The single most useful future form in Polish is będę, the future of być ("to be"). You need it for two jobs at once: to say something will be the case ("I'll be home," "it'll be cold"), and to build the imperfective compound future ("I'll be reading"). Because być has no perfective partner, będę is its only future — there is no second option to choose from. This page covers the full set, both of its jobs, and the genitive twist in the negative existential.
The forms
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ja | będę | I will be |
| ty | będziesz | you will be |
| on / ona / ono | będzie | he / she / it will be |
| my | będziemy | we will be |
| wy | będziecie | you (pl.) will be |
| oni / one | będą | they will be |
Two orthographic points worth nailing now. First, będę (first person, -ę) and będą (third-person plural, -ą) differ only in the nasal vowel — and that one letter is the difference between "I will" and "they will." Second, the middle forms are spelled będzie- with the soft dź sound: będziesz, będzie, będziemy, będziecie. Every form keeps the ę in the first syllable.
Job 1: będę as the future copula
In its first job, będę is simply the future of "to be" — it links the subject to a location, an adjective, a noun (predicate), or an existence. This is będę + something that is not a verb.
With a location or state:
Będę w domu po szóstej.
I'll be home after six.
Jutro będzie zimno i wietrznie.
Tomorrow it'll be cold and windy.
Spokojnie, wszystko będzie dobrze.
Don't worry, everything will be fine.
With a predicate noun — and here remember that być puts its predicate noun in the instrumental case, in the future just as in the present:
Ona będzie świetną lekarką.
She'll be a great doctor. (lekarką = instrumental)
Będziemy dobrymi sąsiadami.
We'll be good neighbours. (instrumental plural)
Będę szczęśliwa, jeśli zdążysz.
I'll be happy if you make it in time. (woman speaking — adjective agrees)
Job 2: będę as the future auxiliary
In its second job, będę is not "to be" at all — it is the auxiliary that builds the imperfective compound future. Here it combines with a main verb (the infinitive or the gendered -ł participle) and carries no meaning of its own beyond "future":
Wieczorem będę czytać.
In the evening I'll be reading. (będę = auxiliary, not 'I'll be')
Od jutra będziemy się uczyć codziennie.
From tomorrow we'll be studying every day.
Będziesz pracował w nowym biurze?
Will you be working in the new office? (man addressed)
So the same word będę can mean "I will be" (copula) or just "I will [verb]" (auxiliary), and you tell them apart by what follows:
- będę + adjective / noun / location → copula: będę gotowy ("I'll be ready")
- będę + infinitive / -ł participle → tense auxiliary: będę czekał ("I'll be waiting")
Będę gotowy za pięć minut.
I'll be ready in five minutes. (copula + adjective)
Będę czekał na ciebie przy wyjściu.
I'll be waiting for you by the exit. (auxiliary + participle, man speaking)
być has no perfective — so będę is the whole future
Unlike most Polish verbs, być comes with no perfective partner. There is no "perfective to be," so there is no perfective simple future for it. będę is therefore the only way to put "to be" in the future — you never face the imperfective-vs-perfective choice here. (This also means być itself is never the verb you put after będę; you don't say będę być.)
The future existential — and its genitive negative
Polish expresses "there will be" with będzie / będą:
Będzie czas na kawę po spotkaniu?
Will there be time for coffee after the meeting?
Na imprezie będą wszyscy znajomi.
All our friends will be at the party.
The twist comes in the negative. Just like the present nie ma ("there isn't," + genitive) and the past nie było (+ genitive), the future existential negative is nie będzie + genitive. The thing that is absent goes into the genitive case, and the verb stays frozen as the singular nie będzie regardless of number:
Nie będzie czasu na kawę.
There won't be time for coffee. (czasu = genitive)
Niestety nie będzie pieniędzy na ten projekt.
Unfortunately there won't be money for this project. (pieniędzy = genitive)
Jutro nie będzie mnie w pracy.
I won't be at work tomorrow. (literally 'there won't be of me' — mnie = genitive)
This pattern is exactly parallel across the three tenses, which is why it is worth seeing together:
| Tense | Affirmative (nominative subject) | Negative (genitive) |
|---|---|---|
| Present | jest czas — there's time | nie ma czasu — there's no time |
| Past | był czas — there was time | nie było czasu — there was no time |
| Future | będzie czas — there'll be time | nie będzie czasu — there won't be time |
Common Mistakes
❌ Nie będzie czas na kawę.
Incorrect — the negative existential requires the genitive, not the nominative.
✅ Nie będzie czasu na kawę.
There won't be time for coffee.
❌ Będę być w domu.
Incorrect — będę is already the future of być; you don't add the infinitive być.
✅ Będę w domu.
I'll be home.
❌ Ona będzie lekarka.
Incorrect — być takes a predicate noun in the instrumental, not the nominative.
✅ Ona będzie lekarką.
She'll be a doctor.
❌ Oni będę na imprezie.
Incorrect — the third-person plural is będą, not będę.
✅ Oni będą na imprezie.
They'll be at the party.
❌ Nie będą pieniędzy na projekt.
Incorrect — the negative existential freezes as the singular nie będzie regardless of the noun's number.
✅ Nie będzie pieniędzy na projekt.
There won't be money for the project.
Key Takeaways
- być has one future: będę, będziesz, będzie, będziemy, będziecie, będą — no perfective alternative.
- będę does double duty: a copula before an adjective/noun/place (będę w domu, będę gotowy, predicate nouns in the instrumental), and a tense auxiliary before an infinitive or -ł participle (będę czytać).
- Tell the two apart by what follows: a verb form → auxiliary; an adjective/noun/place → "to be."
- The future existential is będzie / będą; its negative is nie będzie + genitive, parallel to nie ma and nie było.
- Mind the spelling: będę (-ę, "I") vs. będą (-ą, "they"), and the soft będzie- in the middle forms.
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Start learning Polish→Related Topics
- być in the Present: jestem, jesteś…A1 — The present tense of być ('to be') — the single most important Polish verb — with its irregular forms, the instrumental predicate, and the suppletive existential negative nie ma.
- The Compound Future (Imperfective)A2 — The imperfective future = będę + either the infinitive or a gender-agreeing -ł participle: będę czytać = będę czytał/czytała, for ongoing or repeated future actions — and only ever with imperfective verbs.
- The Simple Future (Perfective)A2 — Perfective verbs have no present tense, so their present-looking conjugation means the future: zrobię = 'I'll do/finish', kupię = 'I'll buy', przeczytam = 'I'll read through' — built with no auxiliary at all.
- Genitive of Absence: nie ma, brak, nie byłoA2 — How Polish says 'there is no X' — the frozen nie ma / nie było / nie będzie plus the genitive, and the brakować construction.
- być — to beA1 — Complete reference for być ('to be') — the most essential and most irregular Polish verb: full present, past (by gender), future, imperative, conditional and verbal-adverb tables, plus its three predicate patterns.
- Existential Sentences: jest, są, nie maA2 — How Polish says 'there is / there are' with jest and są, and the suppletive negative nie ma + genitive that English speakers never expect.