Agreement of the passive participle

Level 4

The passive participle (příčestí trpné) is used with the verb být to form the formal passive voice. It must agree with the subject in gender and number using specific short adjective endings.

How It Works

The periphrastic passive (opisné pasivum) is highly frequent in formal, academic, and journalistic Czech. It is generally formed from transitive verbs, as the direct object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. It shifts focus from the doer to the receiver of the action. If you want to include the agent (the doer), it is expressed using the instrumental case without a preposition (e.g., napsán studentem - written by a student).

Tense and Formation:
The tense of the passive voice is determined by conjugating the auxiliary verb být (e.g., je zavřen - is closed, byl zavřen - was closed, bude zavřen - will be closed). The participle is formed using the suffixes -n, -en, or -t. As a basic rule of thumb, verbs ending in -at usually take -án/-an, -it verbs take -en, and -nout or single-syllable verbs often take -t. Note that -en often triggers consonant mutations (e.g., platit → placen - to pay → paid, pustit → puštěn - to let go → let go) and some verbs undergo vowel shortening (e.g., pít → pit - to drink → drunk, přinést → přinesen - to bring → brought).

Agreement Rules:
The passive participle must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence (the receiver of the action).

  • Masculine: zavřen (sg.), zavřeni (pl. animate), zavřeny (pl. inanimate)
  • Feminine: zavřena (sg.), zavřeny (pl.)
  • Neuter: zavřeno (sg.), zavřena (pl.)

Aspect and Important Distinctions:
Verbal aspect plays a crucial role in the passive voice. Short forms of imperfective verbs describe an ongoing process (e.g., dům je stavěn - the house is being built), while short forms of perfective verbs describe a completed action or resulting state (e.g., dům je postaven - the house is built). In informal spoken Czech, using the short forms (zavřen, postaven) in casual, everyday conversation sounds very stiff and unnatural to native speakers. Therefore, they often use the long-form adjective (stative passive) for resulting states (e.g., dům je postavený - the house is built), and prefer the reflexive passive for ongoing processes (e.g., dům se staví - the house is being built). Note that the reflexive passive is almost exclusively restricted to the 3rd person (singular and plural) and cannot be used for the 1st or 2nd person. Furthermore, while the periphrastic passive allows the agent to be expressed in the instrumental case, the reflexive passive generally does not allow the agent to be included. Finally, do not confuse singular passive endings (-∅, -a, -o) with past tense endings (-l, -la, -lo), and do not confuse passive plural endings (-i, -y, -a) with past tense plural endings (-li, -ly, -la).

Examples (5)

  1. Pachatelé byli včera dopadeni policií.

    The perpetrators were caught by the police yesterday.

    Word by Word: Perpetrators were yesterday caught by-police.

    Masculine animate plural agreement (-i). Notice the mutation from 'dopadnout' (stem dopadn-) to 'dopadeni'.

  2. Tato kniha byla přeložena do mnoha jazyků.

    This book was translated into many languages.

    Word by Word: This book was translated into many languages.

    Feminine singular agreement (-a) matching 'kniha'.

  3. Města byla po válce rychle obnovena.

    The towns were quickly restored after the war.

    Word by Word: Towns were after war quickly restored.

    Neuter plural agreement (-a) matching 'města'.

  4. Účet byl zaplacen včas.

    The bill was paid on time.

    Word by Word: Bill was paid on-time.

    Masculine inanimate singular agreement (-∅). The suffix -en triggers the mutation of 't' to 'c' (zaplatit → zaplacen).

  5. Tento nápoj byl rychle vypit.

    This beverage was quickly drunk.

    Word by Word: This beverage was quickly drunk.

    Masculine inanimate singular agreement (-∅). Notice the vowel shortening in the root (vypít → vypit).

Common Mistakes

  • Using the long adjective form in formal writing.

    Different MeaningDům byl postavený firmou Novák.
    Dům byl postaven firmou Novák.

    'Dům byl postavený firmou Novák' is correct and common in speech. In formal writing, the short form (postaven) is the usual passive. Short forms of perfective verbs (like 'postaven') show a completed action or result. Long forms (like 'postavený') are adjectives and are common in informal spoken Czech.

  • Using the wrong plural ending for neuter subjects.

    Města byla obnoveny.
    Města byla obnovena.

    Learners often default to '-y' for plural subjects, but neuter plural subjects require the '-a' ending in both the past tense auxiliary and the passive participle.

  • Forgetting consonant mutations when adding the '-en' suffix.

    Účet byl zaplatěn.
    Účet byl zaplacen.

    The suffix '-en' triggers palatalization of the stem-final consonant, such as changing 't' to 'c' (platit → placen) or 'd' to 'z' (probudit → probuzen).

How It Connects

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Agreement of the passive participleLevel 4

Learn This First

To learn the agreement of the passive participle, a learner needs to be able to form the participle itself and understand the general rules of gender and number agreement in Czech predicates, which are most commonly introduced through the past tense (l-participle). Finally, they need to understand the passive construction where this agreement occurs.

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