Learn Hardcore Russian: Новая грамматическая тема: краткие страдательные причастия, например «дверь закрыта», «письмо написано». - New grammar topic: short passive participles, for example “the door is closed,” “the letter is written.”

Краткие страдательные причастия are special forms made from verbs that describe the state of something as the result of an action, from the point of view of the object (so, passive).

страдательные = passive (the subject undergoes the action)
краткие = short forms

Examples:

дверь закрыта = the door is (in a state of being) closed
письмо написано = the letter is (in a state of being) written

They are:

Formed from verbs (usually perfective)
Used mainly as a predicate (after the subject, like an adjective after “to be”)
Very similar in meaning to English “is/was + past participle” when it describes a state, not an ongoing action.

What is the difference between дверь закрыта and дверь закрытая?

Very important contrast:

дверь закрыта
- Short passive participle
- Functions as the main part of the predicate
- Focus: the state/result: the door is closed (now)
- Comparable to: The door is closed.
дверь закрытая
- Full (long) passive participle, used like an adjective
- Usually functions as an attribute (describes the noun)
- Focus: a property/quality of the noun
- Comparable to: the closed door

Examples:

Дверь закрыта. – The door is closed.
Я подошёл к закрытой двери. – I went up to the closed door.

So:

Short form = predicate: what state the door is in.
Full form = attribute: what kind of door it is.

When should I use the short passive participle instead of the full one?

Use the short form when you are saying that something is/was/will be in a certain resulting state:

Дверь закрыта. – The door is closed.
Окна были открыты. – The windows were open.
Письмо будет отправлено завтра. – The letter will be sent tomorrow.

Use the full form when the participle behaves more like an adjective (a property, a description of a noun, often before the noun or in relative clauses):

закрытая дверь – a closed door
письмо, написанное студентом – the letter written by the student
отправленное письмо – the sent letter

Very rough rule:

Talking about a state: short form in the predicate.
Describing what kind of thing it is: full form as an adjective/attribute.

How are these short passive participles formed? What are the endings?

They agree in gender and number with the noun and have their own short endings.

Typical patterns (using your examples):

From закрыть (to close – perfective):

закрыт – masculine singular: дом закрыт
закрыта – feminine singular: дверь закрыта
закрыто – neuter singular: окно закрыто
закрыты – plural: окна закрыты

From написать (to write – perfective):

написан – masculine: текст написан
написана – feminine: письмо написано (note: письмо is neuter; its common short form is actually написано, see below)
написано – neuter: письмо написано
написаны – plural: письма написаны

General idea:

Masculine: often ends in -т or -н (закрыт, сделан, построен)
Feminine: -та / -на (закрыта, сделана, построена)
Neuter: -то / -но (закрыто, сделано, построено)
Plural: -ты / -ны (закрыты, сделаны, построены)

There are many irregularities and stem changes, so in practice you usually learn the short form together with the verb or full participle.

Do short passive participles agree with the noun in case, like adjectives do?

They do not decline by case the way full adjectives/participles do. They agree only in:

Gender (masc / fem / neuter)
Number (singular / plural)

Because they are used in the predicate, they are effectively in a fixed “short” form, not a full case paradigm.

Examples:

Дверь была закрыта. – feminine singular
Окно было закрыто. – neuter singular
Двери были закрыты. – plural

If you change the case of the noun, the short participle stays the same:

Я доволен тем, что дверь была закрыта.
- дверь is accusative (что дверь), but закрыта stays feminine singular short form, unchanged.

How do I use short passive participles with быть in different tenses?

In the present tense, Russian usually drops быть, so you just have:

Дверь закрыта. – literally “door closed”, = The door is closed.
Письмо написано. – The letter is written.

In the past and future, you normally use быть:

Past:
- Дверь была закрыта. – The door was closed.
- Окна были закрыты. – The windows were closed.
Future:
- Дверь будет закрыта. – The door will be closed.
- Письмо будет написано к вечеру. – The letter will be written by evening.

Pattern:

[noun in nominative] + быть (in needed tense) + short passive participle

What is the difference between дверь закрыта and дверь закрывается?

дверь закрыта
- Short passive participle
- Describes a resulting state: the door is (already) closed.
- Focus on the result, not the process.
дверь закрывается
- Verb in the imperfective passive / reflexive form
- Describes an ongoing process: the door is being closed / is closing.
- Focus on the action in progress.

Comparable in English:

Дверь закрыта. – The door is closed. (state)
Дверь закрывается. – The door is being closed / is closing. (process)

Can I put a short passive participle directly before the noun, like закрыта дверь meaning “the closed door”?

No, not in that sense. Short passive participles are not used as normal attributes before a noun to mean “the closed door”.

закрытая дверь = the closed door (full participle, attributive)
закрыта дверь is possible in Russian, but it is inverted word order of the predicate:
Дверь закрыта. → Закрыта дверь.
This still means The door is closed, often with some emphasis on дверь.

So:

To say “the closed door” → use закрытая дверь (full form).
закрыта дверь is a stylistic/political inversion of the door is closed, not a normal attribute.

Do short passive participles usually come from perfective verbs? Can they come from imperfective verbs?

In modern Russian, most productive short passive participles come from perfective verbs, because they naturally express a completed result:

написать → написан / написано
закрыть → закрыт / закрыта
отправить → отправлен / отправлено

Imperfective verbs can have short passive participles, but:

often they are rare, archaic or lexicalized, and many are now felt as adjectives rather than true participles.
in many cases, speakers simply don’t use the imperfective short form in everyday language.

For learning purposes, you can mostly remember:

Short passive participle = usually from the perfective verb = result of a completed action.

How do I express the agent with a short passive participle, like “The letter is written by me”?

You can add the agent in the instrumental case, similar to English “by X”:

Письмо написано мной. – The letter is written by me.
Доклад был подготовлен студентами. – The report was prepared by the students.
Дом был построен архитектором. – The house was built by an architect.

This construction is grammatically correct and common, especially in more formal or written styles.

However, in many everyday situations, Russians often:

omit the agent: Письмо написано. – The letter is written.
or use an active sentence instead: Я написал письмо. – I wrote the letter.

What is the difference between short passive participles and short adjectives (краткие прилагательные) like рад, готов, должен?

Formally, they are different categories, but in use they behave very similarly:

Short passive participles:

Clearly connected to a verb and an action:
- написан ← написать (to write)
- закрыта ← закрыть (to close)
Passive meaning: something has been done to the subject.
Describe a resulting state after an action.

Short adjectives:

Do not directly derive from a verb in modern language:
- рад (glad), готов (ready), должен (must, obliged), прав (right)
They describe a quality/state, not a completed action.
There is no natural full participle counterpart like “радий”, “готовый” in the same sense.

For you as a learner:

Both appear in the predicate and agree in gender/number:
- Я рад. Она рада. Они рады.
- Дом построен. Дорога построена. Дороги построены.
Short participle: think “has been done” to something.
Short adjective: think “is (adjective)”, with no action implied.

How do I negate short passive participles?

You usually put не directly before the short form:

Дверь не закрыта. – The door is not closed.
Письмо ещё не написано. – The letter is not written yet.
Окна не были открыты. – The windows were not opened.

Notes:

не is written separately here.
Word order is usually:
- [subject] + (быть) + не + short participle
You can insert adverbs between не and the participle if needed:
- Дверь ещё не полностью закрыта. – The door is not completely closed yet.

Can I always translate дверь закрыта, письмо написано as “The door is closed”, “The letter is written” in English?

Almost always, yes: the basic meaning matches “is + past participle (state/result)”.

Дверь закрыта. → The door is closed.
Письмо написано. → The letter is written.
Доклад подготовлен. → The report is prepared / has been prepared.

Be careful only with context:

Russian дверь закрыта can sometimes correspond to English “has been closed” (present perfect, result):
Дверь уже закрыта. – The door is already closed / has already been closed.

But as a rule for these short passive participles used for states, “is/was/will be + past participle” is a very good default translation.