Lesson 19.Perfect Tense (Perfekat)

Lesson Goals

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Form the perfect tense (Perfekat) with biti + past participle
• Use Perfekat to describe completed past actions
• Distinguish between perfective and imperfective verbs in Perfekat
• Make affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences in Perfekat

1. What is the Perfect Tense?

The Perfect tense (Perfekat) is the most common past tense in Serbian.

It expresses:

1. A completed action in the past — Juče sam gledao film. (Yesterday I watched a movie.)
2. Past experience — Nikada nisam bio u Parizu. (I have never been to Paris.)
3. Actions connected to the present — Već sam završio posao. (I have already finished the work.)

2. Formation of Perfekat

Perfekat = Present tense of biti (to be) + Past Participle

Step 1: Auxiliary Verb “biti” (Present)

• ja sam
• ti si
• on/ona/ono je
• mi smo
• vi ste
• oni/one/ona su

Step 2: Past Participle

Formed from the verb stem + suffix -o/-la/-lo (singular) or -li/-le/-la (plural).

Example: raditi (to work) → radio, radila, radilo, radili…

Examples

gledati (to watch):

• ja sam gledao/gledala — I watched
• ti si gledao/gledala — you watched
• on/ona/ono je gledao/gledala/gledalo — he/she/it watched
• mi smo gledali/gledale — we watched
• vi ste gledali/gledale — you watched
• oni/one/ona su gledali/gledale/gledala — they watched

3. Gender and Number Agreement

The past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number:

• Ja sam radio. (male speaker)
• Ja sam radila. (female speaker)
• Mi smo radili. (group with at least one male)
• Mi smo radile. (all female group)

4. Negation in Perfekat

Add nisam, nisi, nije, nismo, niste, nisu instead of biti.

Examples:

• Nisam gledao film. — I did not watch the movie.
• Oni nisu radili. — They did not work.

5. Questions in Perfekat

1. Da li + Perfekat → neutral
• Da li si video Anu? — Did you see Ana?
2. Inversion (formal/literary)
• Jesi li video Anu? — Did you see Ana?
3. Intonation (casual)
• Video si Anu? — You saw Ana?

6. Aspect and Perfekat

• With imperfective verbs: describes ongoing/repeated past actions.
• Čitao sam knjigu. — I was reading a book. / I used to read a book.
• With perfective verbs: describes completed past actions.
• Pročitao sam knjigu. — I read/finished the book.

(See Lesson 20: Perfective vs. Imperfective Verbs for details.)

7. Mini Dialogue (Grammar Focus)

Ana: Gde si bio juče?

(Where were you yesterday?)

Marko: Bio sam u gradu.

(I was in the city.)

Ana: Jesi li kupio knjigu?

(Did you buy the book?)

Marko: Da, kupio sam je.

(Yes, I bought it.)

8. Vocabulary for This Lesson

9. Practice

A. Conjugate in Perfekat:

1. Ja (raditi) → ________
2. Oni (gledati) → ________
3. Ona (kupiti knjigu) → ________

B. Translate:

4. I was in the city yesterday.

5. We didn’t watch the movie.