ABSTRACT
The participle (or verbal adjective) is a verbal form that combines characteristics of verb and adjective. Participles are most common in writing. As with adjectives (☞ 11), participles can have a long and a short form. In a sentence, longform participles function like long-form adjectives and can qualify any noun in a sentence. They usually describe qualities linked to some activity: летя´щий (flying), влюблённый (someone in love), потеря´вшийся (someone/thing who got lost) etc. In Russian, the following types of long-form participles are frequently used: present imperfective active participle, past imperfective active participle, past perfective active participle, present imperfective passive participle and past perfective passive participle. The English equivalents of Russian long-form participles are as follows:
Russian long-form participle English equivalent
present imperfective active: де´лающий; говоря´щий
verbal form ending in -ing: doing; speaking
past imperfective and perfective active: де´лавший; говори´вший (impf); сде´лавший; сказáвший (pf)
verb in the past tense: (who) did/was doing/has done; spoke/was speaking/has spoken
present imperfective passive: опи´сываемый; производи´мый
passive verbal forms ‘is being done’: ‘is being described’, ‘is being produced’
past perfective passive: сде´ланный; приготóвленный; вы´питый
passive verbal forms ‘done’: done/made; cooked; drunk
Only passive participles can have a short form. A short-form participle is the predicate to the subject of a sentence. Short-form passive participles function like passive verbs (☞ 21.3); they are translated into English using the passive verbal form (e.g. ‘done’). The passive verbal form is connected to the subject of the sentence by быть (to be): ‘is done/was done/has been done/had been done/will be done’. The short form can be used in the present, past and future: Фи´льм снят. (The film is shot.) Фильм был снят. (The film was/has been shot.) Фильм бу´дет снят. (The film will be shot.)
26.1.1 Grammatical characteristics of long-form participles Long-form participles combine the grammatical characteristics of verbs and long-form adjectives. A participle takes tense, aspect and voice from the verb from which it is derived, and agrees in gender, number and case with the noun it qualifies. Long-form active participles decline like adjectives with a stem ending in -ш/-щ; long-form passive participles decline like adjectives with a hard stem (☞ 11.1):
2, 3
2, 3
Da!
