Vidski parovi glagola
Overview
verb-aspect-intro-a2 introduced вид (aspect) as a category and gave you a handful of pairs to memorize whole - писати/написати, читати/прочитати, and others. This lesson looks at how those pairs are actually built, so meeting a brand-new verb no longer means starting from zero: most of the time, one predictable process - or a small, learnable set of them - gets you from one aspect to the other.
Two directions matter. Most pairs still work the way the intro lesson showed: an unprefixed imperfective gains a prefix to become perfective. But once a verb is already prefixed - and every derived perfective in Serbian is, one way or another - building a *new* imperfective from it takes a second, distinct process: secondary imperfectivization, a suffix swap rather than a prefix.
Secondary imperfectivization - deriving a new imperfective
When a perfective verb already carries a prefix (отворити, затворити, решити, завршити), you cannot simply strip the prefix to get an everyday imperfective - what is left over usually is not a real word, or means something else entirely. Instead, Serbian replaces the ending with -авати (or, after certain stems, -ивати) to build a brand-new imperfective, shown for each of these verbs below.
These derived imperfectives conjugate like any regular verb in -ати once the suffix is attached - отварам, отвараш, отвара… - so the extra step is entirely about recognizing the pair, not about learning a new conjugation pattern.
One root, several prefixes - the писати family
Prefixes are not only aspect markers: attaching a different prefix to the same root often creates a related but distinct verb, with its own meaning and its own aspect pair. Писати (to write) alone spins off four such verbs, shown below - each perfective-imperfective pair built the way section 1 describes for an already-prefixed verb, by replacing the ending with -ивати to derive a new imperfective (описати → описивати, уписати → уписивати), not the way написати/писати itself was built (писати was already the plain, unprefixed imperfective, needing no further derivation) - but none of them simply means to write, and finish.
Because these are genuinely different lexemes, memorize each prefixed verb's meaning on its own - do not assume a prefix always adds only completion to the base verb's meaning; sometimes it builds a new word instead.
Choosing the aspect - reapplying the intro-lesson test
The habitual-vs-completed test from verb-aspect-intro-a2 still decides everything: a repeated or ongoing action needs the imperfective (решава, завршава, записује), one bounded, whole event needs the perfective (реши, заврши, запише). Apply it to any of this lesson's new pairs exactly as you would to писати/написати.
One reminder carries over unchanged too: a perfective verb's present-tense-shaped form never describes something happening right now - реши and заврши mean once it gets solved/finished, almost always inside a кад or ако clause, never is solving/finishing.
Tables
| Perfective (base form) | Imperfective (derived) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| otvoriti | otvarati | to open |
| zatvoriti | zatvarati | to close |
| rešiti | rešavati | to solve |
| završiti | završavati | to finish |
Examples
Compared with…
English marks none of this morphologically. Solve covers both решавати (working on it) and решити (having solved it) - English leans on separate words or context (was solving vs. solved) rather than a different verb form. The „one root, many prefixes, several distinct verbs“ idea is even further from English, which mostly reaches for entirely unrelated words (describe, copy, enroll, note down) where Serbian visibly reuses писати under four different prefixes.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- When a perfective verb is already prefixed, don't strip the prefix to find its imperfective - swap the ending instead: -ити/-ути verbs often become -авати (решити → решавати), while -ати verbs in the писати family become -ивати (записати → записивати) - a separate pattern, not a sub-case of the first.
- A new prefix on a familiar root is a hint, not a guarantee, of the meaning - check whether you're looking at the same verb, finished (написати from писати) or a related but different verb (уписати, to enroll, from писати).
- Keep applying the habitual/completed test from verb-aspect-intro-a2 to every new pair you meet - it does not get replaced by anything more advanced, it just gets reused on more verbs.
- A handful of very common imperfectives (давати, продавати, познавати, and their prefixed relatives упознавати, признавати, сазнавати) contract their present tense instead of conjugating like a regular -авати verb: познавати → познајем, not познавам - learn these individually rather than by the -авати → -авам default.
- Not every perfective needs a secondary imperfective at all - biaspectual verbs (already met in verb-aspect-intro-a2: ручати, телефонирати) use one form for both meanings, so there is nothing to derive.
- Some prefixed verbs skip secondary imperfectivization and instead pair with a suppletive, unrelated-looking partner - the motion-verb pairs (доћи/долазити) work this way, covered separately in verbs-of-motion-b1.
Summary
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