Aspect II: Two Futures and the Result

One shape, two meanings: the perfective future looks like the present

In Lesson 2 you built one future: буду, будешь, будет plus an infinitive that never moves. Russian has a second one, and it costs you nothing new, because you already know how to make it. Take a perfective verb and conjugate it the way you would conjugate a present — я сделаю, ты сделаешь, он сделает, мы сделаем, вы сделаете, они сделают. Those are not presents. A perfective verb has no present tense at all, so its present-shaped forms can only be future.

That is the whole mechanism, and it is worth stopping on for a moment. The column you learnt for «я читаю, ты читаешь» and the column for «я прочитаю, ты прочитаешь» have identical endings. The only thing that changes is which verb you put into it. Russian is cheaper than English here: English needs «will» for both futures, Russian needs «буду» for one of them and nothing whatever for the other.

The one thing to watch is the stress, which does not travel reliably from an imperfective to its partner. де́лать gives сде́лать and чита́ть gives прочита́ть, but пи́сать gives написа́ть — the stress jumps from the first syllable to the last. Learn each perfective with its own stress, exactly the way you learnt the imperfective — and learn its first person singular, because that is the form that tells you the conjugation.

• Я сде́лаю э́то. I will do it. (perfective future — one completed act) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я сде́лаю э́то. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я бу́ду де́лать э́то. I will be doing it. (imperfective future — the process) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я бу́ду де́лать э́то. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• За́втра мы напи́шем письмо́. Tomorrow we will write the letter. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: За́втра мы напи́шем письмо́. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Он прочита́ет кни́гу. He will read the book — and finish it. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Он прочита́ет кни́гу. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:

Which future, and why: process against result

The two futures are not free variants of one meaning, and this is where English speakers lose the most ground. Буду plus the infinitive is the future of process, of duration, of repetition and of intention: «Я буду долго работать» describes time being filled, and «Он будет опаздывать» describes something that will keep happening. The simple perfective future is the future of one completed result: «Я закончу работу», «Я прочитаю книгу», «Я напишу тебе вечером».

Three questions decide it, and they are worth learning in this order. Is there a result you can point to afterwards? Take the perfective. Is there a stretch of time the action fills, or does it happen again and again? Take буду plus the infinitive. Are you promising, deciding, or announcing a single act? Perfective again — «Обещаю, я сделаю это сегодня».

Two traps follow. First, after a modal verb the aspect lives in the infinitive, not in the modal: «Я хочу купить хлеб» is one purchase, «Я хочу покупать хлеб здесь» is a habit. Second, in a negative the imperfective is very often the right choice, because you are denying the activity rather than reporting a missing result: «Я не буду смотреть фильм».

One honest caveat. Not every verb has a clean partner. быть has no perfective future of its own, since «буду» already is the future, and a small group of verbs — обещать is the one you will actually meet — is biaspectual, with one form doing both jobs. When there is no partner, Russian uses the form it has and lets the context carry the rest. What you must not do is invent a partner.

• Я бу́ду до́лго рабо́тать. I will be working for a long time. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я бу́ду до́лго рабо́тать. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Он бу́дет о́паздывать. He will keep being late. (repetition) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Он бу́дет о́паздывать. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я зако́нчу рабо́ту. I will finish the work. (one result) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я зако́нчу рабо́ту. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Обеща́ю, я сде́лаю э́то сего́дня. I promise I will do it today. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Обеща́ю, я сде́лаю э́то сего́дня. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:

Result verbs: the words that only make sense finished

Some verbs describe a state of affairs you either reach or do not reach, and with those the perfective is the default rather than a choice. успеть («to make it in time»), опоздать («to be late»), решить («to solve, to decide»), and the ones you met in Lesson 13 — закончить, понять, написать. The result is built into the meaning, so «Я успею на поезд», «Мы решили проблему», «Она поняла вопрос» all report an outcome.

Their imperfective partners describe the activity around that outcome, and they are what you use for duration and repetition. «Я долго решал проблему» says you spent a long time working on it and tells you nothing about the ending; «Я решил проблему» says you solved it. That contrast — a long process against a bare fact — is one English cannot make with tense alone, and it is the reason aspect is worth an hour of your time.

Notice the two adverbs that switch the aspect almost by themselves. сразу («at once») points at a single moment and pulls a perfective: «Я сразу напишу тебе». долго («for a long time») measures a stretch and pulls an imperfective: «Я долго писал письмо». When you cannot decide which aspect to use, look for the adverb first — very often it has already decided for you.

• Я успе́ю на по́езд. I will make the train. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я успе́ю на по́езд. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Он опозда́л на рабо́ту. He was late for work. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Он опозда́л на рабо́ту. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Мы реши́ли пробле́му. We solved the problem. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Мы реши́ли пробле́му. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я до́лго реша́л пробле́му. I spent a long time working on the problem. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я до́лго реша́л пробле́му. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:

The time adverbs, and the aspect each one prefers

A dozen or so adverbs do most of the work of placing an event in time: уже, ещё, ещё не, только что, недавно, скоро, потом, сразу, долго, быстро, медленно, завтра, послезавтра. Each sits at a fixed point relative to the moment of speaking, and each has a favourite aspect. The matrix below is worth learning as a whole rather than word by word.

уже («already») and только что («just now») look backwards from now and are at home with a perfective past: «Я уже сделал это», «Он только что пришёл». ещё («still») holds a state open and takes an imperfective: «Я ещё работаю». ещё не is the standard «not yet», and here Russian switches back to the perfective — «Я ещё не сделал это» — because what is missing is precisely the result.

скоро, потом, завтра and послезавтра look forward and will take either future, so the choice still tells you something: «Я скоро закончу работу» is one finished job, while «Завтра я буду долго работать» is a day of work with no ending in sight. And быстро with медленно are genuinely neutral, because they describe how something happens rather than whether it gets finished: «Я быстро написал ответ» and «Я быстро пишу» are both ordinary Russian.

• Я уже́ написа́л письмо́. I have already written the letter. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я уже́ написа́л письмо́. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я ещё не сде́лал э́то. I have not done it yet. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я ещё не сде́лал э́то. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Он то́лько что пришёл. He has only just arrived. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Он то́лько что пришёл. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я до́лго чита́л и сра́зу написа́л отве́т. I read for a long time and then wrote the answer straight away. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я до́лго чита́л и сра́зу написа́л отве́т. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:

Когда plus the present: the future you must not put in a time clause

Here is the mistake almost every English speaker makes, and it deserves its own section. English says «When I arrive, I will phone», not «When I will arrive» — and Russian is stricter still. In a clause that says when the main action happens, the verb is present-shaped and normally perfective: «Когда я приду, я напишу тебе». There is no буду inside that clause, and putting one there marks the sentence out as translated rather than written.

The rule covers когда, пока, до того как and после того как alike. The main clause keeps its future; the time clause does not. «Когда ты закончишь работу, мы посмотрим фильм», «До того как ты придёшь, я закончу работу», «После того как я напишу письмо, я пойду домой».

Two exceptions are worth knowing now, because the rule is usually stated too flatly. In a direct question the future is completely normal: «Когда ты напишешь письмо?». And in an object clause — I know when he will come — Russian keeps the future too: «Я знаю, когда он придёт». The present-tense rule belongs to time clauses and to nothing else.

пока also does double duty, and the aspect is what tells the two apart. As «while» it takes an imperfective: «Пока я читал, он писал». As «until» it takes a perfective: «Я буду ждать, пока ты придёшь». A very common variant of the second is «пока не» — «Я буду ждать, пока ты не придёшь» — and that не is part of the conjunction, not a negation. Nothing is being denied.

• Когда́ я приду́, я напишу́ тебе́. When I arrive, I will write to you. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Когда́ я приду́, я напишу́ тебе́. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Когда́ ты зако́нчишь рабо́ту, мы посмо́трим фильм. When you finish work, we will watch a film. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Когда́ ты зако́нчишь рабо́ту, мы посмо́трим фильм. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Пока́ я чита́л, он писа́л. While I was reading, he was writing. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Пока́ я чита́л, он писа́л. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я зна́ю, когда́ он придёт. I know when he will arrive. (an object clause, so the future stays) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я зна́ю, когда́ он придёт. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: