The present active participle (настоя́щее де́йствие, "present-acting form") is the participle for an action happening right now, done by the noun it describes. It is the single word behind English phrases like "the man sitting there" or "the student reading a book" — a verb dressed as an adjective. Form it, and you can compress a whole кото́рый-clause (the студе́нт, кото́рый чита́ет, "the student who is reading") into the two-word чита́ющий студе́нт ("the reading student"). It is a hallmark of written Russian, so even if you never produce one yourself, you must recognize it to read news, science, and literature.
How it's formed
Take the они́-form (3rd-person plural) of an imperfective verb, drop the final -т, and add -щий. That's the whole rule. The vowel you find before -щ- depends on the conjugation, but you don't have to compute it — it's simply the vowel already sitting in the они́-form.
| Infinitive | они́-form | Drop -т, add -щий | Conj. |
|---|---|---|---|
| чита́ть (read) | чита́ют | чита́ющий | 1st (-ющ-) |
| идти́ (go) | иду́т | иду́щий | 1st (-ущ-) |
| писа́ть (write) | пи́шут | пи́шущий | 1st (-ущ-) |
| говори́ть (speak) | говоря́т | говоря́щий | 2nd (-ящ-) |
| люби́ть (love) | лю́бят | лю́бящий | 2nd (-ящ-) |
| стро́ить (build) | стро́ят | стро́ящий | 2nd (-ящ-) |
So 1st-conjugation verbs (with -ут/-ют) give -ущ-/-ющ-, and 2nd-conjugation verbs (with -ат/-ят) give -ащ-/-ящ-. This is why knowing which conjugation a verb belongs to instantly tells you the participle's vowel.
Челове́к, иду́щий нам навстре́чу, — наш но́вый сосе́д.
The man (who is) walking toward us is our new neighbor. — иду́т → иду́щий.
Я не зна́ю фами́лию де́вушки, сидя́щей у окна́.
I don't know the surname of the girl sitting by the window. — сидя́т → сидя́щий, here genitive feminine сидя́щей.
Imperfective only
A present active participle can only be built from an imperfective verb. The reason is logical, not arbitrary: this participle describes an action in progress, simultaneous with the main clause, and only the imperfective aspect carries that "ongoing" meaning. Perfective verbs (which describe a single completed whole) have no present tense at all in Russian — their "present" forms are actually future — so there is simply no present participle to make from them. If you want "the one who did/finished X," you need the past active participle instead.
Учёные, изуча́ющие вулка́ны, неда́вно сде́лали ва́жное откры́тие.
The scientists studying volcanoes recently made an important discovery. — изуча́ть is imperfective; the studying is ongoing.
Студе́нты, гото́вящиеся к экза́мену, сидя́т в библиоте́ке.
The students preparing for the exam are sitting in the library. — reflexive гото́виться → гото́вящиеся, the -ся stays after the ending.
It declines like an adjective
Because the participle modifies a noun, it agrees with that noun in gender, number, and case, taking ordinary hard-stem adjective endings (-ий/-ая/-ее/-ие and so on). This is the part English speakers consistently miss: in English "the man sitting there" never changes shape, but in Russian сидя́щий tracks its noun through the cases exactly as any adjective would.
| Case | Phrase | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. masc. | челове́к, сидя́щий там | the man sitting there (subject) |
| Acc. masc. | я ви́жу челове́ка, сидя́щего там | I see the man sitting there |
| Gen. masc. | портфе́ль челове́ка, сидя́щего там | the briefcase of the man sitting there |
| Nom. fem. | же́нщина, сидя́щая там | the woman sitting there |
| Nom. pl. | лю́ди, живу́щие здесь | the people living here |
Я хочу́ поговори́ть с челове́ком, отвеча́ющим за прое́кт.
I want to talk to the person responsible for (lit. answering for) the project. — instrumental человеком → instrumental отвеча́ющим.
Лю́ди, живу́щие в дере́вне, встаю́т ра́но.
People living in the countryside get up early. — plural nominative живу́щие.
The subject-only rule — the insight that makes it usable
This is the crucial point. A present active participle replaces a кото́рый-clause only when кото́рый is the subject of that clause — when the noun is the one doing the action.
- студе́нт, кото́рый чита́ет кни́гу → студе́нт, чита́ющий кни́гу ✓ (the student does the reading — works)
- кни́га, кото́рую чита́ет студе́нт → ✗ (here the book is the object; the student reads it, so no active participle is possible)
For "the book that the student is reading," where the noun is the receiver, you cannot use an active participle. You must either keep the кото́рый-clause or use a passive participle (кни́га, чита́емая студе́нтом). Test every active participle this way: turn it back into кото́рый and check that кото́рый would stand in the nominative.
Пассажи́ры, ожида́ющие поса́дки, толпи́лись у вы́хода.
The passengers waiting for boarding crowded by the gate. — passengers do the waiting (subject) → active participle works.
Кни́га, кото́рую чита́ет студе́нт, лежи́т на столе́.
The book that the student is reading lies on the table. — the book is the object, so NO active participle; keep кото́рый.
Register and lexicalized forms
The full present active participle is firmly (literary/academic) and journalistic. In ordinary conversation, Russians reach for a кото́рый-clause instead — лю́ди, кото́рые живу́т здесь sounds natural in speech where живу́щие здесь sounds bookish. The one exception is a set of participles that have frozen into everyday adjectives and nouns, where the bookish feel is gone:
| Lexicalized form | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|
| куря́щий / некуря́щий | smoker / non-smoker (also "smoking [section]") | (neutral) |
| начина́ющий | beginner | (neutral) |
| отдыха́ющие | holidaymakers, vacationers | (neutral) |
| трудя́щиеся | working people, workers (a noun) | (formal) |
| теку́щий | current (the current month, current account) | (neutral) |
| блестя́щий | brilliant, shining | (neutral) |
У вас есть ме́сто для некуря́щих?
Do you have a non-smoking spot? — куря́щий fully lexicalized as 'smoker'; perfectly conversational.
Это ку́рсы для начина́ющих.
These are courses for beginners. — начина́ющий functions as an ordinary noun here.
Common Mistakes
❌ Студе́нт, чита́ющего кни́гу, — мой брат.
Agreement error — the subject is nominative, so the participle must be чита́ющий, not чита́ющего.
✅ Студе́нт, чита́ющий кни́гу, — мой брат.
The student reading a book is my brother.
❌ Я ви́жу студе́нт, чита́ющий кни́гу.
Both noun and participle must be accusative after ви́жу, not nominative.
✅ Я ви́жу студе́нта, чита́ющего кни́гу.
I see the student reading a book. — accusative студе́нта, чита́ющего.
❌ Письмо́, пи́шущее мной, ва́жное. (meaning 'the letter being written by me')
Wrong voice — the letter receives the action, so an active participle is impossible; use a passive participle or кото́рый.
✅ Письмо́, кото́рое я пишу́, ва́жное.
The letter I'm writing is important. — the noun is the object, so keep кото́рый.
❌ Прочита́ющий кни́гу студе́нт ушёл. (intending 'who finished the book')
No present participle from a perfective verb — прочита́ть is perfective. Use the past active прочита́вший.
✅ Прочита́вший кни́гу студе́нт ушёл.
The student who finished the book left. — perfective → past active participle.
Key Takeaways
- Build it from an imperfective verb: take the они́-form, drop -т, add -щий (чита́ют → чита́ющий, говоря́т → говоря́щий). 1st conjugation gives -ущ-/-ющ-, 2nd gives -ащ-/-ящ-.
- It means "(the one) who is doing X" and declines like an adjective, agreeing with its noun in gender, number, and case (челове́ка, сидя́щего там).
- It works only when кото́рый would be the subject of its clause. For an object noun ("the book that he's reading"), use a passive participle or keep кото́рый.
- The full form is bookish; in speech use кото́рый. The exceptions are lexicalized words like куря́щий, начина́ющий, теку́щий.
- For completed actions, switch to the past active participle (прочита́вший); for accompanying actions, that's a verbal adverb, not a participle.
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Start learning Russian→Related Topics
- Participles: OverviewB2 — Russian has four participles (прича́стия) — present active (чита́ющий), past active (чита́вший / прочита́вший), present passive (чита́емый), past passive (прочи́танный) — all of them verbal adjectives that decline and agree with their noun. They are a bookish, written feature; in speech Russians use кото́рый-clauses instead.
- Past Active Participles (-вший)B2 — The past active participle (чита́вший, прочита́вший, ше́дший) means 'the one who was doing / who did X'. It is formed from the past stem, declines like an adjective, exists in both aspects, and saturates written Russian.
- Passive Participles (-емый, -нный, -тый)B2 — Passive participles describe the receiver of an action: present passive (чита́емый, люби́мый — rare, bookish) and the far more important past passive (прочи́танный, напи́санный, постро́енный, откры́тый), which builds both the adjectival passive and the predicate result construction.
- Verbal Adverbs (Деепричастия): OverviewB2 — A verbal adverb (дееприча́стие) is an indeclinable form expressing an accompanying or prior action by the SAME subject as the main verb — чита́я 'while reading', прочита́в 'having read'. It compresses a when/because-clause into one word and must share its subject with the main clause.
- Relative Clauses with КоторыйB1 — Кото́рый ('who/which/that') is the workhorse relative pronoun of Russian. It agrees in GENDER and NUMBER with its antecedent — the noun it points back to — but takes its CASE from its own role inside the relative clause. A comma before кото́рый is obligatory. This page teaches the two-question method that gets the form right every time and shows кото́рый across all six cases.
- The Two ConjugationsA1 — Russian present-tense verbs fall into two patterns: the 1st conjugation (-ю/-ешь/-ет/-ем/-ете/-ют, like чита́ть → чита́ю, чита́ешь) and the 2nd conjugation (-ю/-ишь/-ит/-им/-ите/-ят, like говори́ть → говорю́, говори́шь). The reliable signal is the ты-form vowel (-ешь vs -ишь), not the infinitive — with the famous exceptions you must memorize.