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When we're speaking of the future in English, we usually say will ... or am going to .... In French, the same is accomplished using Futur Simple for will, and aller for going to.

In Russian, however, the only place I can possibly make this connection is in the perfective/imperfective aspects.

My thinking is:

I will continue -> Я буду продолжать

I am going to continue -> Я продолжу

Am I barking up the wrong tree because there's no difference, or am I on the right track?

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  • The difference between the Russian perfective/imperfective aspects of a verb in future does not correlate with the difference between the English will .../am going to ... .
    – Yellow Sky
    Commented May 27, 2014 at 17:04

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The difference in aspect in Russian does not correspond to English concept of Perfect, let alone the difference between "will" and "to be going to". It is merely a matter of point-of-view:

  • "буду продолжать" focuses on the process, or maybe that the action will be repeated
  • "продолжу" focuses on the result (i.e "I'll stop doing whatever keeps me from this, and will go on doing this thing that I did before").

"Я продолжу" sounds better if what you need is to just express you are about to continue, for example. when giving a speech (like "It seems there are no further questions for the moment. So I am going to continue.")

AFAIK, in English the difference is that of how much planning was involved: by "I will continue" you suggest that you made the decision right now, that you promise to do that. With "I am going to continue" you suggest that either the decision has laready been made, or that it is a natural, most proable course of events (especially when talking about someone or something else). Both are used in making predictions.

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I would set the next correspondence:

  1. I will continue -> Я буду продолжать = Я продолжу It is the same, I think, but in the first case a verb "буду" (быть) is used, which corresponds to English "will" (to be). The second case is not possible in English.

  2. I am going to continue -> Я собираюсь продолжать

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  • Not quite. Compound future tense simply takes an imperfective verb into the Future in modern Russian. There is no direct correspondence to English forms. And translating "to be going to" as "собираться" is a useful tool in learning but is often contrary to the truth of the matter, when "going to" simply means that the action is going to happen in the future. It is just that you decided in beforehand, make prediction or are pretty sure about the fact (there are signs). Russian just uses Future no matter how thoroughly planned these future actions are.
    – Shady_arc
    Commented May 28, 2014 at 23:10

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