Glagolski pridevi i prilozi
Overview
Serbian has four non-finite verb forms built on a stem rather than a person ending, grouped in two pairs: two глаголски придеви (verbal adjectives, agreeing like an adjective) and two глаголски прилози (verbal adverbs, invariant). You already know one придев well - past-tense-perfekat-a2's радни глаголски придев (читао/читала/читало…) is exactly this category, just not yet named as such. This lesson covers the other three: the трпни глаголски придев (passive participle) and both прилози.
The трпни придев matters immediately beyond this lesson: it is the building block passive-voice-b1 uses to build the passive voice, so this lesson is also, in effect, the first half of that one.
Трпни глаголски придев - formation and agreement
The passive participle is built from the infinitive by one of three endings, roughly grouped by the infinitive's own ending: most -ати verbs take -ан (написати → написан), most -ити/-ети verbs take -ен (отворити → отворен, видети → виђен - note the д softening to ђ, a jotation pattern covered below), and a smaller class of -ти verbs (often monosyllabic roots) takes -т (дати → дат, узети → узет).
Like радни глаголски придев, трпни придев agrees with what it describes in gender and number - маск. отворен, жен. отворена, сред. отворено, мн. маск. отворени, жен. отворене, сред. отворена (the feminine-singular/neuter-plural overlap past-tense-perfekat-a2 already flagged repeats here too). Unlike радни придев, трпни придев also functions as an ordinary standalone adjective, not only inside a compound tense: отворена продавница (an open shop) needs no auxiliary at all.
Глаголски прилог садашњи - the present gerund
Built only from imperfective verbs, the present gerund is formed straight from the 3rd-person-plural present by adding -ћи, with nothing dropped: читају → читајући, раде → радећи - the visible ending comes out as -ајући or -ећи depending on whether that plural form already ends in -у or in -е. It describes an action happening at the same time as the main verb, and - unlike either придев - never changes form: no gender, no number, one invariant word.
The catch is that its implicit subject must be identical to the main clause's subject: „Читајући новине, попио је кафу.“ only works because the same person is both reading and drinking. Where the two actions have different subjects, Serbian falls back on an ordinary док/кад clause instead - see the common-mistakes section below.
Глаголски прилог прошли - the past gerund
Built only from perfective verbs, the past gerund adds -вши to the infinitive stem (написати → написавши, отворити → отворивши). It marks an action completed just before the main verb's - „Написавши писмо, отишао је на пошту.“ (Having written the letter, he went to the post office.) - and, like the present gerund, never agrees with anything.
This form is markedly literary - common in narrative prose and news writing, rare in speech, where a кад clause (Кад је написао писмо, отишао је на пошту) says the same thing more conversationally.
Tables
| Infinitive | Passive participle (masc.) | Type |
|---|---|---|
| napisati | napisan | -an |
| otvoriti | otvoren | -en |
| videti | viđen | -en (jotovanje) |
| dati | dat | -t |
| uzeti | uzet | -t |
Examples
Compared with…
English's -ed participle (written, opened) parallels трпни придев closely, including its double duty as a passive-voice ingredient and an ordinary adjective (an open shop, a written book) - this half of the lesson transfers well. The gerunds match English's formal having done X, Y happened construction better than the everyday -ing form: English -ing covers both Serbian gerunds and more besides (also the gerund-as-noun, reading is fun, which Serbian expresses with an infinitive or a да-clause instead) - do not assume every English -ing word has a one-word Serbian gerund translation.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- Quick formation reference: most -ати verbs → -ан, most -ити/-ети verbs → -ен (watch for jotation), a smaller -ти class → -т - the same three-way split every time.
- Придеви agree (gender/number); прилози never do - one invariant form covers every subject.
- Match the gerund's aspect to the verb: present gerund only from imperfective verbs, past gerund only from perfective verbs - the aspect is built into which gerund exists at all.
- Jotation before -ен is common but has to be learned stem-by-stem: п→пљ (купити→купљен), б→бљ (изгубити→изгубљен), в→вљ (заборавити→заборављен), м→мљ (сломити→сломљен), д→ђ (видети→виђен).
- Прилог прошли is markedly literary - expect it in narrative writing, not everyday conversation, where a кад clause is the natural spoken equivalent.
- Not every verb has a natural трпни придев: intransitive verbs like спавати (to sleep) or ићи (to go) generally don't form one at all, since there is nothing for the action to be done to - passive-voice-b1 picks this restriction up directly.
Summary
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