Lesson 31: Messages, Future Tense versions of verbs and 'I will'

We've already looked at ways to express the future with phrases like 'On Thursday I'm going to the bank' - 'W czwartek idę do banku'. Now we are going to cover how to say 'I will' without needing to state the point in time.

But first, "Witam! Dzień dobry albo Dobre Wieczór. Witam na lekcję!"

OK ... Polish has two ways to express "I will":

• Using "to be" - this is the same as English - "I was going, I am going, I will go"
• Using the verb - we do this in English for the past tense but not the future - "I ate, I am eating, I will eat".

"I ate" is nothing like the verb "to eat" - we've twisted the way the verb sounds into something completely different. In Polish this is how the future tense is achieved but the changes are not as great. The good news is we've already got everything we need to achieve it!

I will call

Do you remember how to say:

English	Polish
On Wednesday I want to call (to) Renata	W środę, chcę zadzwonić do Renaty Click to Reveal
I'm calling (to) Beata	Dzwonię do Beaty Click to Reveal

Well the future tense is a hybride of the two!

English	Polish
I'm going to/I will call Beata on Tuesday	Zadzwonię do Beaty we wtorek

Yes, that's it!. It's the present tense 'I' form of the verb with the 'za' added to the front ... and ... we are in the future tense!

We can also see an exception here with "Wtorek" where we use "we" for "on" unlike all the other days - "w piątek, w sobotę, w czwartek". That's because you can't have two 'w's together! Hardly noticeable in the spoken language but we'll see this later when other w's might otherwise come together.

Now of course it isn't always 'za' at the start of the verb, we've seen it can also be 'z' like in "Robić/Zrobić".

So how would you say:

English	Polish
I'm going to/I will ask Beata on Tuesday	Zapytam Beatę we wtorek Click to Reveal
I'm going to/I will do soup on Tuesday	Zrobię zupę we wtorek Click to Reveal
I'm going to/I will understand this problem	Zrozumiem ten problem Click to Reveal

That's it, party hats all round - we have properly broken into the future tense! I will level with you, it's not all going to be that easy but a lot of it will be.

Now the gender has no affect on the 'you/he/she' forms of the verb in the future so how would you say:

English	Polish
You are going to call Beata	Zadzwonisz do Beaty Click to Reveal
Are you going to call Beata?	Zadzwonisz do Beaty? Click to Reveal
He will ask Beata	On zapyta Beatę Click to Reveal
What will he ask Beata?	Co on zapyta Beatę? Click to Reveal

Yes ... Beata's name is changing again! If we are not after "do" then we are back to accusing ... accusing him of 'going to ask Beata'... so it's the Accusative case. Also, just like in English, there is no need to finish the sentence if it is obvious. You can just say things like "I will ask". So how would you do that:

English	Polish
I'm going to/I will ask	Zapytam Click to Reveal
Are you going to / will you call?	Zadzwonisz? Click to Reveal
He is going to/He will ask	On zapyta Click to Reveal

If, then

And that brings us nicely on to one type of conditional "If, then" statements like "If you make tea then I will make coffee":

Notice I've said it's 'one type' of conditional. This is the first type where if I do something, you agree to do something but I don't need to do my bit before you do yours. What you do is not conditional on me having done my task - you can do it anytime. That distinction will be important later!

English	Polish
If you make tea then I will make coffee	Jeśli zrobisz herbatę, zrobię kawę

Note there is no "then". So how would you say:

English	Polish
If you make tea, I will ask Beata	Jeśli zrobisz herbatę, zapytam Beatę Click to Reveal
If you ask Beata, I will make tea	Jeśli zapytasz Beatę, zrobię herbatę Click to Reveal
If you call Tim, I will ask Beata	Jeśli zadzwonisz do Tima, zapytam Beatę Click to Reveal

So when you look up a verb in the dictionary and find it has two versions - like "Robić, Zrobić", "pytać, zapytać", etc. - the longer version is usually the base we will need for the future tense. 'Usually' ... because there are always exceptions.

He/she/it will

If you find only one version of the verb in the dictionary - like "Mieć" - that's a signal that we are going to use "to be" before the verb to push it into the future tense .. so let's see how to do that ...

English	Polish
He/she/it will	będzie

You'll hear people saying this when they are trying to assure others that something will happen - They say "będzie, będzie" to mean "it will be, it will be".

As with most verbs you don't actually say "It" because the way you are saying the verb implies it. That means that you know who to say:

English	Polish
What will be will be	Co będzie, to będzie Click to Reveal

Yes there is a "to" there for "it". No particular reason for it except that in well known phrases like this it simply works because the "to" ryhms with "co". But "Co będzie, będzie" would work as well.

He/she will have

OK, let's bring in a verb - "mieć" and compare past and future tense.

English	Polish
He had time	Miał czas
He will have time	Będzie miał czas
She had time	Miała czas
She will have time	Będzie miała czas

"Tak jest!". All we have to do is put "Będzie" in front of the past tense sentence to push it into the future. Do you remember how to say:

English	Polish
Robert had a big ego	Robert miał wielkie ego Click to Reveal
Magda had a big ego	Magda miała wielkie ego Click to Reveal

So how would you say:

English	Polish
He will have a big ego	Będzie miał wielkie ego Click to Reveal
She will have a big ego	Będzie miała wielkie ego Click to Reveal

And being conditional ...

English	Polish
If he understands, he will have a big ego	Jeśli zrozumie, będzie miał wielkie ego Click to Reveal
If she understands, she will have a big ego	Jeśli zrozumie, będzie miała wielkie ego Click to Reveal

You will have

English	Polish
Robert, tomorrow you will have time	Robert, jutro będziesz miał czas
Magda, tomorrow you will have time	Magda, jutro będziesz miała czas

So that 'you' form - "będziesz" - has the very familiar 'sz' ending we found with so many 'you' forms before making it easy to remember. And we're sticking with Miał" and "Miała here. We're recognising the gender of the person we are talking to but we are after the 'you' form of a verb - "będziesz" - already so no need to make "Mieć" into the you form as well.

So how would you say:

English	Polish
Robert, tomorrow you will have a/the car	Robert, jutro będziesz miał samochód Click to Reveal
Magda, tomorrow you will have a new sofa	Magda, jutro będziesz miała nową sofę Click to Reveal

Yes, the adjectives ("nową") and nouns ("Samochód", "Sofę") are in the accussative (after the verb) case ... because we are accusing someone of having/doing/liking something in the future.

We will have

English	Polish
Tomorrow we will have a new project	Jutro będziemy mieli nowy projekt

So that disctinctive 'my' ending on "będziemy" that we have seen throughout the language is here as well and we use a shortened version of the past tense of the verb which was "mieliśmy".

"Projekt" is an interesting one:

• the first half the word is written exactly the same as in English - "proj" - but as we have seen (in "Ja" for example) 'j' is pronounced like the 'y' in 'yacht').
• But then for the second half of the word it was decided that the English pronounciation would stay but if it's going to sound like 'k' then its got to be 'k'.

OK - if we wanted to say "Tomorrow we'll have a special project" then we need "Special" ... but we already have it because it is a word that ends 'al'. So how would you say:

English	Polish
Tomorrow we will have a special project	Jutro będziemy mieli specialny projekt Click to Reveal
Tomorrow we will have an ideal project	Jutro będziemy mieli idealny projekt Click to Reveal

I will

As usual the I form is a bit unusual but not far off:

English	Polish
I will have a chance later	Będę miał szansę później

Here the "Miał" is affected by what gender I am. I'm male so it is "Miał", if I was female it would be "Miała".

But let's have a look at this "szansę". We know we are in the Accusitive case - we are accusing ourselves of having a chance later - and it is feminine nouns that change their endings from 'a' to 'ę' in this case. That gives is the dictionary form "Szansa"

Now if we wanted to say "No chance" as in "It's not going to happen" so there is no chance ... chance is missing ... The Genetive case:

English	Polish
It doesn't have a chance!	Nie ma szansy!
No chance!	Bez szansy!

Now we know that "no" is "nie". "Bez" is actually "without". But you will also often here it said like this:

English	Polish
No chances	Bez szans!

Now we know feminine nouns drop the last letter in the plural of the Genetive (something is missing) case so that tells us that this is really "without chances" even though most online translators will bring it across as "No chance". "Bez szans" is used when we're talking about more general things where there could be several ways for something to happen but none of them are going to happen ... "without chances"!

So how would you say:

English	Polish
Without milk	Bez mleka
Without a bag	Bez torby
Without stres	Bez stresu

So time for a mega sentence. If you were male how would you say - "Tomorrow I will have time, we can do it without stress"

• "Tomorrow" - "Jutro"
• "I will" - "będę"
• "have" - "miał"
• "time" - "czas"
• "we can" - "możemy"
• "do it" - "to zrobić" (we're not doing it now)
• "bez stresu" - "without stress"

English	Polish
Tomorrow I will have time, we can do it without stress	Jutro będę miał czas, możemy to zrobić bez stresu

Verbs - one form or two

The clue as to whether a verb has one form ("Mieć") or two ("Robić/Zrobić") is in this dot or line in the future or past.

If you are going to do something, ask something, listen to something, etc. These are all activities that will happen over a fairly short period of time, that dot in time. Such verbs are likely to have two forms.

If you are going to have something, know something, etc. then these correspond to states over longer periods so expect such situations to be verbs with one form and we will need to use "Być" to push them into the future.

Lesson 32: 'Formal' you, 'Plural' you and They