What are passive participles in Russian?

Participles are forms of a that are used and treated like . A passive participle, in Russian, is a type of participle that describes something that undergoes an action.

• молотый кофе

  moLOMnyi kofe

  ground coffee

  → someone ground the coffee (it underwent grinding)

• писанный слова

  PEEsanye SLOva

  written words

  → someone wrote the words (they underwent writing)

In Russian, passive participles come in two main tenses: past or present. However, because they are adjectives, they follow all the same grammar rules that regular adjectives do. They can be long or short, they have comparative and superlative forms, and agree with nouns in , , and .

In this post we will look at how to form and use passive participles in Russian, both the past and the present versions. Let’s have a look!

In Russian, there are two types of passive participles: present and past. Though both are used to describe a noun that undergoes an action, they are used in slightly different contexts:

• Present passive participles give a characteristic that is either permanent or exists at a given moment.

  present passive participle

  Все продаваемые в магазине товары сертифицированы.

  fsye pradaVAimyie v magaZEEnye taVAry sirtsifiTSEEravany.

  All products (being) sold in the store are certified.

  → The products are currently and/or permanently being sold.

• Past passive participles describe something as completed in the past.

  past passive participle

  К июню количество проданных в мире экземпляров перевалило за миллион.

  k iYUnyu kaLEEchistva PROdanykh v MEErya egzympLYAraf pirivaLEEla za miliON.

  By June, the number of copies (already) sold worldwide exceeded one million.

  → The copies were sold already, in the past.

Notice that different kinds of participles may be translated into English in the same way!

Present passive participles in Russian describe a noun that generally or repeatedly undergoes an action or a noun that is undergoing the action at the same time as the main event.

There is no direct equivalent to this type of participle in English, therefore, it might be hard to know when you need one. For example, all the bolded words in the phrases below could be translated into Russian with present passive participles:

• a favorite book

• an unforgettable experience

• the most frequently visited museum

In the sections below, we’ll go over how to form present passive participles and talk more about when you’ll want to use one in Russian. Let’s take a closer look.

Russian past passive participles are very similar to the English past participles (e.g. “done,” “eaten,” “visited”) in both meaning and use. Past passive participles, especially their short forms, are also commonly used in everyday speech in Russian, which is not the case with other kinds of participles. However, out of all Russian participles, past passive participles are the hardest to form. Let’s break it down!

In this post, we have looked at how to form and use passive participles in Russian.

Present passive participles are:

• formed with suffixes -ем / -ом / -им

• used to characterize a noun through an action repeatedly or currently done to it

Some present passive participles are frequently used and close in use to adjectives.

Past passive participles are:

• formed with suffixes -нн- / -енн- (-ённ-) / -т-

• used to characterize a noun through an action previously done to it

Their short forms are commonly used in colloquial speech.

Try out forming and using Russian passive participles on your own by downloading the exercises below. Happy learning!