Затварати — затворити is the basic Serbian pair for closing a door, shutting a container, ending access, or bringing an institution, account, meeting, or case to a close. Imperfective затварати presents a process or repeated action; perfective затворити presents one closing boundary as attained. Learn the pair with its accusative object and with се, because English close can correspond to either a transitive or an intransitive Serbian construction.
Principal forms
| Form | затварати (imperfective) | затворити (perfective) |
|---|---|---|
| present | затварам, затвараш, затвара, затварамо, затварате, затварају | затворим, затвориш, затвори, затворимо, затворите, затворе |
| l-participle | затварао / затварала | затворио / затворила |
| imperative | затварај, затварајмо, затварајте | затвори, затворимо, затворите |
| future, 1st singular | затвараћу | затворићу |
The present endings are regular, but the two stems belong together: затварам versus затворим. The perfective third-person plural is затворе, not затвору. In the future, both -ти infinitives fuse with the following auxiliary: затвараћу, затворићу.
Сваке вечери затварам све прозоре пре него што укључим грејање.
Every evening I close all the windows before turning on the heating.
Затворила је кофер, али је заборавила да провери бочни џеп.
She closed the suitcase, but forgot to check the side pocket.
The closed thing is accusative
The person or thing affected by ordinary затварати/затворити is a direct object: затворити прозор, књигу, рачун, продавницу, улицу. No preposition equivalent to English to or with belongs before that object.
Град је затворио улицу за саобраћај док трају радови.
The city closed the street to traffic while the roadworks are under way.
Молим те, затвори књигу и саслушај упутства до краја.
Please close the book and listen to the instructions all the way through.
Serbian врата is grammatically plural. Say затворити ова врата, and replace it with plural их.
Кад уђеш у магацин, затвори врата и закључај их.
When you enter the storeroom, close the door and lock it.
The English translation uses singular door, but Serbian agreement remains neuter plural: врата су се затворила.
Process, routine, or completed boundary
Use затварати for an action in progress, repeated closing, or a process viewed internally. Use затворити when one successful closing or termination matters.
Радници већ сат времена затварају тешке капке на свим прозорима.
The workers have been closing the heavy shutters on all the windows for an hour.
Чим затворимо последњи предмет, послаћемо коначни извештај.
As soon as we close the final case file, we'll send the final report.
Perfective present затворимо in a time clause refers to a future completed boundary. For an event unfolding now, use imperfective затварамо.
The morphology and viewpoint contrast mirror the opening pair, but each verb has its own lexical extensions.
Businesses, accounts, meetings, and cases
The same pair closes an institution for the day, closes it permanently, terminates an account, ends a meeting, or concludes a case. Context must distinguish temporary from permanent closure.
Пекара се суботом затвара у два, а недељом не ради.
The bakery closes at two on Saturdays and is closed on Sundays.
После тридесет година власници су затворили фабрику и продали опрему.
After thirty years the owners closed the factory and sold the equipment.
Ако више не користите услугу, можете затворити налог преко апликације.
If you no longer use the service, you can close the account through the app.
In official and business language, затворити седницу, расправу, предмет means formally bring it to an end. This is neutral (formal) administrative usage, not a special tense.
Be careful with people. Затворити некога commonly means “lock someone up / imprison someone,” not merely close a door for them.
Полиција га је затворила преко ноћи, а ујутру је пуштен.
The police detained him overnight, and he was released in the morning.
That meaning is strong and context-dependent. To say “close the door behind him,” name the door: затворити врата за њим.
Close, lock, and switch off are different actions
Затворити removes an opening or ends access. Закључати means secure with a key or lock. Угасити means switch off a light, device, flame, or running application. One action may follow another, but Serbian does not collapse them into a single general verb.
Затвори прозор, али га немој закључавати — стиже мајстор.
Close the window, but don't lock it—the repairman is coming.
Пре поласка угаси рачунар и затвори канцеларију.
Before leaving, turn off the computer and close up the office.
English shut down the computer is normally угасити рачунар, while затворити програм means close an application.
Затворити се and agentless closing
With се, the entity that closes becomes the grammatical subject. This can describe a spontaneous physical change, an institution undergoing closure, or a person withdrawing.
Клизна врата су се затворила пре него што смо стигли до лифта.
The sliding door closed before we reached the lift.
Погон се постепено затвара, па радници траже нова радна места.
The plant is gradually shutting down, so the workers are looking for new jobs.
После те расправе затворио се у себе и престао да разговара с нама.
After that argument he withdrew into himself and stopped talking to us.
In the first two, се presents the change without profiling an external agent; depending on context, the cause may be spontaneous, understood, or deliberately left implicit. In затворити се у себе, the reflexive construction is lexical and metaphorical. Do not add се to an ordinary transitive clause that already has a direct object.
Event versus resulting state
The l-participle затворио/затворила builds the perfect and agrees with the doer. Passive participle or adjective затворен/затворена/затворено agrees with the entity in the resulting state.
Домар је затворио главни улаз, па је зграда сада затворена за посетиоце.
The caretaker closed the main entrance, so the building is now closed to visitors.
This distinction matters because English closed can name either an event or a state. Serbian makes the syntax visible.
Clitics and imperatives
Direct objects become га, је, их; dative beneficiaries or affected people precede accusative clitics in a cluster.
Прозор је остао отворен, али сам га затворила чим сам приметила кишу.
The window had been left open, but I closed it as soon as I noticed the rain. (female speaker)
Perfective затвори/затворите requests one completed action. Imperfective negative не затварај is natural for a general prohibition; немој да затвориш can warn against one particular closing.
Не затварај капију током дана; курир треба да донесе пакет.
Don't close the gate during the day; the courier is supposed to deliver a parcel.
Micro-dialogue
„Јеси ли затворио прозоре у сали?“ — „Јесам, али се један стално отвара од промаје.“ — „Онда га затвори резом док не стигне мајстор.“
‘Did you close the windows in the hall?’ — ‘Yes, but one keeps opening because of the draft.’ — ‘Then fasten it with the latch until the repairman arrives.’
The masculine затворио addresses one man; object га refers to masculine прозор, not to the person addressed.
Practice Tasks
Task 1: Change the viewpoint
Describe staff closing a restaurant over twenty minutes with затварати, then report the moment they finally closed it with затворити. Use both present and past forms.
Task 2: Transitive or intransitive?
Write one sentence in which wind closes a window and another in which a window closes because of wind. Track accusative прозор versus nominative прозор and decide where се belongs.
Common Mistakes
❌ Тренутно затворим све кутије за селидбу.
Incorrect for an ongoing process — perfective затворим does not present an action unfolding now.
✅ Тренутно затварам све кутије за селидбу.
I'm closing all the moving boxes right now.
❌ Можеш ли да затвориш са прозором?
Incorrect — the thing closed is a direct accusative object without са.
✅ Можеш ли да затвориш прозор?
Can you close the window?
❌ Врата се затворио због промаје.
Incorrect — the perfect requires су се, and plural врата takes the neuter-plural participle затворила.
✅ Врата су се затворила због промаје.
The door closed because of the draft.
❌ Затвори светло кад изађеш.
Incorrect lexical choice — a light is switched off with угасити, not затворити.
✅ Угаси светло кад изађеш.
Turn off the light when you leave.
❌ Јуче се затворила продавницу раније.
Incorrect — a transitive clause with direct object продавницу does not take се.
✅ Јуче је власница затворила продавницу раније.
Yesterday the owner closed the shop early.
Key Takeaways
- Learn затварати — затварам and затворити — затворим — затворе together.
- The thing closed is accusative; врата is grammatically plural.
- Се shifts attention to the entity that closes or belongs to lexical затворити се у себе.
- Distinguish closing from locking (закључати) and switching off (угасити).
- The l-participle reports an event; затворен describes a passive result or state.
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Start learning Serbian →Related Topics
- otvarati / otvoriti (to open)A2 — Opening.
- Forming Aspect Pairs: Suffixation and Secondary ImperfectivesB2 — Building imperfectives from perfectives with -ava-/-iva-/-ja-.
- Accusative: The Direct ObjectA1 — The accusative as the default object of transitive verbs.
- The se-Passive and Impersonal ConstructionsB1 — Expressing 'one does / it is done' with se.
- The Passive Participle (trpni pridjev)B1 — The -n/-t participle for passives and resultant states.