otvarati / otvoriti (to open) | Serbian Grammar

Отварати — отворити is the central Serbian pair for opening a door, container, document, account, business, meeting, or topic. Imperfective отварати presents the process or a repeated action; perfective отворити presents one opening boundary or its achievement. Both normally take a direct object, while се can present something as opening by itself or without a named agent.

Principal forms

Form	отварати (imperfective)	отворити (perfective)
present	отварам, отвараш, отвара, отварамо, отварате, отварају	отворим, отвориш, отвори, отворимо, отворите, отворе
l-participle	отварао / отварала	отворио / отворила
imperative	отварај, отварајмо, отварајте	отвори, отворимо, отворите
future, 1st singular	отвараћу	отворићу

The imperfective has a regular -ам present; the perfective has -им and third-person plural отворе. Future forms fuse because both infinitives end in -ти: remove that ending before adding -ћу.

Сваког јутра отварам прозоре док кувам кафу.

Every morning I open the windows while making coffee.

Отворила сам пакет чим сам се вратила с посла.

I opened the parcel as soon as I got home from work. (female speaker)

The first sentence is a routine; the second presents one completed opening.

The thing opened is accusative

Doors, windows, containers, files, and abstract entities are direct objects without a preposition.

Можеш ли да отвориш теглу? Поклопац је превише затегнут.

Can you open the jar? The lid is screwed on too tightly.

Службеница је отворила нови предмет и унела основне податке.

The clerk opened a new case file and entered the basic information.

Serbian врата is plural, so modifiers and pronouns referring to it are plural: отворити ова врата, then затворити их. The past l-participle, however, agrees with the subject, not with the object.

Марко је отворио тешка метална врата и придржао их осталима.

Marko opened the heavy metal door and held it for the others.

Here masculine отворио agrees with Marko, while plural accusative их refers to врата.

Process, repetition, and one achieved boundary

Imperfective отварати is natural with док, duration, repeated schedules, and an action being observed from within. Perfective отворити is natural when the practical question is whether access was achieved.

Док је отварала стару кутију, пазила је да не поцепа папир.

While she was opening the old box, she was careful not to tear the paper.

Кад отворимо архиву, послаћемо вам тражени документ.

When we open the archive, we'll send you the requested document.

Perfective present отворимо after кад points to a future completed boundary. It does not normally describe an opening in progress at speech time; for that use отварамо.

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Ask what matters: access being attempted or repeated → отварати; access achieved as one event → отворити.

The pair is close in its core uses, unlike many prefix families where the prefix changes the lexical event. Its formation fits the wider suffixal aspect-pair pattern.

Physical and institutional meanings

The same pair extends naturally to accounts, shops, exhibitions, meetings, discussions, and opportunities.

Желим да отворим рачун у банци која има добру мобилну апликацију.

I want to open an account at a bank with a good mobile app.

Председавајућа је отворила седницу кратким поздравом.

The chair opened the session with a brief greeting.

Не бих сада отварао ту тему пред гостима.

I wouldn't bring up that topic in front of the guests now. (male speaker)

The last example is metaphorical: “open a topic” means introduce it for discussion. English often uses bring up instead, so a literal translation may conceal the shared Serbian verb.

A person for whose benefit an account, file, or access is opened can be dative.

Банка нам је отворила посебан рачун за трошкове пројекта.

The bank opened a separate account for us for project expenses.

The direct object remains посебан рачун; dative нам names the beneficiary.

Отворити се: spontaneous change and personal disclosure

When a door, window, flower, or opportunity opens without a named agent, Serbian commonly uses се. The grammatical subject controls agreement.

Прозори су се отворили од јаког ветра.

The windows opened because of the strong wind.

После обнове се отворило неколико нових радних места.

Several new jobs opened up after the renovation.

This is an anticausative reading: the sentence presents the change, not an agent who caused it. It differs from an ordinary transitive clause such as ветар је отворио прозоре.

With a person, отворити се некоме or отворити се према некоме means open up emotionally.

Тек после неколико сусрета отворила се новој терапеуткињи.

Only after several meetings did she open up to the new therapist.

Here новој терапеуткињи is dative. The construction is lexical and cannot be analyzed as someone physically opening herself.

Event, resulting state, and passive participle

Do not confuse l-participle отворио/отворила with passive participle or adjective отворен/отворена/отворено.

Неко је отворио прозор, па је сада прозор отворен.

Someone opened the window, so the window is open now.

Отворио је reports an event and agrees with the doer. Прозор је отворен describes the resulting state or, in a suitable context, a passive result and agrees with прозор.

Schedules often use imperfective reflexive phrasing:

Библиотека се отвара у осам, а читаоница пола сата касније.

The library opens at eight, and the reading room half an hour later.

Clitics and commands

An opened object can be replaced by га, је, их. In the perfect, auxiliary and object clitic keep normal cluster order.

Поруку сам добила јутрос, али је још нисам отворила.

I received the message this morning, but I haven't opened it yet. (female speaker)

Perfective отвори/отворите requests one opening. Imperfective не отварај commonly prohibits the activity or warns against opening something.

Отворите прилог и проверите да ли су све странице читљиве.

Open the attachment and check whether all the pages are legible. (plural or polite)

Не отварај врата непознатим људима.

Don't open the door to strangers. (general warning)

For one specifically prevented event, немој да отвориш is also natural. Negative imperatives do not mechanically force one aspect in every context.

Micro-dialogue

„Зашто се прозор не отвара?“ — „Ручка се заглавила. Сачекај, отворићу га алатом.“ — „Само пази да не поломиш стакло.“

‘Why won't the window open?’ — ‘The handle is stuck. Wait, I'll open it with a tool.’ — ‘Just be careful not to break the glass.’

The dialogue contrasts intransitive се отвара with transitive future отворићу га.

Practice Tasks

Task 1: Change viewpoint

Describe someone opening a box over several minutes with отварати, then report that the box was finally opened with отворити. Make the speaker female in the past.

Task 2: Transitive or spontaneous?

Write one sentence in which wind opens the windows and another in which the windows open from the wind. Track accusative прозоре versus nominative plural прозори and agreement.

Common Mistakes

❌ Сада отворим велики прилог на рачунару.

Incorrect for an action in progress — use imperfective отварам.

✅ Сада отварам велики прилог на рачунару.

I'm opening a large attachment on the computer now.

❌ Отворила сам старом ормару да га очистим.

Incorrect — the thing opened is a direct accusative object, not dative.

✅ Отворила сам стари ормар да га очистим.

I opened the old wardrobe to clean it. (female speaker)

❌ Врата се је отворила од промаје.

Incorrect — plural врата requires су се and neuter plural отворила.

✅ Врата су се отворила од промаје.

The door opened because of the draft.

❌ Она је отворио нови рачун јуче.

Incorrect — the l-participle must agree with feminine она.

✅ Она је отворила нови рачун јуче.

She opened a new account yesterday.

❌ Сутра отворити ћу изложбу у подне.

Incorrect spelling — with an -ти infinitive before ћу, standard Serbian uses fused отворићу.

✅ Сутра ћу отворити изложбу у подне.

Tomorrow I'll open the exhibition at noon.

Key Takeaways

Learn отварати — отварам and отворити — отворим — отворе as a close aspect pair.
The thing opened is accusative; a beneficiary may additionally be dative.
Отворити се can present spontaneous opening or emotional disclosure.
Отворио је прозор reports an event; прозор је отворен describes its resulting state.
Perfective present normally needs a future, modal, habitual, or subordinate frame rather than an ongoing-now reading.

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