In short

A дієприкметник is a verb form that works like an adjective. It names an action as a quality of a noun and agrees with that noun in gender, number and case, exactly like an ordinary adjective. English calls these “participles” too: a written letter, a broken mirror, fallen leaves.

The big thing to notice about Ukrainian is how lopsided its participle system is. Passive participles (the “-ed/-en” kind: написаний, зроблений, розбитий) are everywhere and fully productive. Active participles, by contrast, are unusually thin: the active-present type (-учий/-ючий) is mostly avoided in the modern standard, and Ukrainian reaches for a relative clause instead.

The rule

Ukrainian participles are classified along two axes — voice (active / passive) and, historically, tense (present / past) — but the four theoretical cells are filled very unevenly:

• Passive past — suffixes -ний / -ений / -тий. Fully productive; this is the participle you will use constantly. прочита́ти -> прочи́таний, зроби́ти -> зро́блений, розби́ти -> розби́тий.
• Active past — suffix -лий. Alive but narrow: only from intransitive perfective verbs describing a change of state, and the survivors behave as plain adjectives. пожо́вкнути -> пожо́вклий, дозрі́ти -> дозрі́лий.
• Active present — suffixes -учий / -ючий / -ачий / -ячий. Grammatically possible but stylistically avoided in standard Ukrainian; native usage recasts “the reading student” as студе́нт, що чита́є (a relative clause). A handful have frozen into ordinary adjectives (блиску́чий “brilliant”, лежа́чий “lying”, паху́чий “fragrant”) and only survive that way.
• Passive present — effectively does not exist as a living form. Use the passive-past participle, a -ся verb, or the impersonal -но/-то construction instead.

Once formed, every participle declines like a hard-group adjective and must agree with its noun.

Forms & patterns

Passive past participles — pick the suffix by verb type

The -ений type triggers the usual consonant alternations before the ending: д->дж (посади́ти -> поса́джений), с->ш (запроси́ти -> запро́шений), т->ч (заплати́ти -> запла́чений), з->ж (заморо́зити -> заморо́жений), ст->щ.

Active past participles in -лий (from intransitive perfectives of change-of-state)

Agreement — a participle takes adjective endings (прочи́таний “read”)

Full declension, like a hard-group adjective (masculine singular)

The impersonal -но/-то form. Swap the passive participle’s adjective ending for -о: напи́саний -> напи́сано, зро́блений -> зро́блено, розби́тий -> розби́то. It never changes shape and has no subject, so the thing acted on keeps the accusative it would have as an object: Ва́зу розби́то. Кни́жку прочи́тано. It names no doer — lesson 54 gives the full treatment.

Examples

Common mistakes

• біжа́чий хло́пчик -> хло́пчик, який біжи́ть — Standard Ukrainian largely avoids active-present participles (-учий/-ячий); recast as a який/що relative clause.
• чита́ючий студе́нт -> студе́нт, що чита́є — same reason; the “-ючий + noun” pattern is a calque, not natural Ukrainian.
• зроби́ний -> зро́блений — verbs in -ити build the passive participle with -ений and the expected consonant change (б->бл).
• напи́саний листи́ -> напи́сані листи́ — a passive participle agrees with its noun in gender, number and case, like any adjective.
• зівялий лист -> зів’я́лий лист — the apostrophe after в is a mandatory letter; dropping it is a spelling error.
• звіт був напи́саний (heavy full passive) -> звіт напи́сано — for a completed result Ukrainian normally prefers the impersonal -но/-то form over a full “be + participle” passive.

Tips

• Passive participles are the workhorse — build them freely with -ний / -ений / -тий; they cover almost everything English does with “-ed/-en”.
• Choose the suffix by the verb: vowel-stem infinitives (-ати/-яти/-увати) take -ний; -ити verbs take -ений (watch the consonant change); short/monosyllabic and -ну verbs take -тий.
• Active-present participles (-учий/-ячий) are effectively dead in the standard language. Whenever one is tempting, switch to a який/що relative clause.
• The active past in -лий is alive but narrow — only from intransitive perfectives of change-of-state (пожо́вклий, дозрі́лий, зів'я́лий). Treat these as ready-made adjectives.
• After it is formed, a participle declines exactly like a hard-group adjective, so reuse everything you know from adjective agreement.
• Do not confuse the дієприкметник (adjective-like: modifies a noun, agrees) with the дієприслівник (adverb-like: modifies a verb, never changes) from lesson 40.