"We will be using scissors."

Translation: Będziemy używały nożyczek.

[AlexanderK702042]

What's the difference between używały and używali?

[Jellei]

Jantek_Jantek is of course correct, but let me precise one thing: it's rather not that "everybody is a woman" but "no one is a man". From the linguistic point of view, if "używały" is used it could also be dogs. Or elephants. Or any other plural noun that is not "a group of people with at least one man".

[Jantek_Jantek]

Używały is a feminine form (everybody is women) and używali is a non-feminine form (at least one person among us is a man).

[AlexanderK702042]

ha, makes sense now, thank you!

[Darth_Elven]

Będziemy używać nożyczki. What's wrong?

[Jellei]

Wrong case. "używać" takes Genitive.

"nożyczki" could be Genitive of "nożyczka"... if such word existed. But it doesn't.

[Argimak]

So people have been asking the difference between feminine form and non-feminine form but why can we use używać?

[Jellei]

That was the choice of this sentence's creator, to go with the imperfective: we will be using (on several occasions).

If you meant 'just once', that would be "Użyjemy nożyczek", from the perfective "użyć".

[Argimak]

Alright, so let me try and get my head around this one:

• We will use -> użyjemy
• We will be using (for a specific incidence) -> używali/używały
• We will be using (generally) -> używać

So if I said "we will be using scissors to cut this paper", I'd use używali/używały.

and

"we will be using scissors from now on", I'd use używać.

Is this correct?

[Jellei]

You went a bit too far. używali/używały/używać (or rather "będziemy używali/używały/używać") are perfectly interchangeable, it's just a matter of personal preference whether to use the gender-marking version (będziemy używali/używały) or the neutral one (będziemy używać).

Sometimes the context asks for one. Imagine a story that ends with a plot twist - the main character is of different gender than we thought all the time. Such a story will be very difficult to translate in Polish. Using 'używać' in the Future Tense will surely solve some problems.

[Argimak]

Okay, got it. Thank you very much!