If long participles are the bookish corner of the system, the short past passive participle is its everyday face. Магази́н закры́т ("the shop is closed"), Биле́ты про́даны ("the tickets are sold"), Всё гото́во ("everything's ready") — these are signs you read daily and sentences you'll say constantly. The short form drops the adjective ending and works as a predicate, describing the resulting state of something the action left behind, or forming the analytic passive with быть. It is the one participle a B1 learner genuinely needs to produce.
What the short form is
It is the short (predicative) form of the past passive participle. You take the long participle and strip off the adjective ending, leaving a bare predicate stem that agrees only in gender and number — never case, because predicates don't decline.
| Long form (adjective) | Short form (predicate) | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| откры́тый | откры́т | open(ed) |
| закры́тый | закры́т | closed |
| напи́санный | напи́сан | written |
| постро́енный | постро́ен | built |
| сде́ланный | сде́лан | done, made |
| про́данный | про́дан | sold |
It agrees in gender and number — that's all
The short participle behaves like a short adjective: it takes four endings depending on the subject's gender and number, and no case at all.
| откры́ть → open | закры́ть → closed | постро́ить → built | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | откры́т | закры́т | постро́ен |
| Feminine | откры́та | закры́та | постро́ена |
| Neuter | откры́то | закры́то | постро́ено |
| Plural | откры́ты | закры́ты | постро́ены |
Магази́н закры́т на обе́д.
The shop is closed for lunch. — masculine subject магази́н → закры́т.
Дверь закры́та, а окно́ откры́то.
The door is closed, and the window is open. — feminine дверь → закры́та, neuter окно́ → откры́то.
Все биле́ты на конце́рт уже́ про́даны.
All the tickets for the concert are already sold. — plural биле́ты → про́даны.
Зада́ча решена́ непра́вильно.
The problem has been solved incorrectly. — feminine зада́ча → решена́, with the stress on the ending.
The result-state meaning
The everyday use is a resulting state: not the action of closing, but the condition of being closed that the action left behind. Дверь закры́та answers "what state is the door in?" — closed — rather than narrating who closed it or when. This is why these are perfect for signs and status reports: they describe how things are as a result of what was done.
Стол накры́т, мо́жно сади́ться.
The table is set, we can sit down. — the result of setting the table; накры́ть → накры́т.
Я не могу́ войти́ — везде́ всё за́перто.
I can't get in — everything's locked everywhere. — neuter всё → за́перто, a pure result-state.
With быть: past and future result-passives
In the present, быть is invisible (the zero copula), so Дверь закры́та stands alone. To put the result in the past or future, you add the right form of быть — был / была́ / бы́ло / бы́ли for the past, бу́дет / бу́дут for the future — and the short participle still agrees in gender and number.
| Tense | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Present | Письмо́ напи́сано. | The letter is/has been written. |
| Past | Письмо́ бы́ло напи́сано. | The letter was written. |
| Future | Дом бу́дет постро́ен к ле́ту. | The house will be built by summer. |
Э́тот рома́н был напи́сан в девятна́дцатом ве́ке.
This novel was written in the nineteenth century. — masculine рома́н → был напи́сан; both быть and the participle take the masculine.
К концу́ го́да но́вая шко́ла бу́дет постро́ена.
By the end of the year the new school will be built. — feminine шко́ла → бу́дет постро́ена.
This быть + short participle pattern is the standard analytic (periphrastic) passive of Russian — the formal, written alternative to the -ся passive and other passive strategies.
The agent goes in the instrumental
If you name who did it, the agent takes the instrumental case — no preposition. This is the same instrumental of agent used across the passive voice.
Дом был постро́ен ме́стными рабо́чими.
The house was built by local workers. — agent рабо́чими in the instrumental.
«Война́ и мир» напи́сана Толсты́м.
War and Peace was written by Tolstoy. — agent Толсты́м, instrumental; feminine title → напи́сана.
See the instrumental of agent for the full pattern.
The one-н vs. two-нн spelling — the classic trap
This is the single most common written error with these forms. The short participle has one -н-; the long participle has two -нн-.
| Short (predicate, one -н-) | Long (adjective, two -нн-) |
|---|---|
| напи́сан, напи́сана, напи́сано | напи́санный, напи́санная |
| постро́ен, постро́ена | постро́енный, постро́енная |
| про́дан, про́даны | про́данный, про́данные |
| сде́лан, сде́лано | сде́ланный, сде́ланное |
Common Mistakes
❌ Магази́н закры́тый.
Wrong form — a predicate state needs the short form, and the long form here sounds like an unfinished phrase ('the closed shop…').
✅ Магази́н закры́т.
The shop is closed.
❌ Письмо́ напи́санно.
Spelling error — the short form has ONE -н-: напи́сано.
✅ Письмо́ напи́сано.
The letter is/has been written.
❌ Дверь закры́т.
Agreement error — feminine дверь needs закры́та.
✅ Дверь закры́та.
The door is closed.
❌ Дом был постро́ен рабо́чие.
The agent must be instrumental, not nominative — рабо́чими.
✅ Дом был постро́ен рабо́чими.
The house was built by workers.
Key Takeaways
- The short past passive participle (откры́т, закры́т, напи́сан, постро́ен, про́дан) is the everyday predicate form — signs, status, results.
- It agrees in gender and number only (откры́т / откры́та / откры́то / откры́ты), never case.
- It expresses a result-state (Дверь закры́та = the door is in a closed state) and, with быть, the past/future passive (Письмо́ бы́ло напи́сано; Дом бу́дет постро́ен).
- A named agent takes the instrumental: постро́ен рабо́чими.
- Spelling: the short form has one -н- (напи́сан), the long form two -нн- (напи́санный). This is the most frequent error.
- The long adjectival form is the previous page; this short form builds the analytic passive voice.
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- The Verb Быть (To Be)A1 — Russian's verb 'to be' is unusual: in the present it is simply omitted (Я студе́нт, Она́ до́ма — no verb at all), with есть surviving only for emphatic existence/possession. The past agrees by gender (был/была́/бы́ло/бы́ли) and the future conjugates normally (бу́ду, бу́дешь, бу́дет…), doubling as the imperfective-future auxiliary. After past/future быть, a predicate noun goes into the instrumental: Он был врачо́м.
- The Perfective: Completion, Result, Single EventB1 — The perfective is the aspect of the action viewed from the outside as a single completed whole — finished, with a result that stands. This page maps its uses: completion-with-result, chains of events in narration, single momentary acts, and the simple future. The key insight: result-now means perfective (Я уже́ пое́л).