Quick answer
A participle is a verb dressed as an adjective: чита́ющий студе́нт — the student who is reading. It agrees like any adjective and can always be rewritten with кото́рый.
The four types
| Type | Example | Means |
|---|---|---|
| active present | чита́ющий | who is reading |
| active past | чита́вший | who was reading |
| passive present | чита́емый | being read |
| passive past | прочи́танный | which has been read |
Active participles describe the one doing the action; passive ones describe the thing it is done to. All four decline exactly like the adjective но́вый.
Reading them back into clauses
This rewriting is the whole skill. When a long participle turns up in a news article, find the noun it agrees with, work out the verb inside it, and rebuild it as a кото́рый clause.
Short passive forms
Passive past participles have short forms used as predicates: магази́н закры́т (the shop is closed), дверь откры́та, всё гото́во, биле́ты про́даны. These are extremely common, and beginners meet them long before the full participles.
Speak in кото́рый
In spoken Russian, participles are rare outside fixed forms. Nobody will think less of you for saying челове́к, кото́рый рабо́тает здесь instead of рабо́тающий здесь челове́к.
Typical mistakes
чита́ющий кни́га
чита́ющий кни́гу
The participle keeps the verb’s object case.
магази́н закры́тый — as a statement
магази́н закры́т
A predicate takes the short form.
Check yourself
What does прочи́танная кни́га mean?