Lesson Goals

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

• Form the past tense in Serbian
• Understand the difference between perfective and imperfective verbs in the past tense
• Use auxiliary verb biti (“to be”) + past participle
• Make affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences in the past tense

1. Structure of the Past Tense

The Serbian perfect tense (used for most past actions) is formed with:

[Present tense of biti] + [Past Participle of main verb]

Example with raditi (to work, imperfective):

• Ja sam radio — I worked / was working (male speaker)
• Ja sam radila — I worked / was working (female speaker)

2. Past Participle Formation

For most verbs:

1. Remove the infinitive ending ti
2. Add o (masc.), la (fem.), lo (neut.) for singular
3. Add li (masc.), le (fem.), la (neut.) for plural

Examples: