The Serbian periphrastic passive combines бити “be” with an agreeing passive participle (трпни глаголски придев): Уговор је потписан “The contract is/has been signed.” The affected participant becomes the nominative subject, while the agent is omitted or demoted. This construction is especially useful when a completed result, official action, or affected entity matters more than the doer.
English uses passives freely, sometimes even when the agent is central. Serbian often prefers an active clause or a se-passive. The challenge is therefore not just forming бити + participle, but knowing when that heavier result-focused passive sounds natural.
Passive participle formation and agreement
Passive participles use several endings, principally -н, -ен, -јен, and -т, with stem changes in many verbs. Learn the participle with the verb rather than assuming one universal suffix.
| Infinitive | Masculine participle | Feminine | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| прочитати | прочитан | прочитана | read through |
| отворити | отворен | отворена | opened |
| изградити | изграђен | изграђена | built |
| позвати | позван | позвана | invited |
| покрити | покривен | покривена | covered |
| узети | узет | узета | taken |
The participle declines like an adjective and agrees with the passive subject in gender and number.
| Subject | Passive predicate |
|---|---|
| уговор | је потписан |
| одлука | је потписана |
| писмо | је потписано |
| уговори | су потписани |
| одлуке | су потписане |
| писма | су потписана |
Сва документа су потписана и заведена у писарници.
All the documents have been signed and entered in the registry.
Нова амбуланта је изграђена поред главног пута.
The new clinic was built beside the main road.
Позивнице су послате још прошле недеље.
The invitations were sent last week already.
Tense and mood belong to бити
The finite form of бити locates or modalizes the passive situation. The passive participle continues to agree.
| Form | Example | Typical reading |
|---|---|---|
| present/result | врата су закључана | the door is locked |
| completed passive/result | врата су закључана у десет | the door was locked at ten |
| explicit past frame | врата су била закључана | the door was locked |
| future | врата ће бити закључана | the door will be locked |
| conditional | врата би била закључана | the door would be locked |
Perfective participles such as потписан or закључан readily describe a completed action and its resulting state. A time expression such as јутрос can produce an event reading even with present је/су: Пакет је уручен јутрос “The package was delivered this morning.” Adding био/била/било places the state or passive situation explicitly in a past frame.
Пакет је уручен примаоцу јутрос у девет.
The package was delivered to the recipient at nine this morning.
Када смо стигли, сви прозори су били затворени.
When we arrived, all the windows were closed.
Коначни резултати ће бити објављени после седнице.
The final results will be published after the meeting.
Без додатних средстава, пројекат би био обустављен.
Without additional funding, the project would be suspended.
Process versus completed result
Aspect inside the participle matters. An imperfective participle can foreground duration or repeated process; a perfective participle foregrounds completion and result.
Мост је грађен скоро пет година.
The bridge was under construction for almost five years.
Мост је изграђен пре планираног рока.
The bridge was completed ahead of schedule.
Рукопис је пажљиво прегледан пре објављивања.
The manuscript was carefully reviewed before publication.
Грађен from imperfective градити presents the building process; изграђен from perfective изградити presents the achieved whole. English may use was built for both, so the Serbian aspect choice cannot be read from the English tense alone.
When Serbian actually chooses this passive
The periphrastic passive is natural in administrative, legal, technical, news, and result-focused language (formal). It also appears in ordinary speech for a salient state: Врата су закључана. It is especially useful when:
- the agent is unknown, obvious, or irrelevant;
- the patient is already the discourse topic;
- the completion or resultant state is central;
- institutional wording deliberately backgrounds responsibility.
Захтев је одбијен због непотпуне документације.
The application was rejected because the documentation was incomplete.
Соба је резервисана на ваше име.
The room is reserved in your name.
If the agent is important and concrete, active voice is usually clearer:
Комисија је одбила захтев после другог круга провере.
The committee rejected the application after the second review round.
An од стране + genitive agent phrase is possible (formal)—especially in legal and administrative texts—but often sounds bureaucratic. Prefer the active sentence when the point is who acted.
Periphrastic passive versus se-passive
The se-passive often presents a routine or unfolding process; the periphrastic passive readily presents a state or completed result.
Пријаве се прегледају сваког радног дана.
Applications are reviewed every working day. (routine process)
Све пријаве су прегледане до краја дана.
All applications were reviewed by the end of the day. (completed result)
This is a strong tendency, not an absolute division. Aspect, tense, adverbials, and genre can let either construction describe processes or events. Choose the form that packages the information naturally, not one that mechanically mirrors English be + participle.
Negation, questions, and clitics
Negate the relevant form of бити. Short pronouns join the normal clitic cluster; third-person auxiliary је follows pronoun clitics.
| Function | Example |
|---|---|
| affirmative | Извештај је послат управи. |
| negative | Извештај није послат управи. |
| question | Да ли је извештај послат управи? |
Одлука нам је достављена без образложења.
The decision was delivered to us without an explanation.
Зашто уговор није потписан пре рока?
Why wasn’t the contract signed before the deadline?
In нам је достављена, dative clitic нам precedes auxiliary је, and feminine participle достављена agrees with одлука.
Practice Tasks
Task 1: Make the participle agree
Turn active “The office sent the confirmations” into a patient-focused passive.
Потврде су послате свим учесницима.
The confirmations were sent to all participants.
Task 2: Contrast process and result
Use градити for duration and изградити for completion.
Школа је грађена две године, а изграђена је без прекорачења буџета.
The school was under construction for two years and was completed without going over budget.
Common Mistakes
Leaving the participle in masculine singular
❌ Обавештење је објављена на погрешној страници.
Incorrect—neuter singular обавештење requires објављено, not feminine објављена.
✅ Обавештење је објављено на погрешној страници.
The notice was published on the wrong page.
Using an active l-participle for a passive subject
❌ Извештај је написао јуче.
Incorrect for ‘the report was written’—написао is active and requires an agent subject; use passive написан.
✅ Извештај је написан јуче.
The report was written yesterday.
Combining both passive strategies in one predicate
❌ Пријаве су се прегледане до подне.
Incorrect—do not combine passive participle прегледане with the se-passive marker; choose one passive construction.
✅ Пријаве су прегледане до подне.
The applications were reviewed by noon.
Ignoring aspectual completion
❌ Мост је грађен за шест месеци.
Incorrect for completion within a six-month bound—imperfective грађен presents the process, while the bounded result requires изграђен.
✅ Мост је изграђен за шест месеци.
The bridge was completed in six months.
Key Takeaways
- Form the periphrastic passive with бити + agreeing passive participle.
- The nominative patient controls gender and number agreement.
- Perfective participles readily express completion/result; imperfective participles foreground process or duration.
- Serbian favors this passive when the patient or result is central, especially in formal and institutional genres.
- Prefer active voice when a concrete agent is the point; use the se-passive naturally for many routines and processes.
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Start learning Serbian →Related Topics
- The Passive Participle (trpni pridjev)B1 — The -n/-t participle for passives and resultant states.
- The se-Passive and Impersonal ConstructionsB1 — Expressing 'one does / it is done' with se.
- Predicate Agreement SubtletiesC1 — Agreement with collective, quantified, plural-only, and semantically mismatched subjects.
- Passive Strategies ComparedB2 — se-passive vs biti-passive vs active reordering.
- Advanced Aspectual Viewpoint: A SynthesisC1 — A diagnostic synthesis of viewpoint choices across the advanced aspect system.