The Past Active Participles
 |
The Form |  |
The past active participle is formed by adding -(в)ший to a perfective or imperfective verbal stem. Since this is a past tense participle, it is more often derived from a perfective verb than an imperfective one but either is possible. All you have to remember is to apply the basic spelling rules and concomitant verb stem changes.
No changes are necessary for stems ending on vowels, e.g. спроси- : спроси-вший > спросивший 'who had asked'.
If the stem ends on a removable consonant (в й м or н), the removable consonant is, well, removed:
'being done'. If the stem ends on a fixed consonant, the в of the suffix is dropped:
'that had taken (something) away'. If the verb has two different stems for the present-future and past tenses, the stem of the past tense is used--приехать : приеду > приехавший '(the one) who had arrived'.
|
The Function | |
The function of the past active participles is to express the same relationship as the present active participles except in the past tense (and usually the perfective aspect). Another words, it expresses the sense of a который clause (in the past tense) in which который is the subject of the clause. If the verb is in the imperfective aspect, it will express an acton which occurred simultaneous to that of the past tense main verb, e.g. женщина, читавшая газету, думала о доме 'the woman reading the newspaper, was thinking of home'. If the verb is in the perfective aspect, however, this participle will refer to an action which occurred before the action of the main verb, e. g. женщина, прочитавшая газету, ушла домой 'the woman, who had read the paper, went home'.
|
Some Examples | |
Notice again that the entire participial phrase may be placed before or after the noun, although the position before the noun is used more in written style and the position after the noun is more common in spoken Russian.
| Моя подруга, которая только что закончила работу, ушла домой. |
| Моя подруга, только что закончившая работу, ушла домой. |
| My friend who had just finished work left for home. |
| Студент, который просмотрел всю выставку, зевнул и ушел. |
| Студент, просмотревший всю выставку, зевнул и ушел. |
| The student who had looked through the whole exhibit yawned and left. |
| Мужчина, который запаковал чемодан, обратился ко мне. |
| Запаковавший чемодан мужчина обратился ко мне. |
| The man who had packed the suitcase turned to me. |
| Собака, которая подбежала к нам, вдруг стала лаять. |
| Подбежавшая к нам собака вдруг стала лаять. |
| The dog that had run up to us suddenly started to bark. |
|
Now Try a Few Yourself | |
Type in the correct form of the participle below, then push the button to check your answer. Click here for font information.
|
Back | Contents | Verbs | Participles | Next | |