Past-Tense Gender and Number

Level 2

Compare radio, radila, radilo in the singular and radili, radile, radila in the plural. The auxiliary supplies person; the participle supplies gender and number.

How It Works

For raditi, use masculine singular radio, feminine singular radila and neuter singular radilo. The plural forms are radili, radile, radila for masculine, feminine and neuter respectively.

These patterns also appear in other compound constructions, including the conditional. They are not separate first-, second- and third-person endings. Radio sam. and Radio si. keep the same masculine singular participle.

Learn irregular stems separately: išao/išla and bio/bila. Some Ijekavian verbs also change internally: htio/htjela. Do not derive every masculine form by mechanically replacing a final letter.

Examples (4)

  1. Marko je radio.

    Marko worked.

    Radio agrees with masculine Marko.

  2. Ana je radila.

    Ana worked.

    Radila agrees with feminine Ana.

  3. Sela su se promijenila.

    The villages have changed.

    Promijenila agrees with neuter plural sela.

  4. Djevojke su pjevale.

    The girls sang.

    Pjevale is feminine plural.

How It Connects

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

Past-Tense Gender and NumberLevel 2

Learn This First

Past active participles reuse gender and number agreement across singular and plural.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.