-имый

The -имый participle is a bookish, formal form. While rare in casual speech, many of these forms have become standard adjectives in everyday Russian.

1. Formation:
To form this participle, take the 1st person plural (мы-form) of a 2nd conjugation imperfective transitive verb and add adjectival endings. We use the мы-form rather than the 1st person singular to avoid consonant mutations (e.g., вижу → видим → видимый, not вижимый). Crucial rule: Present passive participles can never be formed from perfective verbs. Note on stress: While the spelling derives from the мы-form, the stress depends on the 1st person singular (я-form). If the я-form has stress on the ending (люблю), the participle has stress on the suffix (любимый). If the я-form has stress on the stem (вижу), the participle has stress on the stem (видимый):

• видеть (to see) → мы видим / я вижу → видимый (visible/seen)
• любить (to love) → мы любим / я люблю → любимый (favorite/beloved)
• хранить (to store) → мы храним / я храню → хранимый (stored)

Note: Regular 1st conjugation verbs form this participle using the suffix -емый (e.g., читаемый). However, a highly common exception is движимый (moved/driven), which takes the 2nd conjugation -им- suffix because it historically derives from the obsolete 2nd conjugation verb движити, rather than the modern 1st conjugation verb двигать. Additionally, a small handful of irregular or archaic 1st conjugation verbs use the rare suffix -омый (e.g., ведомый from вести, несомый from нести, искомый from искать). Also, many common transitive verbs across both conjugations (e.g., ждать, брать, пить, петь) do not form present passive participles at all.

2. Usage and Meaning:

• Ongoing Action (True Participles): When expressing an ongoing passive action and accompanied by an instrumental agent, these forms act as true participles. Хранимые нами данные (Data being stored by us).
• Potentiality (Verbal Adjectives): Forms expressing potentiality (the ability to be acted upon) without an instrumental agent are grammatically adjectives. These often require the prefix не- to be natural. For example, невидимый (invisible) comes from the imperfective видеть. (Note: Adjectives like непобедимый are lexicalized verbal adjectives derived from perfective verbs, not true present passive participles).
• Lexicalized Adjectives: Some forms are treated as standard adjectives, such as необходимый (necessary) or зависимый (dependent). Note that зависимый is a notable exception: passive participles are normally formed exclusively from transitive verbs, but it is formed from the intransitive verb зависеть.

3. Syntax:
Like other participles, it must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case (agreement of participles). The agent is usually in the instrumental case (любимый мною). However, specific adjectives have their own government: необходимый takes the dative case (необходимый мне), while зависимый requires от + Genitive.

4. Spelling with НЕ:
The spelling of не depends on whether the word functions as an adjective or a true participle:

• Written together (слитно): When used as an adjective expressing potentiality (no instrumental agent), it is written as a single word: невидимый мир (an invisible world).
• Written separately (раздельно): When used as a true participle expressing an ongoing action with an instrumental agent, negation with participles requires writing it separately: не видимый мною мир (a world not seen by me).

5. Short Forms:
Like adjectives, present passive participles have short forms (e.g., видим, видима, видимо, видимы) which are frequently used as predicates in formal Russian. When used as a short passive participle, it agrees with the subject in gender and number. Note on stress: Unlike many short adjectives or past participles, the stress in short present passive participles remains on the exact same syllable as in the full form across all genders and numbers (the stress does not shift to the feminine ending). For example: Результат видим всем (The result is visible to everyone).

6. Conversational Alternatives:
Because true present passive participles are rare and sound very bookish, they are almost never used in casual speech. The most natural conversational alternative is to replace the participle entirely with a который clause using a finite verb. You can do this using an active verb (e.g., данные, которые мы храним - the data that we store) or a reflexive passive verb (e.g., дом, который строится - the house that is being built). In formal writing, Russian also frequently uses the reflexive present active participle (ending in -ся) with a passive meaning as a morphological workaround (e.g., строящийся рабочими дом - the house being built by the workers).