Past Tense
We will finish defining all the basic properties of verbs by learning how to express the past and past-negative tense of actions. I will warn you in advance that the conjugation rules in this section will be the most complex rules you will learn in all of Japanese. On the one hand, once you have this section nailed, all other rules of conjugation will seem simple. On the other hand, you might need to refer back to this section many times before you finally get all the rules. You will probably need a great deal of practice until you can become familiar with all the different conjugations.
Past tense for ru-verbs
We will start off with the easy ru-verb category. To change a ru-verb from the dictionary form into the past tense, you simply drop the 「る」 and add 「た」.
- Drop the 「る」 part of the ru-verb and add 「た」
- 例）出
る→ 出た - 例）捨て
る→ 捨てた
Examples
（１） ご飯は、食べた。
- As for meal, ate.
（２） 映画は、全部見た。
- As for movie, saw them all.
Past tense for u-verbs
Changing a u-verb from dictionary form to the past tense is difficult because we must break up u-verbs into four additional categories. These four categories depend on the last character of the verb. The table below illustrates the different sub-categories. In addition, there is one exception to the rules, which is the verb 「行く」. I've bundled it with the regular exception verbs 「する」 and 「来る」 even though 「行く」 is a regular u-verb in all other conjugations.
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* exceptions particular to this conjugation
Examples
（１） 今日は、走った。
- As for today, ran.
（２） 友達が来た。
- Friend is the one that came.
（３） 私も遊んだ。
- I also played.
（４） 勉強は、した。
- About homework, did it.
Past-negative tense for all verbs
The conjugation rules for the past-negative tense are the same for all verbs. You might have noticed that the negative tense of just about everything always end in 「ない」. The conjugation rule for the past-negative tense of verbs is pretty much the same as all the other negative tenses that end in 「ない」. You simply take the negative tense of any verb, remove the 「い」 from the 「ない」 ending, and replace it with 「かった」.
- Change the verb to the negative tense and replace the 「い」 with 「かった」
- 例）捨てる → 捨てな
い→ 捨てなかった - 例）行く → 行かな
い→ 行かなかった
Examples
（１） アリスは食べなかった。
- As for Alice, did not eat.
（２） ジムがしなかった。
- Jim is the one that did not do.
（３） ボブも行かなかった。
- Bob also did not go.
（４） お金がなかった。
- There was no money. (lit: As for money, did not exist.)
（５） 私は買わなかった。
- As for me, did not buy.
（６） 猫はいなかった。
- There was no cat. (lit: As for cat, did not exist.)
Why "ga"?
Hi,
I have a question about one of the examples here:
4th example in the past-negative section: お金がなかった - There was no money. (lit: As for money, did not exist.)
Since "money" seems to be the topic of the sentence, why "ga" instead of "wa"? Wouldn't using "ga" make the sentence mean: "Money was that, which did not exist?"
Cheers,
Stanislaw
Hi, "wa" could also be used,
Hi,
"wa" could also be used, "wa" & "ga" are pretty similar most of the time.
"ga" adds "importance" to topic, explicitly saying that money and nothing else did not exist. They have the same meaning if you substitute "ga" with "wa" (As for money, did not exist). "ga" is likely to be used when answering questions.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Denis.
"wa" is the topic marker
"wa" declares the topic of the sentence and "ga" declares the subject.
In the sentence お金がなかった the topic is left out. The full and more easily understandable version would be 私は、お金がなかった, which roughly means that "As for me, (the) money did not exist." or "I did not have money."
Translation of お金はなかった being "As for money, did not exist." is not good, because there is no declared subject and it can be anything, depending on the context.
Example of a A asking if B bought some honey:
A:はちみつを買った？
B:お金はなかった。
A:Did you buy honey? (Bought honey?)
B:Money didn't have it. (As for money, it did not exist.)
In situations like this, describing the subject is very important.
asdfag
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