Russian Language Grammar
Classification
Russian participles are classified as follows:
|
ACTIVE PARTICIPLES |
Example: |
Meaning: |
|
Present |
читающий |
(one) who is reading |
|
Past: Imperfective |
читавший |
(one) who was reading |
|
Past: Perfective |
прочитавший |
(one) who has read |
|
PASSIVE PARTICIPLES |
Example: |
Meaning: |
|
Present |
читаемый |
(something) which is being read |
|
Past: Imperfective |
читанный |
(something) which was being read |
|
Past: Perfective |
прочитанный |
(something) which has been read |
Note: The meaning, of course, may admit variants as regards translation into English: читающий (one who reads), прочитанный (something which was read), etc.
Characteristics of Participles
Participles are verbal adjectives. They possess characteristics of both of these parts of speech.
1. Adjectival characteristics are the following:
(a) Endings: Participles have typical adjectival endings: читающий, прочитанный, написанная.
(b) Genders: Participles have three genders.
|
MASCULINE |
читающий |
|
FEMININE |
читающая |
|
NEUTER |
читающее |
(c) Numbers: Participles have two numbers.
|
Singular: |
читающий |
|
Plural: |
читающие |
(d) Cases: Participles are declined regularly, like adjectives.
|
NOM. |
читающий |
|
GEN. |
читающего |
|
DAT. |
читающему |
|
ACC. (anim.) |
читающего |
|
INSTR. |
читающим |
|
PREP. |
читающем |
2. Verbal characteristics are the following (as indicated in the table above):
(a) Participles can be active or passive:
|
ACTIVE |
человек, строящий дом |
the man (who is) building the house |
|
PASSIVE |
дом, построенный им |
the house which was built by him |
(b) Participles have two tenses, present and past (no future):
|
PRESENT |
человек, пишущий письмо |
the man (who is) writing the letter |
|
PAST |
дама, писавшая письмо |
the lady who was writing the letter |
(c) Participles have two aspects in the past tense:
|
IMPERFECTIVE |
человек, читавший книгу |
the man who was reading the book |
|
PERFECTIVE |
человек, прочитавший книгу |
the man who (has) read the book |
Furthermore:
(d) Participles can be transitive or intransitive (including reflexive):
|
TRANSITIVE |
девочка, купившая шляпу |
the girl who bought the hat |
|
INTRANSITIVE |
люди, идущие по улице |
the people who are going down the street |
|
REFLEXIVE |
урок, начавшийся в три часа |
the lesson which began at three o'clock |
(e) Participles govern the same case as the verb from which they are formed:
|
командовать армией (instr.) |
to command an army |
|
генерал, командующий армией (instr.) |
the general who is commanding the army |
(f) In certain constructions, participles call for the same preposition as the verb from which they are formed:
|
играть на скрипке |
to play the violin |
|
мальчик, играющий на скрипке |
the boy who was playing the violin |