Otvarati

Otvarati is a verb in several South Slavic languages, notably Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian. It is the imperfective form meaning "to open" and is used for ongoing, repeated, or general actions of opening. The perfective counterpart is otvoriti, which describes a completed act of opening. The verb can take a wide range of objects, such as doors, windows, or figurative openings.

In present tense, the typical Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian forms are: ja otvaram, ti otvaraš, on otvara, mi otvaramo, vi otvarate, oni otvaraju. The imperfect past forms exist and vary by gender (e.g., otvarao, otvarala, otvaralo), indicating that the action was ongoing or repeated in the past. The perfective form otvoriti is used when emphasizing that the opening was completed, and its present/future forms (e.g., otvorim, otvoriš, otvori, otvorimo, otvorite, otvore) express a completed moment or a future act.

Derivation and related forms: Otvarati comes from a Proto-Slavic root for "to open" with the prefix ot-, and is closely related to the perfective otvoriti. Nouns such as otvaranje ("opening") and adjectives related to opening exist.

Usage notes: Otvarati is common in everyday speech for concrete openings (otvarati vrata – to open the doors, otvarati prozor – to open the window) and in metaphorical expressions (otvarati mogućnosti – to open up possibilities). In many contexts the choice between otvarati (imperfective) and otvoriti (perfective) depends on whether the speaker frames the action as ongoing/repeated or as a single completed event.