A Property or a Passive Event
A passive participle agrees with the noun it describes. With biti, context determines whether the sentence emphasizes an event affecting that noun or its resulting condition.
How It Works
Participles such as zatvoren, napisan and popravljen change for gender, number and case like adjectives. In prozor je otvoren, the form otvoren matches masculine singular prozor.
A time expression can locate a completed event: Most je izgrađen prošle godine. A descriptive context instead emphasizes the condition: Trgovina je još zatvorena. The form alone does not always settle which interpretation is intended.
To express an event in progress, compare Vrata se zatvaraju. To describe a lasting property, an adjective or participle may be enough. Read aspect, the auxiliary and the surrounding sentence together rather than translating every biti + participle identically.
Examples (3)
- Knjižnica je danas zatvorena.
The library is closed today.
- Krov je popravljen prošlog tjedna.
The roof was repaired last week.
- Nova se škola upravo gradi.
A new school is being built right now.
How It Connects
Learn This First
A passive-looking predicate must be interpreted as a property, result or event from its construction.
Related Patterns
Words in This Pattern
Practice A Property or a Passive Event in Bubblegum
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