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I translated the following snippet for a Russian friend. The last line I translated as "Now this is going to be a bit more difficult." But my friend insists that this doesn't have a future interpretation in this context in Russian. I'm wondering if someone could clarify this usage for me. How would you interpret this idiomatically into English?

Младшая cестра: Костя, помоги мне ещё одну задачу решить! Старший брат: Ну хорошо. Дай-ка посмотрю..... О, а эта-то посложнее будет! Тогда ты за меня посуду сегодня моешь.

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It’s pretty much like gonna in “This one's gonna be tough”, so it’s close but not necessarily a future tense.

For instance, in «это аргумент посильнее будет» or «эта машина подороже будет» “будет” is not about the future tense at all.

UPD: It's difficult for me to describe what the exact difference is, but if I had to, I'd say the usage of "будет" makes a phrase less emotionally neutral and adds a hint of opposition. For instance, "Эта машина стоит 50000 долларов, а вон та вот подороже" is just a neutral statement, while when one says something like "А ты уверен, что ты хочешь красную машину? Это подороже будет, ты понимаешь?" they want to emphasize the fact that this option differs.

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  • Thank you, Shahen!! Now I understand, by I'm curious how this could translate into English. In what context would you say, for instance, Эта машина подороже будет as opposed to just Эта машина дороже? – CocoPop Jan 1 at 17:35
  • Happy New Year, by the way! – CocoPop Jan 1 at 17:36
  • @CocoPop Happy New Year! I've added additional paragraph trying to clarify, hope that will be helpful. – shabunc♦ Jan 1 at 17:52
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    Thank you so much! Yes, that helps. I think I understand))) – CocoPop Jan 1 at 18:07
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    Why "opposition"? You can just as well say "эта задача полегче будет" or "эта машина подешевле будет", adding a hint of approval: "покупай вон ту, она получше будет". Perhaps the nuance is that instead of simply stating an objective fact ("this one is more difficult") you are saying something like "if you try solving this one, it will prove to be more difficult for you", thus adding some personal touch. – Headcrab Jan 20 at 6:00

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