Футур I
Overview
Futur I (the everyday future) describes anything that will happen - from tomorrow's plans to habitual predictions. It reuses a verb you already half-know: хтети (to want), the same way perfekat reuses бити. It has short (enclitic), long (stressed) and negative forms, mirroring the three-way split you already learned for бити in verb-biti-present-a1.
The short forms combine with the main verb's infinitive to build the future; the long forms stand alone for to want and for yes/no questions; the negative forms are a single fused word, just like нисам.
Short (enclitic) hteti forms and the fused future
When the infinitive immediately precedes the auxiliary, they fuse into a single written word: drop the whole infinitive ending -ти and attach the short хтети ending - радити + ћу becomes радићу. This is the default way to write the future.
If the auxiliary comes first instead, the infinitive stays separate and in its full form: „Ја ћу радити сутра.“ is just as correct as „Радићу сутра.“ - pick one order per sentence and don't mix the two.
Long (stressed) hteti forms - questions and to want
хтети also has a long form - хоћу, хоћеш, хоће, хоћемо, хоћете, хоће - used on its own to mean to want and combined with the question particle ли for yes/no future questions, exactly like бити's јеси ли.
Negation
The negative present of хтети fuses не directly onto the auxiliary, exactly like нисам: нећу, нећеш, неће, нећемо, нећете, неће. The infinitive that follows always stays in its full, unfused form: „Нећу радити.“
Нећу alone also means I don't want, just as хоћу alone means I want - context tells the two readings apart.
Tables
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ћу | ћемо |
| 2. | ћеш | ћете |
| 3. | ће | ће |
Examples
Compared with…
English's will + bare infinitive is the closest structural match to Serbian's unfused order (ћу + infinitive → will + infinitive), so that pattern should feel immediately familiar. What has no English equivalent at all is the fused, single-word alternative (читаћу), since English never welds an auxiliary onto the following verb.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- Both word orders are correct: the fused „infinitive stem + ћу/ћеш/ће…“ when the infinitive comes first, or ћу/ћеш/ће… + full infinitive when the auxiliary comes first - pick whichever order fits your sentence, just don't mix them.
- The long forms (хоћу, хоћеш…) double as to want - check the context to know whether you're looking at a future tense or a wish.
- Negative future is always one fused word (нећу…) followed by the full infinitive - never split, never fused with the infinitive.
- Infinitives ending in -ћи (ићи, рећи…) never fuse with the auxiliary - the future always stays two separate words: „Ја ћу ићи.“
- In everyday colloquial speech, хоћу/хоћеш… + да + present tense (e.g. „Хоћу да радим.“) is extremely common as an alternative to the infinitive-based forms above - recognize it, but learn the standard forms first.
Summary
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