Mačka će pobeći.

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Breakdown of Mačka će pobeći.

• hteti: will
• pobeći: to run away; escape

Questions & Answers about Mačka će pobeći.

What does će mean here?

Će is the auxiliary used to form the future tense in Serbian.

In Mačka će pobeći, the pattern is:

• mačka = the cat / a cat
• će = will
• pobeći = run away / escape

So će + infinitive gives will + verb.

More specifically, će is the 3rd person singular form of the verb hteti (to want), but in modern Serbian it often works like a future marker.

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Why is the verb written as će pobeći instead of one single future verb form?

Because Serbian usually forms the future with an auxiliary + infinitive:

• ja ću pobeći = I will run away
• ti ćeš pobeći = you will run away
• on/ona će pobeći = he/she will run away

So će pobeći is a normal future construction, not two unrelated words.

Serbian can also place the infinitive first in some contexts:

• Pobeći će. = He/She/It will run away.

Both are correct.

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Why is it mačka, not some other form like mačku?