The past tense – perfekat

The past tense is a complex tense formed in the following way:
1) the present tense of the verb jesam + 2) the active past participle of the main verb.

The active past participle has three forms for each gender both in singular and plural. It is formed in the following way:

a) infinitive stem + b) participal suffixes.

a) The infinitive stem is formed :
-by removing the suffix -TI from the infinitive of verbs ending in -TI (e.g. čita-ti, radi-ti, razume-ti),
-by removing the suffix for the 3rd person plural from the infinitive of verbs ending in -STI or -ĆI (e.g. ugristi, oni ugriz-u; spasti, oni spas-u; peći, oni pek-u; moći, oni mog-u).

b) The active past participle suffixes are:

* Many verbs form an active past participle from an irregular or reduced infinitive stem:
-ići-išao; otići-otišao; doći-došao; ući-ušao;
-jesti-jeo; pasti-pao; sesti-seo;
-stići-stigao; pomoći-pomogao; umreti-umro.

The affirmative form:

The negative and interrogative form :

The negative form

The subject of the sentence is frequently omitted. This is possible because the person, number and gender are indicated by an auxiliary and the active past participle. ( e.g. Nisam pjevao/pjevala. Nisi pjevao/pjevala. Nismo pjevali/pjevale.)

The interrogative form

Comments:

1. A question in the past tense can be answered shortly by using either the affirmative or negative long forms of the verb jesam. A sentence may start with DA or NE, but this is not always necessary. (e.g. Da li si jeo? (Da), jesam. / (Ne), nisam.)

2. You may also form a question by inversion, using the interrogative particle LI. The sentence then begins with the long form of the auxiliary. (e.g. Jesi li pjevao?; Jeste li pjevali?; Jesu li pjevali?)

Reflexive verbs in the past tense

The affirmative form:

Comments:

1. The verbal enclitic JE disappears in the 3rd p.sg. of reflexive verbs in the past tense.
(e.g. Ona se šetala. a ne Ona je se šetala.)
2. The morpheme SE is placed in the second position of a sentence, after the verbal enclitic JE.
3. The subject of the sentence is frequently omitted. In this situation the sentence starts with the main verb, followed by the verbal enclitic, which is then followed by the morpheme SE.
(e.g. Šetala sam se. Šetala si se. Šetali smo se.)

The negative form:

Comments:

1. The morpheme SE is placed in the second position, following directly after the first word or word phrase.
2. The subject of the sentence is frequently omitted. In this situation the sentence starts with the negative form of the auxiliary verb, followed by the morpheme SE, then by the main verb.
(e.g. Nisam se šetala. Nisi se šetala. Nisi se šetao. Nismo se šetali.)

The interrogative form:

Comments:

1. The morpheme SE follows the verbal enclitic.
2. The subject of the sentence is frequently omitted. In this situation the sentence starts with the question marker DA LI, followed by an auxiliary verb, which is then followed by the morpheme SE with the main verb in the last position.
(e.g. Da li sam se šetala? Da li si se šetala? Da li si se šetao? Da li smo se šetali?)