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