The Imperfective Future (budu + infinitive) | Czech Grammar

Czech has two ways of talking about the future, and which one you use depends entirely on aspect. This page covers the first: the imperfective future, built with the future forms of být — budu, budeš, bude... — plus an imperfective infinitive. It is the future for actions you picture as ongoing, repeated, or simply unbounded: budu pracovat ("I'll be working"), budeš číst ("you'll be reading"). It is one of the most regular, dependable structures in the whole language — once you know the six budu forms, you can put any imperfective verb into the future.

The pattern: budu + infinitive

You take the future of být and follow it with the infinitive (the dictionary form) of an imperfective verb. Nothing changes on the infinitive — it just sits there.

Person	Auxiliary	Example: dělat (to do)	Meaning
já	budu	budu dělat	I'll be doing / I'll do
ty	budeš	budeš dělat	you'll be doing (sg.)
on / ona / ono	bude	bude dělat	he / she / it will be doing
my	budeme	budeme dělat	we'll be doing
vy	budete	budete dělat	you'll be doing (pl./formal)
oni / ony / ona	budou	budou dělat	they'll be doing

The same frame works for any imperfective verb — just swap the infinitive:

budu + ...	Meaning
budu pracovat	I'll be working
budeme čekat	we'll be waiting
budeš číst	you'll be reading
budou bydlet	they'll be living (residing)

Zítra budu celý den pracovat z domova.

Tomorrow I'll be working from home all day. (ongoing, all-day action)

Budeme se učit česky každé pondělí.

We'll be studying Czech every Monday. (repeated action)

Na koho budeš čekat?

Who will you be waiting for?

What it means: ongoing, repeated, unbounded

The imperfective future is for action seen from the inside — as a process unfolding, a habit recurring, or a stretch of time being filled, with no spotlight on a finish line. Think of it as the future counterpart of the present píšu ("I'm writing"), not of a completed result.

Three flavours, all imperfective:

Večer budu jen tak odpočívat a dívat se na film.

In the evening I'll just be relaxing and watching a film. (ongoing)

Od září budu chodit do posilovny třikrát týdně.

From September I'll be going to the gym three times a week. (repeated habit)

Jak dlouho tu budeš bydlet?

How long will you be living here? (unbounded duration)

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If you can naturally fit "will be -ing" or "for a while / regularly" into the English, you almost certainly want the budu-future. If the English is "will get it done / will finish," reach for the perfective instead.

The absolute rule: budu takes ONLY imperfectives

This is the one non-negotiable law of this structure, and breaking it produces ungrammatical Czech that native speakers find jarring:

budu combines only with an imperfective infinitive. Never with a perfective.

So budu dělat, budu psát, budu číst are all fine — dělat, psát, číst are imperfective. But budu udělat, budu napsat, budu přečíst are flatly wrong, because udělat, napsat, přečíst are perfective.

Dnes večer budu psát referát.

Tonight I'll be writing the report. (budu + imperfective psát — correct)

The reason is logical, not arbitrary. A perfective verb already builds its future out of its present-shaped forms — napíšu on its own means "I'll write it." Stacking budu on top would be like saying "I will will-write": the future is marked twice. Czech forbids the double-marking outright. So a perfective verb never needs budu, and grammatically cannot take it.

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Quick test before you say budu: is the infinitive imperfective? If you'd translate it with "be -ing," yes — go ahead. If it has a perfectivizing prefix (u-, na-, pře-, z-, s-, vy-...) or is the short perfective partner, stop — that verb makes its future on its own.

A warning for English speakers

English uses "will" for absolutely everything in the future — "I'll work tomorrow," "I'll write the report," "I'll be living abroad" all share the one helper. That habit is the single biggest source of error here, because it tempts you to grab budu for every future statement and glue it onto whatever verb comes to mind, including perfectives.

Resist it. In Czech, the moment your action is a single completed event — you'll write the report and finish it, you'll buy the ticket, you'll read the book to the end — you drop budu entirely and use the perfective present form, which carries future meaning by itself.

Budu pracovat celé odpoledne, a pak ten dopis napíšu.

I'll be working all afternoon, and then I'll write that letter. (imperfective budu pracovat + perfective napíšu)

That sentence shows the split in one breath: budu pracovat for the open-ended afternoon of work, then the bare perfective napíšu for the one finished letter. For the other half of the system — how the perfective future works on its own — see the perfective future, and for deciding between them, choosing the future form.

Negation and word order

Negate by prefixing ne- to the auxiliary: nebudu, nebudeš, nebude... The infinitive stays put.

Zítra nebudu nic dělat, potřebuju si odpočinout.

Tomorrow I won't do anything, I need to rest.

The auxiliary and infinitive can be separated by other words, and the order can flip for emphasis (Pracovat zítra nebudu — "Work tomorrow? Not happening"). In neutral statements, though, budu + infinitive sitting together is the safe default.

Celý víkend se budeme stěhovat, tak se neozvu.

We'll be moving all weekend, so I won't be in touch. (separated by the reflexive se)

Common Mistakes

❌ Zítra budu napsat ten e-mail.

Incorrect — napsat is perfective, so it cannot follow budu.

✅ Zítra napíšu ten e-mail. / Zítra budu psát e-maily.

Tomorrow I'll write that email. / Tomorrow I'll be writing emails. (perfective future vs. imperfective future)

❌ Budu koupit nové boty.

Incorrect — koupit is the perfective 'buy'; budu needs the imperfective kupovat.

✅ Koupím si nové boty. / Budu kupovat jen to nejnutnější.

I'll buy new shoes. / I'll be buying only the essentials. (perfective vs. imperfective habit)

❌ Budu jdu do práce. (mixing a finite verb with budu)

Incorrect — budu takes an infinitive, not a conjugated verb; and jít forms its future differently anyway.

✅ Půjdu do práce. / Budu chodit do práce pěšky.

I'll go to work. / I'll be going to work on foot. (motion verbs use půjdu / the chodit-future)

❌ Já budu být doma. (intending 'I'll be home')

Incorrect — být forms its own future as budu, so you never say budu být.

✅ Budu doma celý den.

I'll be home all day. (budu alone = the future of být)

Key Takeaways

The imperfective future = budu, budeš, bude, budeme, budete, budou
- an imperfective infinitive.
It expresses ongoing, repeated, or unbounded future action ("will be -ing," habits, durations).
Iron rule: budu only ever combines with imperfectives — budu udělat / napsat are wrong.
A completed future event uses the perfective present form instead (napíšu, koupím), with no budu.
English "will" covers both jobs; Czech forces you to pick based on aspect first.

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