Aspect pair formation

Lesson opening

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Aspect pairs: how a verb gets its partner

In “The concept of aspect” you saw that Serbian verbs usually come in pairs: the imperfective shows the process, the perfective the result: pisati/napisati, raditi/uraditi. Now let’s see how these pairs are put together. There are four methods. English has no aspect pairs as such, but it owns rougher versions of the same tools: a little word that closes an action off (eat → eat up, drink → drink up), a way to cut out a single burst (shout → give a shout), and even partners from a different root (go → went, though that pair is about tense). Serbian turns these tools into a system.

The mechanics pay off when you meet a new verb: you will recognise it as the partner of one you know and tell its aspect at once. Kupovati is the imperfective of kupiti; prepisati is a perfective, but with a new meaning. Pairs are not always tidy, though: of the many prefixed relatives of a verb, only one is its partner. That is where we start.

Method 1. A prefix closes the action

The most common route. Add a prefix to a plain imperfective verb and you have a perfective: the prefix gives the action an end point; it “closes” it.

Notice that each verb has its own prefix, and you cannot predict it: it has to be learned together with the verb. For pisati it is na-, for raditi it is u-, for čitati it is pro-. Such a prefix is called “empty”: it changes only the aspect and adds no meaning, so napisati is still “write”, just carried through to the result. Other prefixes bring a meaning of their own and make new words: prepisati “to copy (out)”, potpisati “to sign”, opisati “to describe”. Such verbs get an imperfective partner of their own by the second method; whole families of verbs around one root are the subject of “Prefixed verb families”.

Sometimes one meaning has two Serbian perfectives, much as English splits do and make. Uraditi, the partner of raditi, is “do, get done” (Uradio sam zadatak. “I did the assignment”). Napraviti, the partner of praviti “to make”, is for when something new comes out of it: Napravila sam tortu. “I made a cake”, Napravio sam grešku. “I made a mistake”. To ask “What have you done?” you can use either: Šta si uradio? or Šta si napravio?

Method 2. A suffix: from perfective to imperfective

The second method works the other way round: a suffix added to a perfective “stretches” the action and makes the verb imperfective. The suffix comes in several shapes: -va- (dati → davati), -ova- or -iva- (kupiti → kupovati, pokazati → pokazivati), and sometimes just -a- or -ja- (otvoriti → otvarati, dobiti → dobijati). This is how a prefixed verb with a new meaning gets its own partner: prepisati → prepisivati. The prefix closed the action, and the suffix opens it up again. Such an imperfective is called secondary: in the pisati family it is the second imperfective, after pisati itself. Together they make an aspect triple: pisati → prepisati → prepisivati.

Serbian has a great many such imperfectives. The nearest English feeling is the step from show to be showing or keep showing, but English does it with helper words each time, while Serbian does it once, inside the word, and gets a new dictionary verb. A verb with an empty prefix usually needs no such suffix: the partner of napisati is pisati itself.

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Aspect pairs: how they are formed

An aspect pair (vidski par): two verbs with the same meaning, differing only in aspect: čitati “to read” / pročitati “to read (through)”. There are four ways to form one.

1. A prefix: imperfective → perfective

Each verb has its own prefix; you cannot guess it, so learn it with the verb. The “empty” prefix changes only the aspect; the others make new words: prepisati “copy (out)”, potpisati “sign”, opisati “describe”, upisati “enter, enrol”, zapisati “write down”. Do vs make: uraditi “do, get done”, napraviti “make” (partner of praviti: Napravio sam grešku.); “What have you done?” is Šta si uradio? or Šta si napravio?

2. A suffix: perfective → imperfective

Suffix shapes: -va-, -ova-/-iva-, -a-/-ja-. Present: kupujem, pokazujem, prepisujem (with -uj-); dajem, prodajem; dobijam, otvaram. The root vowel may shift: otvoriti → otvarati, pomoći → pomagati.

3. The suffix -nu-: one instant

4. A different root, or a rebuilt pair

Truly different roots: only govoriti/reći. doći, naći come from ići, dolaziti, nalaziti from -laziti; uzmem / uzimam; pasti: padnem, pao.

Triples, verbs without a pair, the procedure

• Methods 1 and 2 give the triple pisati → prepisati → prepisivati: the prefix makes a new word, the suffix gives it a partner; the pure partner of pisati is napisati.
• Imperfective only, no pair: imati “have”, morati “must, have to”, trebati “need”. Biaspectual: videti, čuti, ručati.
• Procedure: plain imperfective → empty prefix (crtati → nacrtati); prefixed perfective → suffix (pokazati → pokazivati); once → -nu-; frequent verbs (reći, uzeti, doći, skakati → skočiti): learn whole.