Questions & Answers about Наши ребята будут здесь завтра.
Why does this sentence use будут when this lesson teaches us to use будет for the future?
In this sentence, будут is just the normal future tense of "to be" matching the plural subject ребята (guys). When expressing age, as you're learning in this lesson (like "he will be 20"), Russian always uses the singular будет regardless of the number of years. But here, no age is being discussed; we are just saying "the guys will be here," so the verb must agree with the plural subject.
Doesn't ребята mean "children"? Why is it translated as "guys"?
Yes, ребята serves as the plural for ребёнок (child). However, in everyday Russian, it is extremely common to use ребята to mean "guys" or "lads" when talking about a group of friends, youths, or teammates, much like how "guys" works in English.
Why is it наши instead of наш?
Наши is the plural form of the pronoun "our". Since the noun it describes (ребята) is plural, the pronoun must match it. You would use наш for a masculine singular noun and наша for a feminine singular noun.
Can we drop будут here, just like we drop the verb "to be" in the present tense?
No, you cannot drop it here. While Russian skips the verb "to be" in the present tense (literally saying "Our guys here"), you must always include it for the past (были) and future (будут) so the listener knows when the event happens.
Learn Наши ребята будут здесь завтра and more in Russian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free