Aspect Pairs

Almost every Serbian verb comes as an aspect pair. The imperfective verb presents an action as a process, a habit or a repetition. The perfective verb presents one complete action that has a result.

• Many perfectives add a prefix: писати → написати, читати → прочитати, пити → попити, прати → опрати.
• Many imperfectives change the suffix or the stem: отворити → отварати, показати → показивати, купити → куповати, доћи → долазити.
• Some pairs look quite different: рећи → говорити, узети → узимати, изабрати → бирати.

Only the imperfective can describe what is happening right now: Сада пишем писмо. (I am writing a letter now.) Learn new verbs in pairs. In each item, give the aspect partner of the verb in the gap.