opisali

Opisali is a verbal form used in several South Slavic languages, notably Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, and Slovenian. It is the masculine plural past participle of the verb opisati, which means to describe or to outline. The form opisali typically appears in past tense constructions with an auxiliary verb, for example Oni su opisali događaj in Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian/Montenegrin, translating as "They described the event." The form agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Opisati is a perfective verb, in contrast to the imperfective opisivati. The perfective indicates a completed action, while the imperfective describes ongoing or repeated action. Consequently, opisali signals that the act of describing was completed by a plural subject. Other gender and number forms of the same verb stem include opisao (masculine singular), opisala (feminine singular), opisalo (neuter singular), opisali (masculine plural), and opisale (feminine plural).

In addition to its use in standard Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin, the form appears in Slovenian as the masculine plural past participle of opisati as well, with the past tense often formed using auxiliary so. The verb’s root and participial forms are common across related South Slavic languages, illustrating parallel processes of verb conjugation and aspect.

See also: opisati, opis, description, list of South Slavic verbs with similar aspectual pairs.