Passive Constructions

The participial passive (пасив) in Serbian is an analytical verb construction that demotes or completely omits the agent (вршилац радње) and makes the patient (трпилац) the grammatical subject in the nominative case.

1. Basic Formation & Agreement
The passive is formed with an auxiliary tense form of јесам / бити combined with the past passive participle (трпни глаголски придев):

• Participle Endings: The participle agrees in gender and number with the subject. In contemporary Serbian, -н / -на / -но and -ен / -ена / -ено (frequent with -и- verbs and accompanied by consonant mutation / jotation) are the primary productive suffixes. The suffix -т / -та / -то is characteristic of verbs with the suffix -нути (a productive class forming instantive/semelfactive verbs and neologisms, such as кликнути → кликнут), as well as specific closed verb classes: root verbs ending in vowels and verbs in -ети featuring nasal stems in the present (e.g., узети / узмем → узет, почети / почнем → почет, проклети / прокунем → проклет). A specialized allomorphic variant, -вен / -вена / -вено, occurs with verbs whose stems end in high (close) vowels (-и-, -у-), such as шити (шивен), скрити (скривен), and обути (обувен), but it also extends to select stems ending in -е- (e.g., млети → млевен, пожњети → пожњевен, снабдети → снабдевен). In the plural, these become -ни / -не / -на, -ени / -ене / -ена, -ти / -те / -та (and -вени / -вене / -вена).
• Person and Tense Auxiliaries: The construction conjugates across tenses and moods using forms of јесам / бити:
  • Forms with Present Auxiliaries (сам, си, је... + participle): Formed with present auxiliary forms of јесам (бити: сам, си, је, смо, сте, су) + passive participle. Note on terminology: while modern descriptive grammars (e.g., Piper & Klajn) categorize this morphologically as the present passive (презент пасива), standard Serbian reference grammars (such as Stanojčić & Popović) classify it as the passive perfect (перфекат пасива), because in practice it denotes a completed action or its present resultative state (пасив стања / резултативно стање). Examples: Ја сам позван на разговор – 'I have been / was invited to an interview'; Ми смо обавештени на време – 'We have been notified on time'; Врата су затворена – 'The door is closed'; Батерија је напуњена – 'The battery is charged'.
  • Forms with Perfect Auxiliaries (био сам... + participle): Formed with the perfect tense (перфекат) of бити (био сам / била сам, био си...) + passive participle. Standard school grammar classifies this composite construction as the passive pluperfect (плусквамперфекат пасива), while some descriptive works label it morphologically as the passive perfect (e.g., Био сам позван – 'I had been / was invited').
  • Conditional Passive (потенцијал пасива): Formed by combining the full conditional form of бити (active participle био / била / било / били + conditional auxiliary бих, би, бисмо, бисте, би) with the past passive participle (e.g., Био бих позван – 'I would be invited'; Била би изабрана – 'She would be chosen').
  • Future Passive: Formed with the future tense of бити: Future I passive (Закон ће бити усвојен – 'The law will be adopted'; Бићемо награђени – 'We will be rewarded') or Future II passive with будем, будеш... in subordinate clauses (Ако будем изабран, помоћи ћу свима – 'If I am chosen, I will help everyone').
• Iterative Auxiliary (бивати): The iterative auxiliary бивати (e.g., Свако бива награђен према заслугама) is strictly bookish, archaic, or restricted to formal bureaucratic prose. In standard spoken Serbian, iterative or habitual passive situations are expressed using the reflexive passive with се (Свако се награђује према заслугама).

2. Transitivity and Aspect Requirements
Personal participial passives require transitive verbs (verbs taking an accusative direct object), though not all transitive verbs passivize easily (e.g., stative verbs like имати or садржати do not form participial passives). Pure intransitive verbs (such as спавати, трчати, or седети) cannot form personal or impersonal participial passive clauses and require reflexive impersonal constructions with се (e.g., спавало се), although a few lexicalized participles exist adjectivally (e.g., наспаван from наспавати се, дипломирани from дипломирати). Neuter impersonal participial passives are strictly restricted to transitive or ambitransitive verbs taking prepositional complements (e.g. О томе је дуго говорено – 'That was talked about for a long time', from the ambitransitive говорити).

Furthermore, the participial passive is overwhelmingly formed from perfective verbs to indicate completed results or states. For ongoing processes or general actions, Serbian speakers routinely prefer the reflexive passive with се instead (e.g. Кућа се гради rather than Кућа је грађена).

3. Register and Pragmatics: Agents and Inanimate Causes
Unlike English, which regularly includes human agents using 'by...' (The play was written by Shakespeare), natural Serbian strongly avoids naming human or volitional agents in the passive. Calqued phrases translating 'by' as од стране belong almost exclusively to stiff administrative style. If a human agent must be named, authentic Serbian regularly reverts to the active voice: Шекспир је написао драму. In contrast, non-human causes, natural forces, or means are naturally expressed in the passive using the bare instrumental case without a preposition (e.g., Кућа је уништена пожаром – 'The house was destroyed by fire').

4. Participle Distinction
Do not confuse the active past participle (-о, -ла, -ло), which marks who did the action in the перфекат, with the passive participle (-н, -ен, -вен, -т), which marks what was done to the subject.