Serbian uses се to background an agent in two important constructions. In the se-passive, an affected noun becomes the nominative subject and the verb agrees with it: Овде се продају половне књиге “Used books are sold here.” In the impersonal construction, there is no nominative subject and the verb stays third-person singular: Овде се ради суботом “People work here on Saturdays.”
English often translates both with one/people, a passive, or an impersonal you. The decisive Serbian test is agreement: if a nominative patient controls singular or plural verb agreement, you have a se-passive; if no nominative subject exists, you have an impersonal clause.
The se-passive: the patient becomes subject
A transitive verb normally relates an agent to an object. The se-passive suppresses that agent and presents the object as a nominative subject.
| Active | Se-passive |
|---|---|
| Књижара продаје речник. | Речник се продаје. |
| Књижара продаје речнике. | Речници се продају. |
| Комисија разматра пријаву. | Пријава се разматра. |
| Комисија разматра пријаве. | Пријаве се разматрају. |
Улазнице се продају на благајни до осам увече.
Tickets are sold at the box office until eight in the evening.
Сваки захтев се проверава пре одобрења.
Every request is checked before approval.
Нови станови се граде поред реке.
New apartments are being built by the river.
Улазнице, захтев, станови are nominative subjects. Their number determines продају, проверава, граде. Serbian has no separate “passive verb ending” here: ordinary finite agreement combines with clitic се and an agent-backgrounding interpretation.
What the se-passive is good for
The construction is natural for procedures, instructions, recurring practices, product descriptions, and processes where the doer is generic, obvious, or irrelevant.
Образац се попуњава великим словима.
The form is filled out in capital letters.
Резултати се објављују сваког петка у подне.
The results are published every Friday at noon.
Овај сир се прави од овчијег млека.
This cheese is made from sheep’s milk.
The se-passive usually does not name the agent. If the agent is important, an active sentence is often more natural: Комисија објављује резултате. Formal од стране + genitive agent phrases occur (formal), especially in administrative prose, but heavy use is bureaucratic; the periphrastic passive or active voice may be clearer.
Tense, aspect, and agreement
The construction can occur outside the present. Tense remains on the finite verb, and past l-participles agree with the nominative patient.
Понуде су се разматрале два дана.
The bids were considered for two days.
Пријаве ће се прегледати по редоследу пријема.
The applications will be reviewed in the order received.
О таквим одлукама би се водиле дуге расправе.
Such decisions would prompt long debates.
In the past, feminine plural понуде requires разматрале and plural auxiliary су. In the conditional, feminine plural расправе requires водиле. Se-passive formation does not suspend ordinary agreement.
Aspect adds its usual viewpoint. Imperfective разматрати presents process or repetition; perfective размотрити presents a bounded review. Future Пријаве ће се размотрити сутра frames the review as a completed whole, while разматраће се током недеље presents a process.
The impersonal se-construction: no nominative subject
An impersonal se-clause describes what people generally do, what happens in a place, or what an unspecified group did. The verb is third-person singular in the present; the past uses neuter singular; the conditional likewise uses neuter singular.
| Time / mood | Impersonal form |
|---|---|
| present | овде се ради |
| perfect | овде се радило |
| Future I | овде ће се радити |
| conditional | овде би се радило |
У овој канцеларији се ради од осам до четири.
People work in this office from eight to four.
На састанку се дуго разговарало о новом буџету.
The new budget was discussed at length at the meeting.
На семинару ће се говорити о заштити података.
Data protection will be discussed at the seminar.
There is no hidden plural subject demanding радили or говорили. Past разговарало is neuter singular because the construction is impersonal. The prepositional topic о новом буџету cannot control nominative agreement.
Se-passive or impersonal? Use the agreement test
Compare two sentences in the same setting:
У овој радњи се продају старе разгледнице.
Old postcards are sold in this shop. (se-passive; plural subject)
У овој радњи се ради и недељом.
People work in this shop on Sundays too. (impersonal; no subject)
The plural nominative старе разгледнице forces продају. The locative phrase у овој радњи is only a setting; it does not make the impersonal verb plural.
Singular sentences can make the agreement test less visible because both constructions use a third-person singular verb. Inspect the noun’s case and role: in Овде се чита поезија, nominative поезија is the patient subject, so the clause is structurally a se-passive even if English translates it as “People read poetry here.” The plural test reveals the contrast most clearly.
Negation and questions
The negative particle precedes the finite verb, while се remains in its early clitic position.
У музеју се не фотографишу изложени рукописи.
The manuscripts on display are not photographed in the museum. (se-passive)
У читаоници се не разговара гласно.
People do not talk loudly in the reading room. (impersonal)
Да ли се овде плаћа картицом?
Can one pay by card here? / Is payment by card accepted here?
Зашто се ти подаци не објављују редовно?
Why aren’t those data published regularly?
The last verb is plural because demonstrative ти подаци is nominative plural. In the impersonal question, no nominative subject controls плаћа.
Not every се is passive or impersonal
Lexical се may belong to the verb: Ана се смеје “Ana is laughing.” True reflexive се can mark self-directed action: Ана се чешља “Ana is combing her hair.” Anticausative се can present a spontaneous event: Прозор се отворио “The window opened.”
Публика се смејала током целе представе.
The audience laughed throughout the performance. (lexical se, not passive)
Прозори су се отворили од промаје.
The windows opened because of the draft. (anticausative, not an agentive passive)
Do not identify the construction from се alone. Ask whether the verb is lexical-reflexive, whether a patient subject agrees, and whether an unspecified human activity is being presented without a subject.
Practice Tasks
Task 1: Make passive agreement visible
Change singular Рачун се шаље мејлом to plural.
Рачуни се шаљу мејлом одмах после уплате.
Invoices are sent by email immediately after payment.
Task 2: Build an impersonal past
Say that people danced until midnight at the celebration. Use neuter singular past agreement.
На прослави се играло до поноћи.
People danced until midnight at the celebration.
Common Mistakes
Leaving the verb singular with a plural passive subject
❌ У овом кафићу се служи домаћи колачи.
Incorrect—домаћи колачи is nominative plural and requires служе.
✅ У овом кафићу се служе домаћи колачи.
Homemade cakes are served in this café.
Giving an impersonal past plural agreement
❌ После вечере су се дуго разговарали.
Incorrect—the impersonal construction has no plural subject and requires neuter singular разговарало се.
✅ После вечере се дуго разговарало.
People talked for a long time after dinner.
Treating a locative phrase as the subject
❌ У фабрикама се раде до касно.
Incorrect—у фабрикама is locative plural, not a nominative subject; the impersonal verb stays singular.
✅ У фабрикама се ради до касно.
People work late in the factories.
Adding a source preposition to a lexical se-verb
❌ Марко се боји од висине.
Incorrect—lexical бојати се takes a bare genitive complement, not од + genitive.
✅ Марко се боји висине.
Marko is afraid of heights.
Key Takeaways
- A se-passive has a nominative patient subject and full agreement: књига се продаје, књиге се продају.
- An impersonal se-clause has no nominative subject and uses third-person singular, with neuter singular in the past.
- Both constructions background an agent, but they organize argument structure differently.
- Tense, aspect, negation, and clitic placement remain active in both.
- Lexical reflexives and anticausatives also contain се; diagnose the construction rather than translating the clitic mechanically.
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Start learning Serbian →Related Topics
- Reflexive Verbs (se-verbs)A2 — The many functions of the clitic se on verbs.
- The Periphrastic Passive (biti + participle)B1 — The 'be + done' passive and when Serbian actually uses it.
- Impersonal and Subjectless SentencesB1 — Weather, states, necessity, and the experiencer dative.
- Predicate Agreement SubtletiesC1 — Agreement with collective, quantified, plural-only, and semantically mismatched subjects.
- The Many Faces of seC1 — Disambiguating reflexive, reciprocal, passive, and impersonal se.