Active Present Participles
In English, we can use words ending in "-ing" to describe nouns performing an action right now: a sleeping cat, a crying baby, people walking in the park. In Russian, we use active present participles for this.
These participles are formed from imperfective verbs. They act exactly like adjectives, matching the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. In many contexts, they offer a slightly more formal, concise alternative to using a который (who/which) relative clause.
Formation: -ущ-/-ющ- and -ащ-/-ящ-
To create an active present participle, take the "they" form (3rd person plural) of a present tense verb, drop the final -т, and add the standard adjective endings -щий (masculine), -щая (feminine), -щее (neuter), or -щие (plural).
Because verbs have two main conjugation patterns, there are two sets of vowels you will see before the -щий ending:
- First conjugation verbs (where the "they" form ends in -ут or -ют) use the suffix -ущ- or -ющ- (e.g., гуляют → гуляющий, идут → идущий).
- Second conjugation verbs (where the "they" form ends in -ат or -ят) use the suffix -ащ- or -ящ- (e.g., говорят → говорящий, курят → курящий).
| The lecturer speaking into the microphone is our new professor. | Лектор, говорящий в микрофон, — наш новый профессор. |
| The people walking along the embankment are feeding the ducks. | Люди, гуляющие по набережной, кормят уток. |
| The passers-by walking along the sidewalk are asking him to throw away the cigarette. | Прохожие, идущие по тротуару, просят его выбросить сигарету. |
| The man smoking a cigarette is standing on the sidewalk. | Мужчина, курящий сигарету, стоит на тротуаре. |
Punctuation
Notice how Russian uses commas in the sentences above. When a participle and its accompanying words (the "participle clause") come after the noun they describe, the entire phrase must be set off by commas.
| The listeners sitting in the small park do not hear anything. | Слушатели, сидящие в сквере, ничего не слышат. |
Declension: Changing by Case
Since they act like adjectives, active present participles must decline to match the case of the noun they modify. They follow standard adjective declension rules for stems ending in -щ (a "soft" stem).
| No one sees the ducks swimming near the embankment. | Никто не видит уток, плавающих около набережной. |
In this example, уток (ducks) is in the accusative animate plural case, which mirrors the genitive plural. The participle плавающих declines to match it exactly!