The Imperfective (Compound) Future

Russian has two futures, and which one you use is decided by aspect. This page covers the imperfective future, also called the compound future because it is built from two words: the conjugated auxiliary бу́ду plus an unchanging imperfective infinitive. Я бу́ду чита́ть = "I will be reading / I will read." It is the future of process and repetition — what you'll be doing, what you'll do regularly, the activity rather than its completion. The companion perfective future, for single finished actions, is on the perfective simple future page. The one rule you must internalize from the start: бу́ду combines only with an imperfective infinitive, never a perfective.

The construction: бу́ду + imperfective infinitive

Take the auxiliary быть "to be," conjugate it in the future, and follow it with an imperfective infinitive. Only the auxiliary changes for person; the infinitive is frozen.

The structure is rigid and easy: conjugate бу́ду, then tack on any imperfective infinitive you like. The infinitive never inflects, never agrees, never moves into the past — it just sits there.

What it means: process, repetition, habit

The imperfective future is the activity-focused future. Use it when your attention is on the doing rather than the finishing:

• an ongoing process that will unfold over time — "I'll be working tomorrow";
• a repeated or habitual future — "I'll call every day";
• a general statement about what life will look like — "we'll live in Moscow."

It deliberately leaves the outcome open. Я бу́ду чита́ть э́ту кни́гу says you'll spend time reading the book; it does not claim you'll finish it. (For "I'll finish it," you switch to the perfective прочита́ю — that contrast is the heart of the next page.)

That last example shows a typical division of labour: the background process is the imperfective future (бу́дешь гото́вить), and a single completed act alongside it switches to the perfective (накро́ю). The two futures coexist happily in one sentence.

бу́ду is literally "I will be"

Here is the insight that makes the whole construction click for English speakers. бу́ду / бу́дешь / бу́дет… is not a special grammatical particle invented for the future tense — it is the future of быть, "to be." So Я бу́ду чита́ть is, almost word for word, "I will be [to] read." The auxiliary carries its own meaning of will-be-ness, and the infinitive names the activity.

This means the very same forms also work on their own, with no infinitive, to mean simply "will be":

So there is really one set of бу́ду-forms doing two jobs: alone they mean "will be," and before an imperfective infinitive they build the future of that verb. (For the full present-and-future paradigm of быть, see быть, "to be".)

Offers and invitations: Бу́дешь чай?

A very common, very idiomatic use: an offer of food or drink, phrased as a question in this future. English would reach for "do you want…?" or "would you like…?" — but Russian commonly uses the plain imperfective future, sometimes even dropping the infinitive пить "to drink" altogether.

Notice that Что ты бу́дешь де́лать? ("What are you going to do?") is the standard way to ask about someone's future plans framed as activity — the imperfective де́лать because you're asking about the doing in general, not about one specific completed result.

The hard line: only imperfectives, never perfectives

This is the rule learners most often break, so it gets its own section. бу́ду combines only with an imperfective infinitive. Pairing it with a perfective is flatly ungrammatical — it doesn't sound "a bit off," it is simply wrong and a native speaker would never produce it.

The reason is structural. A perfective verb already builds its future by itself, using present-tense endings (прочита́ю = "I will read it" — see the simple future). It does not need — and cannot take — the бу́ду auxiliary. So the moment you want a completed future action, you drop бу́ду entirely and conjugate the perfective directly. бу́ду is reserved for the imperfective, and the imperfective alone.

If you remember which verb of a pair is imperfective, the rule enforces itself: that imperfective is the only one бу́ду may touch. (How to tell the members of an aspect pair apart is covered in the aspect group; the practical contrast in the future is on the aspect-in-future page.)

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The imperfective future is бу́ду / бу́дешь / бу́дет / бу́дем / бу́дете / бу́дут + an imperfective infinitive: Я бу́ду чита́ть.
• Only the auxiliary conjugates; the lexical verb is a frozen infinitive.
• It expresses process, repetition, habit, and general future activity — the doing, not the finishing.
• бу́ду is the future of быть, so it also means "will be" on its own: Я бу́ду до́ма.
• It is the natural form for offers: Бу́дешь чай? / Вы бу́дете пить ко́фе?
• It pairs ONLY with imperfectives — *бу́ду прочита́ть is ungrammatical; for a completed future use the one-word perfective прочита́ю instead.