Active past participles (читавший, прочитавший)

Active past participles

Describing “the one who was doing / did the action”: читавший (who was reading), прочитавший (who has read).

⚡Key points

читавший, прочитавший→the active past participle = “who was doing / did” the action

он чита-л → чита-вший→start from the masculine past (он + -л) + suffix -вш-

НСВ and СВ→unlike the present participle, it is formed from both aspects

нёс → нёс-ший→consonant stem (no -л) → suffix -ш-

студе́нт, читавший кни́гу→= студе́нт, кото́рый чита́л кни́гу (who was reading a book)

What is an active past participle?

The active past participle describes the noun that did (or was doing) the action itself in the past: человек, читавший кни́гу = the man who was reading a book; человек, прочитавший кни́гу = the man who has read (finished) the book. It answers како́й? and agrees like an adjective.

Key difference from the present participle: the past participle is formed from both imperfective verbs (НСВ: читавший = who was reading, process) and perfective verbs (СВ: прочитавший = who has read, completed action).

Formation: start from the masculine past

Take the masculine past form (он + -л), drop the -л, then add:
• -вш- if the stem ends in a vowel (the most common case): чита-л → читавший.
• -ш- if the masculine past ends in a consonant (no -л): нёс → нёсший.
Then the adjectival ending -ий / -ая / -ее / -ие.

From verb to participle

чита́ть (НСВ) — он чита-л	читавший	who was reading / reading (past)
прочитать (СВ) — он прочита-л	прочитавший	who has read / having read
говори́ть — он говори-л	говоривший	who was speaking
видеть — он ви́де-л	ви́девший	who saw / was seeing
нести — он нёс	нёсший	who was carrying (consonant stem)
идти — он шёл	шедший	who was going / went (irregular)

💡⚠️ Both aspects — and the НСВ / СВ nuance

The active past participle is formed from both aspects, with a difference in meaning: НСВ (читавший) stresses the past process (“who was reading”); СВ (прочитавший) stresses the completed result (“who has read, finished”).

студе́нт, читавший кни́гу — he was reading (НСВ, process)

студе́нт, прочитавший кни́гу — he finished reading it (СВ, result)

Agreement of the participle

The participle agrees like an adjective in gender, number and case with the noun it modifies. The endings follow the soft-adjective pattern (type хоро́ший), exactly like the present participle.

Agreement of читавший

Masculine	читавший студе́нт	the student who was reading
Feminine	читавшая студе́нтка	the (female) student who was reading
Neuter	читавшее дитя́	the child who was reading
Plural	читавшие студе́нты	the students who were reading

When and how to use it

Describe who did / was doing the action

Студе́нтка, написавшая письмо́, ушла́. (The student who wrote the letter has left.)

Я встре́тил дру́га, вернувшегося из Москвы́. (I met the friend who had come back from Moscow.)

The participle keeps its own objects (оборо́т)

Человек, живший здесь раньше, уе́хал. (The man who used to live here has left.)

Rather written and formal register

In speech, the кото́рый clause is usually preferred.

Participle ↔ кото́рый

The active past participle is equivalent to a relative clause with кото́рый in the nominative (кото́рый as subject) and in the past. The verb keeps its aspect:

Turning кото́рый → participle

студе́нт, кото́рый чита́л

→ студе́нт, читавший (the student who was reading, НСВ)

де́вушка, кото́рая прочита́ла

→ де́вушка, прочитавшая (the girl who has read, СВ)

де́ти, кото́рые игра́ли

→ де́ти, игравшие (the children who were playing)

💡⚠️ Only кото́рый as subject; -ся kept; special stems

As in the present, you transform only the кото́рый that is the subject (nominative). Verbs in -ся always keep -ся: вернуться → вернувшийся. A few verbs have a special stem: идти → шедший, нести → нёсший, умереть → уме́рший.

кото́рый чита́л → читавший (кото́рый is the subject)

идти → шёл → шедший (irregular)

Dialogue: meeting again

Ве́раТы по́мнишь студе́нта, сидевшего ря́дом с нами?

МаксТого, написавшего лучшую рабо́ту?

Ве́раДа! Вчера́ я встре́тила де́вушку, знавшую его́.

МаксЭ́то, наве́рное, А́ня, неда́вно вернувшаяся из Москвы́.

Vera: Do you remember the student who was sitting next to us? — Max: The one who wrote the best paper? — Vera: Yes! Yesterday I met a girl who knew him. — Max: That is probably Ania, who recently came back from Moscow.