Serbian participles

A participle is a form of a verb that is declined like an adjective. There are active and passive participles of present and past tense in Serbian language.

Let’s begin with passive participles of the past tense. This is analogue of English participles like “write – written”, “hide – hidden” and so on.

Passive participles of the past tense are in most cases formed from the perfective form of a verb, however not always.

Pisati (imperf.) / Napisati (perf.) – to write — the past tense passive participle will be NAPISAN, and we will consider how to form it in the following instructions.

Verbs that have –A in ending before -TI will have participle ending –AN:

Napisati – napisan – written

Zapitati – zapitan – asked

Pročitati – pročitan – read

Verbs that have a consonant before –TI will have the participle ending –EN:

Reći – rečen – said

Naći – nađen – found

Prevesti – preveden – translated

Verbs that have –I or –E before –TI will have participle ending –EN, and ALSO, they will have consonant change before ending for these consonants:

D – đ: Videti – viđen – seen

T – ć: Vratiti – vraćen – returned

Z – ž: Opaziti – opažen – perceived

S – š: Nositi – nošen – worn

C – č: Baciti – bačen – thrown

L – lj: Voleti – voljen – loved

N – nj: Učiniti – učinjen – done

B – blj: Izgubiti – izgubljen – lost

P – plj: Popraviti – popravljen – fixed

V – vlj: Zaboraviti – zaboravljen – forgotten

M – mlj: Pripremiti – pripremljen – prepared

St – šć: Čistiti – čišćen – cleaned

St – št: Opustiti – opušten – relaxed

And the consonants R, Š, Ž, Ć, Č  and ŠT, ŽD remain without change:

Stvoriti – stvoren – created

Izbušiti – izbušen – drilled

Uništiti – uništen – destroyed

And all of these participles can be declined by gender, number, case as well as adjectives:

Napisan (m), napisana (f), napisano (n), napisani (m, pl), napisane (f,pl), napisana (n, pl).

And there are some exceptions:

Prodati – prodat – sold

Dati – dat – given

Examples

Ova haljina je bila nošena mnogo puta – this dress was worn many times (haljina – dress, mnogo – many, put – time (in sense of number))

Daleka obala je viđena sa naše strane jezera – far shore is seen from our side of the lake (dalek – far, obala – shore, strana – side, jezero – lake)

Pošiljka je bila vraćena nazad u poštu – The parcel was returned back to the post office (pošiljka – parcel, nazad – back, pošta – post office)

Šta je napisano tamo? – What is written over there? (tamo – there/over there)

Ova knjiga nikada nije bila pročitana – This book was never read (knjiga – book, nikada – never)

Našao sam zaboravljenu stvar – I have found a forgotten thing (stvar – thing(feminine))

Da li je bilo traženo? – Was it searched for?

Active present participles (“doing …”)

This is how to say “Doing this task, I was thinking about another one”, or “Painting the wall, we were talking” or something like this. In order to make it simpler, look at underlined words – these are past tense active participles.

Radeći posao, Ivan je slušao muziku – Doing work, Ivan was listening to music (raditi – to do/to work, posao – work/job, slušati – to listen)

How to form this participle: take the verb conjugated with Oni/One/Ona (they) in the present tense and add –ĆI to that form:

If you don’t remember how to conjugate verbs in the present tense – check out the lesson Serbian verbs in the present tense.

Studirati – oni studiraju – studirajući – studying

Čitati – oni čitaju – čitajući – reading

Ulaziti – oni ulaze – ulazeći – coming in

Raditi – oni rade – radeći – doing

Putovati – oni putuju – putujući – traveling

Ići – oni idu – idući – going

Examples

Studirajući na fakultetu, želeo sam da radim – Studying at university, I wanted to work

Moj prijatelj iz Rusije, putujući u Srbiju, posetio me je – My friend from Russia, traveling to Serbia, has visited me

Idući u prodavnicu, ja sam se setio da sam zaboravio novčanik kod kuće – Going to the store, I recalled that I had forgotten my wallet at home

Active past participles (“having done …”)

This kind of participle is barely used in conversational language, so if you are tired of this lesson, you can leave it for later. This is analog of the English construction “Having done …..” , “Having said …”, “Having ….” Etc. These participles are formed only from perfective verbs.

In order to form such participle from a verb, change –TI to –VŠI:

Pročitati – pročitavši – having read

Napisati – napisavši – having written

Kupiti – kupivši – having bought

Sačekati – Sačekavši  – having waited

And there are some exceptions:

Doći – došavši (exception) – having come

Naći – našavši (exception) – having found

Uzeti – uzev (exception) – having taken

Početi – počev (exception) – having started

Izuzeti – izuzev (exception) – having excluded

Examples

Došavši do kuće, počeo sam da jedem – Having come home, I started to eat

Pogledavši na tu stranu, odlučio sam da ne idem tamo – Having looked in that direction, I decided not to go there

Sačekavši konobara, ona je rekla šta želi – Having waited for the waiter, she said what she wanted

Vocabulary

želeti – to wish posetiti – to visit Rusija – Russia sećati se – to recall kod kuće – at home

početi – to start odlučiti – to decide gledati/pogledati – to look at konobar – waiter strana – side

Exercises

Use appropriate participle

1. ________________ domaći zadatak, Andrej je otišao da šeta (URADITI – to do) – Having done the homework, Andrej went for a walk
2. ________________ hranu, pozvao sam sve da jedu (SPREMITI – to prepare) – Having prepared food, I called everyone to eat
3. Ta knjiga je bila ________________ mnogo puta – (PROČITATI – to read) – That book was read many times
4. ___________________ preko telefona, mislio sam o susretu (PRIČATI – to talk) – Talking on the phone, I was thinking about the meeting
5. _______________ tekst, uvek pravim mnogo grešaka (KUCATI – to type) – Typing a text, I always make many mistakes
6. _________________ veoma daleko, Bojan je mislio o kući (PUTOVATI – to travel) – Traveling very far, Bojan was thinking about home
7. Ovo je pivo, koje nije bilo ______________ na žurci (ISPITI – to drink up) – This is beer that was not drunk at the party
8. Ko može da reši ________________ zadatak (DATI – to give) – Who can solve the given task?
9. _______________ da igraju, deca nisu mogla da prestanu (POČETI – to start) – Having started to play, the children could not stop
10. Imam arhive ___________________ sa kompjutera (KOPIRATI – to copy) – I have files copied from the computer
11. Nisam saznao ništa novo ____________________ ih (PITATI – to ask) – I did not learn anything new asking them
12. _______________ nekoliko lekcija, mi smo povećali našu kvalifikaciju (UZETI – to take) – Having taken some lessons, we have increased our qualification

Answers

1: uradivši; 2: spremivši; 3: pročitana; 4: pričajući; 5: kucajući; 6: putujući; 7: ispijeno; 8: dat; 9: počevši; 10: kopirane; 11: pitajući; 12: uzev/uzevši