Past Verbal Adverb (glagolski prilog prošli)

The past verbal adverb (глаголски прилог прошли) compresses an action completed before the event in the finite clause: Потписавши уговор, вратила је оловку адвокату “Having signed the contract, she returned the pen to the lawyer.” It is most often built from a perfective verb and is especially at home in (formal), (academic), journalistic, and (literary) prose.

Like the present verbal adverb, it is invariable and normally has the same understood subject as the main predicate. Unlike the present form, it supplies anteriority: first the contract was signed, then the pen was returned.

Formation: -вши and -авши

For regular verbs whose relevant stem ends in a vowel, add -вши: завршити → завршивши, прочитати → прочитавши, проверити → проверивши. Many consonant-final and irregular stems use -авши or another inherited stem that must be learned with the verb.

The irregular forms are genuinely lexical; there is no safe spelling shortcut from доћи to дошавши. Learn them with the common verb’s other stems. The ending contains Serbian ш: Latin -vši, never ASCII -vsi in correct Latin spelling.

Perfective aspect and anteriority

The past verbal adverb normally uses a perfective verb because it presents its event as a completed boundary before the finite event. That combination creates the natural “having done X, the subject did Y” interpretation.

The productive contemporary rule uses perfective verbs. Apparent imperfective exceptions belong chiefly to older, literary, or lexically fixed formations (literary/archaic) and are not a model for freely creating new forms. For active production, use a perfective verb for a completed prior event. If you need a simultaneous unfolding activity, use the present verbal adverb: читајући примедбе... “while reading the comments...”

Compare the viewpoint directly:

English can use reading loosely for either relation. Serbian makes the aspectual and temporal contrast overt.

The same-subject rule still applies

The omitted subject of the past verbal adverb must also control the finite verb. In Завршивши састанак, директорка је позвала такси, the director both finishes the meeting and calls the taxi.

If the subjects differ, replace the compressed form with a finite subordinate clause:

The tempting form Преставши, екипа је... would make екипа the understood subject of “stopping.” English headlines and formal prose sometimes tolerate an implicit switch more readily; standard Serbian verbal-adverb clauses do not.

This rule also excludes a possessor as hidden controller:

Here Марији is dative and руке is the finite subject. A verbal-adverb opening with understood Marija would dangle because the grammar assigns the main subject role to “hands.”

Cause, condition, and discourse sequence

Anteriority is central, but context can add a causal, conditional, or argumentative relation.

Cause or evidence

Condition in formal reasoning

Ordered narrative step

The conditional reading in the second example comes from the conditional main clause морали бисмо, not from a special conditional ending on прихвативши. The verbal adverb itself does not mark person, tense, or mood.

Negation, reflexives, and government

Negation is separate: не прочитавши, не проверивши. The negative form usually means “without having done,” often highlighting a missing prerequisite.

Reflexive се remains with the verb, and the verb keeps its normal complement structure.

Послужити се governs the instrumental, hence речником. Non-finite morphology does not change that government. The reflexive clitic follows the clause-initial verbal adverb naturally: послуживши се.

Time is relative to the finite clause

“Past” in the name means prior to the main event, not necessarily prior to speech. The main predicate can itself be future or conditional.

The training’s completion precedes the future project; receiving more time precedes the hypothetical preparation. English having done captures the relation better than an English past-tense label.

Affirmative, negative, and question contexts

The finite predicate carries polarity and interrogation unless не specifically negates the verbal-adverb event.

The second row says she checked but did not send; the third says she sent without checking. Placement of не changes which event is denied.

Register and natural alternatives

Past verbal adverbs are grammatical and productive, but repeated use sounds dense and written. In conversation, speakers more often choose пошто, кад, or након што plus a finite verb. Compare formal Проверивши податке, одобрио је захтев with conversational Пошто је проверио податке, одобрио је захтев. Neither is more precise by itself; register and information density differ.

Fixed expressions such as узевши у обзир “taking into account” and почевши од “starting from” occur frequently in formal prose. Their familiarity does not remove the same-subject requirement when they function as true verbal-adverb clauses.

Practice Tasks

Task 1: Choose present or past

Show that Jelena first reads the entire contract and then notes two errors.

Task 2: Keep the subject constant

Compress “After we returned to the hotel, we called the organizer.”

Common Mistakes

Using a present form for completed anterior action

Giving the invariable form agreement

Switching subjects silently

Guessing an irregular stem

Key Takeaways

• The past verbal adverb presents an event as prior to the finite event, not necessarily prior to speech.
• It is normally perfective and is formed with -вши, -авши, or a learned irregular stem.
• It is invariable, while the finite predicate carries person, tense, mood, and agreement.
• Its understood subject must also be the subject of the main clause.
• Use finite clauses with пошто, кад, након што, or another conjunction when subjects differ or conversational clarity matters more than compression.