Past Verb Tense

Posted by Tae Kim

Plain past tense verbs

The conjugation rules for the plain past tense are quite simple now that we've already learn the rules for the te-form. This is because the plain past tense conjugation rules are almost identical to the rules for the te-form. The only difference is to use 「た」 and 「だ」 in the place of 「て」 and 「で」 respectively.

The past-negative conjugation rule should also be familiar to you as it's identical to the past-tense conjugation rules for both i-adjectives and negative state-of-being.

Remember that the progressive tense always end in the ru-verb: 「いる」. This means you can use the same rules as any other ru-verbs to easily change the progressive tense to the past progressive or negative past progressive.

Plain past verb tense conjugation rules

Past tense: Conjugate to the te-form and replace 「て」 with 「た」 and 「で」 with 「だ」
Examples
1. 食べる → 食べて → 食べた
  eat → ate
2. 飲む → 飲んで → 飲んだ
  drink → drank
3. 食べている → 食べていて → 食べていた
  eating → was eating
Negative past tense: Conjugate to the negative and replace the last 「い」 with 「かった」
Examples
1. 食べる → 食べない → 食べなかった
  eat → not eat →　did not eat
2. 飲む → 飲まない → 飲まなかった
  drink → not drink → did not drink
3. 食べている → 食べていない → 食べていなかった
  eating → not eating → was not eating

When you don't understand, you should say so

知る【し・る】 (u-verb) - to know
おかしい (i-adj) - odd, strange, funny
一緒【いっ・しょ】 - together
勉強する【べん・きょう】 - to study
はず - expected to be
かな (sentence-ending particle, casual) - I wonder
ごめん (casual) - sorry
用事【よう・じ】 - errand
遅れる【おく・れる】 (ru-verb) - to be late
母【はは】 - (one's own) mother
急【きゅう】 - sudden
電話【でん・わ】 - phone
言う【い・う】 - to say
教える【おし・える】 (ru-verb) - to teach; to inform
分かる【わ・かる】 (u-verb) - to understand
ちゃんと - properly
伝える【つた・える】 (ru-verb) - to convey
べき - should
はあ - sigh

アリス：リー君はどこ？
Alice: Where is Lee-kun?

ジョン：知らない。
John: Don't know.

アリス：　おかしいね。ここで一緒に勉強するはずだけど、どこに行ったかな？
Alice: That's odd. (We) are supposed to study here together but (I) wonder where (he) went?

リー：アリスちゃん、ごめん。用事でちょっと遅れた。
Lee: Alice-chan, sorry. (I) was little late due to an errand.

アリス：　何をしていたの？
Alice: What were you doing?

リー：母から急に電話が来たの。ジョンに言ったけど、教えなかったの？
Lee: A phone call came suddenly from (my) mother. I told John, didn't (he) tell you?

ジョン：ごめん、言っていることが分からなかったから、アリスちゃんに何も言わなかった。
John: Sorry, I didn't understand the thing (you) were saying so (I) didn't say anything to Alice-chan.

アリス：何か分からなかった時は、ちゃんと伝えるべきよ。
Alice: (You) should properly convey when you didn't understand something, you know.

ジョン：分かった。
John: (I) understood.

リー：本当に分かったの？
Lee: Did (you) really understand?

ジョン：あんまり。
John: Not really.

アリス：はあ・・・。
Alice: Sigh...

Polite past verbs

The rules for the polite past tense is similar to the other polite tenses and are all based on the verb stem.

Polite past verb tense conjugation rules

Past tense: Attach 「ました」 to the verb stem
Examples
1. 食べる → 食べました
2. 飲む → 飲み → 飲みました
Negative past tense: Attach 「ませんでした」 to the verb stem
Examples
1. 食べる → 食べませんでした
2. 飲む → 飲み → 飲みませんでした

Summary of 「～ます」 tenses
	Positive	Negative
Non-Past	行きます - go	行きません - don't go
Past	行きました - went	行きませんでした - didn't go

Spring vacation is already over

山本【やまもと】 - Yamamoto (surname)
先生【せん・せい】 - teacher
こんにちは - Good day (pronounced 「こんにちわ」)
もう - already
すっかり - completely, thoroughly
春【はる】 - Spring
なる - to become
そう - so
春休み【はる・やすみ】 - spring vacation
本当【ほん・とう】 - real
早い【はや・い】 (i-adj) - early
終わる【おわ・る】 (u-verb) - to end
何【なに】 - what
する - to do
のんびり - carefree; at leisure
休む【やす・む】 (u-verb) - to rest; to take a break
特【とく】 - particular
それ - that
いい (i-adj) - good
ちゃんと - properly
休み【やす・み】 - vacation
取る【と・る】 (u-verb) - to take
大事【だい・じ】(na-adj) - important
授業【じゅ・ぎょう】 - class; lecture
準備【じゅん・び】 - preparation
色々【いろ・いろ】 (na-adj) - various

スミス：山本先生、こんにちは！
Smith: Yamamoto-sensei, good afternoon!

山本：スミスさん、こんにちは。もうすっかり春になりましたね。
Yamamoto: Smith-san, good afternoon. It already became thoroughly spring, hasn't it?

スミス：そうですね。春休みは、本当に早く終わりました。
Smith: That's so, isn't it. Spring vacation really ended quickly.

山本：そうですか。春休みに何をしましたか。
Yamamoto: Is that so? What did (you) do in spring vacation?

スミス：のんびり休みましたので、特に何もしませんでした。
Smith: (I) rested taking it easy so (I) didn't do anything in particular.

山本：それもいいですね。ちゃんと休みを取るのも大事ですから。
Yamamoto: That is good as well. (It's) also important to properly take rest so.

スミス：山本先生は、休みに何をしましたか。
Smith: Yamamoto-sensei, what did (you) do for vacation?

山本：授業の準備で色々していましたよ。
Yamamoto: (I) was doing various things with class preparation.

スミス：休みをちゃんと取るのは大事ですよ。
Smith: (It's) important to properly take rest, you know.

山本：本当ですね。
Yamomoto: That's right.

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Is this a typo? For the Plain

Is this a typo? For the Plain past verb tense conjugation rules, in the first part it's already conjugated to the te-form. But in the second part an extra て appears at the end. Where did this extra て come from?

食べている → 食べていて→ 食べていた
eating → was eating

Should it not be: 食べたい, not 食べていた, since it says to "Conjugate to the te-form and replace 「て」 with 「た」?"

Posted by Anonymous on Mar 14th, 2012 at 6:23 pm.

This isn't a typo. I

This isn't a typo. I understand your confusion and hopefully I will be able to explain it to you.

食べる is the original verb. 食べて is the verb in te-form and is followed by いる to make 食べている.

食べている means "is eating". This might be where you got confused. 食べている becomes 食べていて and then 食べていた.
食べていて doesn't really make sense unless it's followed by another conjunction, etc. The reason the last 'te' becomes the past tense is because this is the part that indicates that eating was or is being done. 食べて is set up to attach いる to it. So you can't change the first 'te' or you will mess up on what you're trying to say. [For instance, 食べたい means "I want to eat"].
いる is the part that indicates the tense. Therefore いた is past.

Makes sense?

Posted by Anonymous on Apr 30th, 2012 at 8:38 pm.

I am a little confused with

I am a little confused with your question, but from the looks of it you're asking about past tense with "ing" ending.

食べている → 食べていて→ 食べていた is perfectly right in the end, but I don't know why the middle part is included because it's kind of useless to be honest.

What is happening here is the verb is being put into present progressive, then put in the past-present progressive;"ing"
To make an "ing" verb in Japanese you combine two verbs, one of your choice and then いる which means "to be". Put the first verb in て-form and then add いる.
think about it as two separate acts
食べて＋いる--> eat + to be
食べている--> eating
食べて＋いた--> eat + was
食べていた--> was eating.

Posted by Anonymous on Mar 19th, 2012 at 6:45 am.

I see. Thanks for your

I see. Thanks for your reply.

So the conjugation rule for the past-present progressive is something like: "Conjugate into the ている form, replace the る with た"

Then perhaps this was a step missing in the conjugation, or rather the past-present progressive requires its own section and should not be lumped together with the past tense?

As the only rule that's stated is, "Conjugate to the te-form and replace 「て」 with 「た」 and 「で」 with 「だ」," this leads to confusion if I were to follow this rule for the past-present progressive and apply it as shown in example 3.

Posted by Anonymous on Mar 20th, 2012 at 11:57 pm.

Thanks for this awesome

Thanks for this awesome guide, Tae Kim! I owe most of my knowledge of the Japanese language to you!

One mistake I spotted:
分かる is an u-verb, not an ru-verb. And you might also want to add that 伝える is a ru-verb since you did this with the previous ru-verbs.

Posted by Anonymous on Dec 6th, 2011 at 1:30 pm.

Past Verb Tense

Plain past tense verbs

When you don't understand, you should say so

Polite past verbs

Spring vacation is already over

Is this a typo? For the Plain

This isn't a typo. I

I am a little confused with

I see. Thanks for your

Thanks for this awesome

Thanks!

I think the second

Yes, just added them now.

oops, not Lee san, Kim san.

Lee san, are all japanese

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