll be working all day.

So "I will be working" is budu pracovat, and "I will be at home" is budu doma — in the second case the lexical content is just the location, so there is nothing to add to budu at all. The English be simply melts into the Czech form.

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Sort the English sentence first. If it's "will be + where/what/how" (at home, happy, a teacher), the Czech is just budu + that complement. If it's "will be + doing" (working, waiting), it's budu + the imperfective infinitive. Either way, you write budu exactly once.

Weather and other impersonal futures

Czech uses the bare third-person bude for weather and other subjectless statements, exactly as English uses an empty "it". Here bude may stand alone (a state) or carry an imperfective infinitive (a process).

Zítra bude svítit slunce a teprve odpoledne se zatáhne.

Tomorrow the sun will shine and it'll only cloud over in the afternoon.

V pátek bude pršet, vezmi si deštník.

It's going to rain on Friday, take an umbrella.

Přes noc bude zima, klesne to pod nulu.

It'll be cold overnight, it'll drop below zero. (bude zima — impersonal 'it will be cold')

Negation: nebudu

The future of být negates like any verb — by prefixing ne- directly onto the form, written as one word: nebudu, nebudeš, nebude…. This negates both the "will be" meaning and the auxiliary.

Dneska nebudu mít čas, mám moc práce.

I won't have time today, I've got too much work. (nebudu mít — future of mít)

V neděli nebudeme doma, jedeme za babičkou.

We won't be home on Sunday, we're going to grandma's.

Common Mistakes

❌ Budu být šťastný, až přijedeš.

Incorrect — the double být again; budu already means 'I will be'.

✅ Budu šťastný, až přijedeš.

I'll be happy when you arrive.

❌ Zítra budu napsat ten dopis.

Incorrect — budu can't take a perfective infinitive; use the perfective present instead.

✅ Zítra napíšu ten dopis.

I'll write that letter tomorrow.

❌ Oni bude doma celý večer.

Incorrect — the 3pl form is budou, not bude.

✅ Oni budou doma celý večer.

They'll be home all evening.

❌ V sobotu ne budu pracovat.

Incorrect — the negative prefix ne- attaches to the verb as one word.

✅ V sobotu nebudu pracovat.

I won't be working on Saturday.

Key Takeaways

budu, budeš, bude, budeme, budete, budou is both the future of být ("will be") and the auxiliary of the imperfective future.
Its endings are the ordinary class I -e- endings on the stem bud-.
As an auxiliary, it takes an imperfective infinitive: budu pracovat. Never a perfective one.
Don't insert a second být: "I will be working" is budu pracovat, not budu být pracovat.
Negate with ne- as one word: nebudu, nebude.

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