Questions & Answers about Jutro będę odwiedzała moją babcię.
I've seen the future tense formed with będę plus an infinitive. Why does this sentence use odwiedzała instead of the infinitive odwiedzać?
In Polish, you can form the imperfective future tense in two ways: using a future form of być (here, będę) plus the infinitive (odwiedzać), or być plus the l-participle (odwiedzała). Both mean exactly the same thing. Using the l-participle is very common in everyday speech, which is why you are learning it here!
Does the form odwiedzała tell us anything about the person speaking?
Yes! Because this type of future tense uses the l-participle (which acts like a past tense verb ending), it must match the gender of the speaker. The -a ending in odwiedzała tells us the speaker is female. If a man were speaking, he would use the masculine form and say będę odwiedzał.
Why does this sentence use the imperfective future (będę odwiedzała) rather than a perfective verb?
Using the imperfective future focuses on the process or duration of the action. It implies 'I will be in the middle of visiting her' or 'I will spend some time visiting her'. If you used the perfective future (like odwiedzę, without będę), it would sound more like a completed action or a quick drop-in: 'I will visit her and get it done'.
Why do we say moją babcię instead of the basic form moja babcia?