Aspect: pisati / napisati

One Action Two Viewpoints

Level 3

Learn aspect partners together, including their changed stems.

How It Works

Pisati focuses on writing as an activity or process. Napisati commonly presents the writing as a bounded accomplishment. Compare pisao sam and napisao sam.

A prefix is not a universal completion switch. Prepisati means copy or transcribe, for example; it is not merely another interchangeable perfective of pisati.

Learn both infinitives and useful finite forms: pišem and napišem. Some partners are formed through suffix changes or have less obvious stems, so a dictionary pair is safer than a guessed formation.

Examples (3)

  1. Pišem poruku.

    I am writing a message.

    The focus is the ongoing activity.

  2. Napisao sam poruku.

    I wrote a message.

    The male speaker presents the message as a completed result.

  3. Svaki dan pišem, a danas sam napisala dvije stranice.

    I write every day, and today I wrote two pages.

    The female speaker contrasts a habit with a bounded result.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Aspect: pisati / napisatiLevel 3One Action Two Viewpoints

Learn This First

Aspect pairs instantiate the distinction between whole bounded events and ongoing or repeated activity.

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Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

pisatinapisati