Today’s lesson is about verbal adjectives.
I don’t think this lesson is going to be particularly difficult or long, so all of you could listen to it, although it is an advanced grammar lesson.
Let’s take a look.
verbal adjectives – glagolski pridevi
There are two different kinds of verbal adjectives:
Active verbal adjective, verbal adjective – Radni glagolski pridev
Passive verbal adjective – Trpni glagolski pridev
These are not to be confused with verbal adverbs.
Verbal adverbs are different.
present verbal adverb – glagolski prilog sadašnji
past verbal adverb – glagolski prilog prošli
In the Serbian language, we distinguish between two verbal adjectives:
active verbal adjective, verbal adjective – radni glagolski pridev
passive verbal adjective – trpni glagolski pridev
What these two verb forms have in common is that they belong to the category of simple (they consist of only one verb) and impersonal (the person performing the action is not known) verb forms. As impersonality is their main characteristic, neither active verb adjective nor passive verb adjective can act by itself as the verb in a sentence.
These verb forms, like classic adjectives, change in all three genders and both numbers – singular and plural.
When it comes to the differences between these two verb forms, they are reflected in the way they are constructed and used. Already in the name itself, we have a clearly marked difference between radni and trpni. The terms that are also used to refer to these two forms are the active – aktiv (active verbal adjective) and the passive – pasiv (for the passive verbal adjective). Of course, they participate in the construction of active and passive sentences respectively.
Let’s study each one individually.
Radni glagolski pridev (Active verbal adjective)
Active verb adjective is a simple impersonal verb form that indicates an action that is performed or was performed in the past. Active means that the subject is active (performs an action), verbal means that it is a verb form, and adjective means that it has the characteristics of an adjective. It is built from both perfect and imperfect verb aspects, and is used to build complex verb forms – simple tense – perfekat, pluskvamperfekat, potential – the ‘would’ construction and futur II. It has special forms for all three genders, both numbers (singular and plural) and there is only the third person.
The construction for radni glagolski pridev is actually completely the same as for the past tense.
We add suffixes to the stem – the infinitive base.
1) When the stem ends in a vowel, the endings are:
a) in the singular: -o, -la, -lo
b) in the plural: -li, -le, -la
For example, the active adjective forms of the verbs ‘čitati’ and ‘uraditi’ are:
čitati (the stem: čita): čitao, čitala, čitalo, čitali, čitale, čitala
uraditi (the stem: uradi): uradio, uradila, uradilo, uradili, uradile, uradila
2) When the stem ends in a consonant, the endings are:
a) in the singular: -ao, -la, -lo
b) in the plural: -li, -le, -la
For example, the active adjective forms of the verbs ‘moći – can’ and ‘seći – cut’ are:
moći (the stem: mog): mogao, mogla, moglo, mogli, mogle, mogla
seći (the stem: sek): sekao, sekla, seklo, sekli, sekle, sekla
The active adjective form indicates that the subject is active.
Jelena ironed her shirt. = Jelena je opeglala majicu.
A boy ran down the street. = Trčao neki dečak ulicom.
It can also be used as an adjective, and then it more closely defines the noun it stands next to and has the properties of an adjective (gender, number, case, comparison), for example:
an adult man – odrastao čovek
frequent rainfall – učestale padavine
a rusty nail – zarđao ekser
That is its adjectival function.
Sentence examples:
Philip was riding a bicycle. = Filip je vozio bicikl.
I would watch a TV show. = Gledala bih seriju.
They were sitting on the bench. = Sedeli su na klupi.
Moving on the the next adjective type:
Trpni glagolski pridev (Passive verbal adjective)
The passive verbal adjective is a simple impersonal verb form that indicates that an action was performed on someone or something. ‘Trpni’ means that the subject is passive (receiving the action – trpi radnju, an action being done upon it), ‘verbal’ means that it is a verb form, and ‘adjective’ means that it has the characteristics of an adjective.
It is also possible from both imperfective and perfective aspects, but of course, the perfective makes more sense. Just imagine verbs like: drunk, done, eaten, completed, broken, stolen, or read. It’s more common to use them in their perfective forms.
It is built only from transitive verbs, and not from all of them: some frequent verbs, such as to have – imati,
to hate – mrzeti,
to understand – razumeti,
to mean – značiti,
do not have passive adjectives.
In some cases, it is possible to create passive adjectives from reflexive verbs:
načitan – načitati se // well-read – to read,
nasmejan – nasmejati se // smiling – to laugh
zaljubljen – zaljubiti se // in love – to fall in love
There are different forms for all three genders, both numbers (singular and plural) and there is only the third person.
It is built by adding three-strong suffixes to the infinitive base or to the truncated present base (the final vowel of the base is rejected):
There are three categories:
1) When the stem ends in -a, the endings are:
a) in the singular: -n, -na, -no
b) in the plural: -ni, -ne, -na
to cook – kuvati (the stem: kuva): kuvan, kuvana, kuvano, kuvani, kuvane, kuvana
boiled egg – kuvano jaje
to water – zalivati (the stem: zaliva): zalivan, zalivana, zalivano, zalivani, zalivane, zalivana
watered plant – zalivana biljka
2) When the stem ends in -e or -u, the endings are:
a) in the singular: -t, -ta, -to
b) in the plural: -ti, -te, -ta
to begin, to crack at smth – načeti (the stem: nače): načet, načeta, načeto, načeti, načete, načeta
to turn/flip over – prevrnuti (the stem: prevrnu): prevrnut, prevrnuta, prevrnuto, prevrnuti, prevrnute, prevrnuta
3) When the stem ends in -i or in a consonant, the endings are:
a) in the singular: -en, -ena, -eno
b) in the plural: -eni, -ene, -ena
If the verb ends in -i, we remove that last letter -i before we add those suffixes.
to demolish – srušiti (the stem minus -i: sruš): srušen, srušena, srušeno, srušeni, srušene, srušena
to shake – tresti (the stem: tres): tresen, tresena, treseno, treseni, tresene, tresena
Trpni pridev is used to construct the passive:
The book was read. = Knjiga je pročitana.
The apples are peeled. = Jabuke su oljuštene.
This verb form can also be used as an adjective, in which case it more closely defines the noun it stands next to and has the properties of an adjective (gender, number, case, comparative form), for example:
dyed hair – ofarbana kosa
fried meat – prženo meso
well-deserved reward – zaslužena nagrada
That is its adjectival function.
Sentence examples:
The cookies are eaten. = Kolačići su pojedeni.
The bed is covered. = Krevet je prekriven.
The room is cleaned. = Soba je očišćena.
Finally, the active form is the same as the regular past tense, but the passive form is a bit harder, so let me give you some more passive verbal adjective examples:
to read – pročitati (perf) – pročitan
to take – uzeti (perf) – uzet
to sing – otpevati (perf) – otpevan
to do – raditi (impf) – rađen
to learn – naučiti (perf) – naučen
to drive – voziti (impf) – vožen
to run – istrčati (perf) – istrčan
to eat – pojesti (perf) – pojeden
to write – napisati (perf) – napisan
to drink – popiti (perf) – popijen
to watch – odgledati (perf) – odgledan
to wash – oprati (perf) – opran
to clean – čistiti (impf) – čišćen
to bathe – okupati se (perf) – okupan
to make – napraviti (perf) – napravljen
to paint – naslikati (perf) – naslikan
to add – dodati (perf) – dodan or dodat (both correct)
to clean – očistiti (perf) – očišćen