Past passive participle

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The past passive participle: pročitan, viđen, uzet

A Serbian verb has two past participles, and you already know one of them. The lesson “The l-participle” taught you the active one: radio “worked”, čitao “read”, a form that looks at the person who does the action. Now for its mirror image, the past passive participle (in Serbian trpni glagolski pridev, literally “the passive verbal adjective”), which looks at whatever the action is done to: pročitan “read (through)”, viđen “seen”, otvoren “opened”, uzet “taken”. One verb, two points of view: čitao je knjigu “he was reading the book” and knjiga je pročitana “the book has been read”.

English speakers have a real head start here. English has exactly this form: it is the “third form” of the verb, the one in the book is read, the window is opened, the money was taken, and it works much the same way. Even the endings look familiar: Serbian -n and -en are distant relatives of the English -en in taken, written, given, and Serbian -t is a relative of the -t in kept and slept. So the task is mostly to notice where Serbian goes its own way: the participle agrees with its noun like an adjective, and before -en the last consonant often softens (videti → viđen, with a real đ). We will look at the three ways of forming it, the consonant changes that come with them, and its use as an adjective. Two later lessons build on this very form: “Passive voice” and “Verbal nouns and old participles” (čitanje “reading” comes from čitan).

Three suffixes: -n, -en, -t

Forming the participle comes down to choosing one of three endings, and the choice can usually be read off the end of the infinitive. Here is the map first; then we will go through each class in detail.

The -n class: pisan, čitan, pozvan, no surprises

The easiest class. Verbs in -ati with a stem in -a- simply drop -ti and add -n. The stem does not change: what you see in the infinitive is what you get in the participle.

Notice that pisati, which softens in the present (pišem “I write”), stays plain in the participle: pisan, not “pišen”. The participle is built on the infinitive stem pisa-, and there is no š in it. This is the same “two stems” rule you met in “Infinitive & stems”: the present uses one stem, the participle uses the other. In the same way pozvati (present pozovem) gives pozvan. The verb dati has two accepted forms, dan on this pattern and the more common dat, with -t; so does prodati: prodat and prodan “sold”. The class works like English written, chosen, given: a fixed ending added to the verb.

The -en class: viđen, nošen, plaćen, and softening

This is the class with the most changes. Verbs in -iti, -eti, -ći and -sti take -en, and very often the last consonant of the stem softens as they do so. The cause is an old j (the sound of English y in yes) that once stood at the front of the ending (-jen) and merged with the consonant before it. This is called jotation (from the letter j); you have already met it in the present tense (pisati → pišem) and in the comparative (mlad → mlađi, skup → skuplji), and now it is at work in the participle. Here are the main changes:

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The past passive participle: pročitan, viđen, uzet

Past passive participle (trpni glagolski pridev): describes what an action was done to (“read”, “taken”); usually from a transitive, perfective verb. It declines like an adjective; after biti it is the predicate and forms the passive. Three suffixes, usually chosen by the end of the infinitive.

Map of the three classes

The -n class: the stem stays as it is

Two stems: pisati (pišem) gives pisan, not “pišen”; pozvati (pozovem) gives pozvan. The verb dati has two forms, more often dat (also dan); so does prodati: prodat / prodan.

The -en class: the last consonant softens (jotation)

• More: rođen born, građen / izgrađen built, vođen led, vraćen returned, skraćen shortened; labials: ljubljen kissed, lomljen broken, lovljen hunted, slavljen celebrated, postavljen set, spremljen prepared.
• -ći and -sti verbs keep the consonant of the present: reći (rečem) → rečen said, ispeći → ispečen baked, ukrasti → ukraden stolen, pojesti → pojeden eaten; doneti → donesen or donet brought.
• A stem in r has nothing to soften: otvoren opened, zatvoren closed.

The -t class and the small -ven group

No softening: -t is simply added. After a root vowel: -jen or -ven: popijen drunk, razbijen smashed, but sakriven hidden, zašiven sewn up, čuven famous.

Agreement, as with any adjective

Gender and number follow the Serbian noun. Spreman “ready” is not a participle; spremiti gives spremljen.