The Present Passive Participles

Participles are verbs used as adjectives to modify nouns.

The Form

Present passive participles, too, are formed only from imperfective verbs, since they refer to an activity which is currently taking place or which repeatedly takes place. The simplest way to form the present passive participle is to begin with the 1st person plural form of the verb and simply add the adjective endings to it—no suffix is necessary. Thus, if "we read" is (мы) читаем the present passive participle of читай- then is читаемый "being read". The present passive participles of люби- is derived from (мы) любим in the same way: любимый, любимая, любимое, любимые "beloved, favorite".

The accent falls on the same syllable of first conjugation verbs as it does in the first person plural. However, for second conjugation verbs, it falls on the same syllable as it does in the 1st person singular: произвожу, производим : производимый "being produced".

The Function

The present passive participle has two major functions.

First, it expresses action not carried out by the noun it modifies, but which is carried out on the noun it modifies. Thus человек, читающий газету means "a person reading the paper" but газета, читаемая человеком is "a paper being read by a person".
This form also has the meaning of adjectives on -able in English and is used most widely with the negative prefix не- to express the quality of resistance to certain processes. In this function it is derived from perfective and imperfective stems.

1st Plural	Gloss	Participial Adjective	Gloss
выносим	we bear	(не)выносимый	(un)bearable
промокаем	we soak	непромокаемый	waterproof
забываем	we forget	(не)забываемый	(un)forgettable
обходим	we go around	(не)обходимый	(un)avoidable
объясним	we'll explain	(не)объяснимый	(un)explicable

Some Examples

Notice in the following examples that, unlike English which allows participial phrases only after the noun they modify, participial phrases in Russian may be placed before or after the noun.

машина, которую производят в России the car that is produced in Russia	машина, производимая в России the car (being) produced in Russia
о сцене, которая описывается в книге the scene, which is described in the book	о сцене описываемой в книге the scene described in the book
условия, которые все требуют conditions that everyone demands	всеми требуемые условия conditions demanded by everyone
газета, которую читает молодёжь the paper that young people read	читаемая молодёжью газета the paper read by young people

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.

Основа	Ваш ответ	Проверьте	Правильно?
Образец: делай- (делать)	Type your answer here	...then push here

покупай- (покупать)
произноси- (произносить)
определяй- (определять)
читай- (читать)
отражай- (отражать)
освещай- (освещать)
обходи- (обходить)
публик(ова) (публиковать)
собирай- (собирать)
терпе- (терпеть)

More participal exercises


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