Serbian Verbal Adverbs: Present (-ći) and Past (-vši)
Serbian has two compact little verb forms called verbal adverbs (glagolski prilog) that let you fold a second action into one tidy sentence. They behave almost exactly like the English participle clauses you already use: "Walking home, I met him" or "Having finished work, he left." If you can build those English sentences, you are most of the way to building their Serbian counterparts. The first form is the present verbal adverb (glagolski prilog sadašnji), which always ends in -ći. It describes an action happening at the same time as the main verb — your "while ...-ing." To form it, take an imperfective verb, put it in the 3rd person plural present, and swap the final -u for -ći: rade becomes radeći, idu becomes idući, piju becomes pijući, drže becomes držeći, gledaju becomes gledajući. So you get "Radeći, slušam muziku" (While working, I listen to music) and "Idući kući, sreo sam ga" (Walking home, I met him). Both actions overlap in time. The second form is the past verbal adverb (glagolski prilog prošli), which ends in -vši. It describes an action finished before the main verb — your "having ...-ed." You build it from a perfective verb by taking the infinitive stem and adding -vši: završiti becomes završivši, uraditi becomes uradivši. A few verbs are irregular, such as doći, which gives došavši. The verb biti is special, offering budući (present) and bivši (past). So "Završivši posao, otišao je" means "Having finished work, he left" — first he finished, then he left. The biggest gift these forms give you is that they are invariable. Unlike most Serbian words, they never change for gender, number, or person. Whether the subject is a man, a woman, or a whole group, radeći stays radeći and završivši stays završivši. One form, no agreement to memorize. A word on register: verbal adverbs feel literary and formal. You will meet them constantly in books, news, and careful writing, but in relaxed conversation Serbians often unpack them into a full clause ("Dok radim, slušam muziku"). Knowing both registers makes you sound natural. Now the pitfalls, because this is where learners stumble. First, do not use the present -ći for a finished, preceding action; if it happened first, you need the past -vši. Second, you cannot build a present -ći form from a perfective verb — there is no uradeći; the perfective verb gives you uradivši instead. Third, watch out for the dangling participle, the very same trap English has: the unspoken subject of the verbal adverb must match the subject of the main clause. In "Idući kući, sreo sam ga," the one walking and the one who met him are both "I." Finally, do not forget the comma that sets the phrase off.
Examples
- Idući kući, sreo sam ga. Walking home, I met him.
- Radeći, slušam muziku. While working, I listen to music.
- Završivši posao, otišao je. Having finished work, he left.
The full lesson
Everything in the video, in text.
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While I was walking home, I ran into him. That subordinate clause dok sam išao can be squeezed into one single word: idući. Idući kući, sreo sam ga. This is the verbal adverb — a tool that makes your speech compact and elegant.
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There are two verbal adverbs. The present one, with the ending -ći, describes an action happening at the same time as the main action. The past one, with the ending -vši, describes an action that finished before the main action. Both are invariable — they do not change form for gender, number, or person.
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The difference is about time. The present adverb is two actions running in the same moment — while one lasts, the other happens too. The past adverb is a sequence: first one action finishes, and only then comes the second. So the question is: at the same time, or one then the other?
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Start with the present adverb. You form it from imperfective verbs, from the third-person plural of the present tense, by adding -ći to the stem. Rade plus -ći gives radeći. Radeći, slušam muziku. I work and I listen in the same moment — radeći carries that simultaneity in a single word.
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Here is the first sentence from the intro, now in full. Idu plus -ći gives idući — an action that runs alongside the main one. Idući kući, sreo sam ga. While I was walking, that is when I ran into him. The single word idući replaced the whole subordinate clause dok sam išao.
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Remember the formation of the present adverb like this: take the third-person plural, the one ending in -u, and just replace that -u with the ending -ći. Piju gives pijući, drže gives držeći, gledaju gives gledajući.
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Now the past adverb. You form it from perfective verbs, most often from the masculine stem of the active participle, by adding -vši. Završio gives završivši. Završivši posao, otišao je. First the work is done, and only then he leaves. Završivši clearly says: this action came before the main one.
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One more past adverb, so you feel the sequence. From uraditi you get uradivši — an action that closed before the next one begins. Uradivši zadatak, legao je da spava. The task is first completed, and only then comes sleep. The past adverb always carries that done before the main action.
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Here is the main trap. The present adverb must mark a simultaneous action — never a finished, preceding one. If the action is done before the main one, you must not say završavajući posao, otišao je, because that sounds as if he is still working and leaving at the same time. You need the past adverb: završivši posao, otišao je.
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The second trap is in the formation. The present adverb is built only from imperfective verbs. From a perfective verb such as uraditi, there is no present form uradeći — that is not a word. Perfective verbs give only the past adverb: uradivši.
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Since they are invariable, verbal adverbs do not agree with the gender or number of the subject. The same form works for everything. Smejući se, deca su trčala. The subject is plural and neuter, yet the adverb stays smejući se — without any change. That is what makes it easy to use.
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Let us recap. The present verbal adverb on -ći you form from imperfective verbs, and with it you say that two actions happen at the same time — radeći, idući. The past adverb on -vši you form from perfective verbs, and with it you say that one action preceded another — završivši, uradivši. Both are invariable. Squeeze a subordinate clause into one word and your language becomes more elegant.