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The Serbian Future Tense (Buduće vreme)
(PDF version)
There are three ways to make future tense. Formula 1 is the
easiest, Formula 3 is the hardest, but it’s the most
commonly used. Don’t give up! Learn Formula 1 or 2 first and
then later tackle Formula 3.
| FORMULA
1: |
PRESENT TENSE OF HTETI
‘WANT’ + INFINITIVE VERB |
The present tense of ‘hteti’,
meaning
‘want’ or ‘will’ is discussed in more details
in the section that deals with
present tense of irregular verbs. For
convenience, below I provide the table of all present tense
forms of ‘hteti’. The
infinitive verb is the verb that is listed in the
dictionary.
Table 1: Present tense of 'hteti’
want/will
| Person |
Short
(clitic) forms |
Full
(non-clitic) forms |
| Ja (I) |
ću |
hoću |
| Ti (you) |
ćeš |
hoćete |
| On/ona/ono (he/she/it) |
će |
hoće |
| Mi (we) |
ćemo |
hoćemo |
| Vi (you) |
ćete |
hoćete |
| Oni/one/ona (they) |
će |
hoće |
Note: To make future tense, we need to use clitic
(short or unaccented) forms of ‘hteti’
Table 2: Examples of future tense using Formula 1 The
examples below mean ‘I/you/he/… will go’
| Person |
‘hteti’ |
Infinitive
verb ići (go) |
| Ja (I) |
ću
|
Ići
|
| Ti (you) |
ćeš |
ići |
| On/ona/ono (he/she/it) |
će |
ići |
| Mi (we) |
ćemo |
ići |
| Vi (you) |
ćete |
ići |
| Oni/one/ona (they) |
će |
ići |
The second way to make the future tense is to add the clitic
forms of ‘hteti’ to the
infinitive stem:
| FORMULA 2: |
INFINITIVE STEM + PRESENT TENSE OF HTETI
‘WANT’ |
Note that this formula is somewhat a reverse of Formula
1, except that we have an infinitive stem, not the whole
infinitive verb.
What is the infinitive stem?
Infinitive stem = infinitive verb
(what is listed in the dictionary) minus infinitive
ending: -iti/eti/ati.
Please refer to the present tense file for
more details.
Formula 2 is used only if there is no expressed subject,
i.e., the subject of the sentence is omitted. And that
happens any time when the subject is a pronoun and it is not
emphasized.
Table 3: Examples of future tense using Formula 2
| ‘will stay’ |
‘will work’ |
‘will go’ |
| Ostaću (I’ll stay) |
Radiću (I’ll work) |
Ići ću (I’ll go) |
| Ostaćeš (you’ll stay) |
Radićeš (you’ll work) |
Ići ćeš (you’ll go) |
| Ostaće
(she/he’ll stay) |
Radiće (she/he’ll work) |
Ići ćete (s/he’ll go) |
| Ostaćemo (we’ll stay) |
Radićemo (we’ll work) |
Ići ćemo (we’ll go) |
| Ostaćete (you’ll stay) |
Radićete (you’ll work) |
Ići ćete (you’ll go) |
| Ostaće (they’ll stay) |
Radiće (they’ll work) |
Ići će (they’ll go) |
| FORMULA 3: |
PRESENT TENSE OF HTETI
‘WANT’ + DA + PRESENT TENSE OF THE MAIN VERB |
Formula 3 is the most common way of expressing the future
tense, since you already need to know how to make the
present tense. If this is still hard for you, you may
use Formula 1 or 2.
Table 4: Examples of future tense using Formula 3 The
example below means ‘I/you/he/… will go’
| Person |
‘hteti’ |
da+present
tense of ‘ići’ (go) |
| Ja (I) |
ću |
da idem (to go) |
| Ti (you) |
ćeš |
da ideš (to go) |
| On/ona/ono (he/she/it) |
će |
da ide (to go) |
| Mi (we) |
ćemo |
da idemo (to go) |
| Vi (you) |
ćete |
da idete (to go) |
| Oni/one/ona (they) |
će |
da idu (to go) |
Table 5 below tells you how to say
‘I/you/he/… will be’ using Formula 3.
Table 5: How to say 'will be' using Formula 3
| Person |
hteti |
Da+present
tense of
biti |
| Ja (I) |
ću |
da budem |
| Ti (you) |
ćeš |
da budeš |
| On/ona/ono (he/she/it) |
će |
da bude |
| Mi (we) |
ćemo |
da budemo |
| Vi (you) |
ćete |
da budete |
| Oni/one/ona (they) |
će |
da budu |
Note that the present tense stem of ‘be’ is ‘bud-‘. This is
that extra ‘be’ we discussed in the section about the
present tense of irregular verbs.
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