The Russian Passive Voice: открыт, закрыт and Impersonal They

English cannot avoid the passive voice: the shop is open, Russian is spoken here, a new house is being built all put the thing being acted on in the subject slot and let the doer disappear. Russian has genuine passives of its own: the passive job of -ся verbs (see the reflexive verbs article) and the short past participle, откры́т, закры́т, which is the passive of a perfective verb and reports a finished state. Alongside them it has a favourite way of dodging the passive entirely: an active they-verb with no they, for an ongoing or general action. Both are on the Pearson Edexcel GCSE specification, откры́т and закры́т at Foundation and Higher, the they-without-они construction at Higher only, and both turn up constantly in real Russian.

открыт and закрыт: a state, not an action

Откры́т (open) and закры́т (closed) are short-form past passive participles: adjective-shaped words built from a perfective verb (откры́ть, to open; закрыть, to close) that describe the state something is left in after the action happened, rather than the action itself.

Like every short form, these agree with the subject in gender and number and never change for case, and they are used only as the predicate, after the subject has already been named:

Магази́н откры́т с девяти́ утра́. - The shop is open from nine in the morning.

Библиоте́ка закры́та по понеде́льникам. - The library is closed on Mondays.

Окно́ бы́ло откры́то всю ночь. - The window was open all night.

В воскресе́нье все магази́ны закры́ты. - On Sundays all the shops are closed.

Notice the past-tense example: adding бы́ло (neuter past of быть) gives was open, and adding the future бу́дет gives will be open. The participle itself does not change; only the (usually invisible, present-tense) verb быть around it does.

Откры́т and закры́т are the two the Pearson Edexcel specification names by themselves, but they are examples of a much larger family: almost any perfective verb can build a short past passive participle the same way, написан (written), сде́лан (done), постро́ен (built). That wider family is beyond what this page or the GCSE course requires; learn откры́т and закры́т thoroughly as the two you will meet constantly, and treat any others you meet in reading as the same pattern applied further.

Short form vs long form: state vs description

Russian also has long forms of the same words, откры́тый and закрытый, which behave like ordinary adjectives and sit in front of a noun to describe it, rather than reporting that something happened to it:

The distinction is the same one English makes with an open door versus the door is open, except English uses the identical word for both and Russian does not. Learn откры́т and закры́т as a pair on their own, separate from откры́тый and закрытый, because a learner who only knows the long forms will try to use them as predicates and produce something that sounds like a shop sign written by a foreigner.

The sign on a shop, museum or restaurant door is almost always the neuter, Откры́то/Закрыто, used impersonally (it is open, it is closed) rather than agreeing with any particular noun. A fuller notice that names the noun agrees with it as usual: Магази́н закры́т на ремо́нт (shop closed for refurbishment).

Third person plural without они: nobody in particular did it

The escape route from the passive is even more common in speech: an ordinary verb, in the third person plural, with они́ (they) simply never mentioned, because there is no specific group of people the sentence means.

Зде́сь говоря́т по-ру́сски. - Russian is spoken here. (Literally: here, they speak Russian.)

Там стро́ят но́вый дом. - A new house is being built there. (Literally: there, they are building a new house.)

В э́той шко́ле говоря́т по-ру́сски и по-англи́йски. - In this school, Russian and English are spoken.

English has to invent a passive to avoid naming a doer: is spoken, is being built. Russian keeps the verb active and simply drops the subject, because the they-form of a Russian verb already carries enough information without one. Nobody asks who they are; the construction exists precisely because it does not matter.

You have already met this construction, even if it was not named. Меня́ зову́т Андрей (I am called Andrey) is exactly this pattern: зову́т is the they-form of звать (to call), with no они́ anywhere, meaning literally they call me Andrey. English needs a passive, I am called; Russian needs the impersonal they, which is why this famous beginner phrase looks so strange translated word for word.

More everyday examples, all built the same way:

Говоря́т, что за́втра бу́дет дождь. - They say it will rain tomorrow. (It is said that...)

Зде́сь продаю́т биле́ты. - Tickets are sold here.

Мне сказа́ли, что магази́н закры́т. - I was told the shop was closed. (Literally: they told me...)

Not the same as ordinary pronoun-dropping

Russian drops subject pronouns fairly often anyway when the verb ending already makes the subject obvious, so it is worth being precise about what makes this construction different. Ordinary pro-drop still points at a real, recoverable subject: Зна́ю on its own means I know, because the ending only fits я. The they-without-они construction is not filling in a missing pronoun at all; there is no real group of people the sentence has in mind, and none could be supplied even if you asked. Говоря́т, что за́втра бу́дет дождь is not shorthand for some specific group of forecasters; it means, impersonally, that the fact is being said, by whoever, which is precisely the passive meaning English marks with is said.

Choosing between the two

The two constructions cover different territory, and knowing which one a sentence needs is mostly a question of finished versus ongoing:

• A completed action leaving a lasting state (a door someone shut, a shop someone opened for the day): use the short participle, откры́т/закры́та/etc.
• An ongoing, repeated or general action with an unnamed doer (something people generally do, something in progress): use the they-form with no они́, or the -ся passive from the reflexive verbs article.

Магази́н закры́т. - The shop is closed. (a state: someone closed it, it stays that way)

Магази́н закрывают в шесть. - They close the shop at six. (a repeated action, no named doer)

Mistakes English speakers make

Using the long form as a predicate. Магази́н откры́тый sounds like a half-finished sentence to a Russian ear; the predicate wants the short form, Магази́н откры́т.

Forgetting gender and number agreement on the short form. Дверь откры́т is wrong because дверь is feminine; it must be откры́та. The short form agrees exactly like a normal adjective would.

Reaching for a passive with -ся where they-without-они́ is more natural. Both exist, but the they-form is the more everyday, spoken option for an unnamed general doer, especially with people-verbs like говори́ть, стро́ить and продавать. Learners who only know the -ся passive tend to overuse it and sound more written than spoken.

Translating меня́ зову́т word for word and getting stuck. They call me feels odd in English, so learners try to build I am called directly and reach for a passive verb form that does not exist in Russian the way they expect. Зову́т on its own, with меня́ in front of it, is the whole sentence.

What to do next

Learn откры́т/закры́та/закрыто/закры́ты as fixed forms attached to the two verbs откры́ть and закрыть, since they will appear on every sign and every opening-hours sentence you read. Then listen for the they-without-они pattern in real Russian: any sentence that would need a passive in English, and has no specific group of people in mind, is a candidate. The reflexive verbs article covers the other route to a passive meaning, and the Russian course uses both constructions in its shop and opening-hours material from an early chapter.