Serbian Future Tense (futur I): ću raditi and radiću
The Serbian future tense, or futur I, is one of the easiest tenses to build once you know the trick. Take the short "hteti" clitic — ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će — and pair it with the infinitive. There are two written forms with exactly the same meaning, and word order decides which you use. When the clitic comes first, the infinitive stays whole: "Sutra ću raditi." When the verb leads, you drop the final -ti and fuse the clitic on: "Radiću sutra." Questions follow the same logic: "Šta ćeš jesti?" The big spelling trap? Standard Serbian writes the fused "radiću," never the Croatian-style "radit ću" or the over-literal "raditiću." And the clitic can never open a sentence.
Examples
- Sutra ću raditi. I'll work tomorrow.
- Radiću sutra. I'll work tomorrow.
- Šta ćeš jesti? What will you eat?
The full lesson
Everything in the video, in text.
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Want to say what you'll do tomorrow? You need the future tense — futur prvi. It's easy to build, but it has one spelling trap that trips up almost everyone. Let's settle it for good.
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The future tense is for plans, intentions and predictions. It has two parts: the short form of the verb hteti plus the infinitive of the main verb. That short form is called a clitic: ću, ćeš, će.
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Here's the full clitic of hteti. Ja ću, ti ćeš, on će, mi ćemo, vi ćete, oni će. These are short, unstressed forms — learn them by heart, because they're the heart of the whole tense.
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Now the key part: there are two ways to join the clitic and the infinitive. First — if the clitic comes before, the infinitive stays whole: ću raditi. Second — if the verb comes first, you drop -ti from the infinitive and the clitic fuses onto it into one word: radiću.
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Let's start with the first form. The sentence opens with the adverb sutra, so the clitic comes right after it, and the infinitive stays whole: Sutra ću raditi. It means I'll work tomorrow. The clitic ću, then the full infinitive raditi — separated.
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Now the same meaning, but the other form. If the verb starts the sentence, we drop -ti from raditi and stick on ću — we get one word: Radiću sutra. Raditi minus -ti gives radi-, plus ću gives radiću. Same future, just fused.
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Questions work the same way. Šta ćeš jesti? — the question word šta comes first, so the clitic ćeš follows it, and the infinitive jesti stays whole: Šta ćeš jesti? What will you eat? Second person singular — ćeš.
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Third person plural. Oni će doći večeras. The subject oni comes first, so the clitic će follows it, and the infinitive doći stays whole: Oni će doći večeras. They'll come tonight. To put the verb first, it would be Doći će večeras.
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Here's the full picture for the verb raditi in both forms and all persons. On the left is the separated form, on the right the fused one. Both are correct — you choose based on the word order in the sentence.
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And now the trap we started with. When you fuse the verb and the clitic, you don't write radit ću or raditiću. The -ti comes off completely, and only then does the clitic attach: radiću. One word, no space, no t in front.
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The second mistake is about word order. The clitic is unstressed and never stands at the start of a sentence. Ću raditi sutra is wrong. It must be either Sutra ću raditi, or the fused Radiću sutra.
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A quick note for verbs ending in -ći, like doći or reći. They have no -ti to drop, so they have no fused, shortened form — you say doći ću or ja ću doći, but not doćiću. For them, only the separated form stays.
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Let's recap. The future tense is the clitic hteti plus the infinitive. If the clitic goes first, the infinitive stays whole: ću raditi. If the verb goes first, you drop -ti and fuse: radiću. Never radit ću, and never the clitic at the start. Now you can talk about everything that's still to come.
