The Past Tense
The past tense is indicated in English by the ending "-ed," but there are many irregular verbs. For Japanese, the past ending is "-ta." Even though the stems for the negative are a bit awkward, all negative verbs end in "-ta" or its altered form "da."
RU verbs
The past is easy for RU verbs as well. All you do is remove the ending "-ru" and add the past ending "-ta."
Watashi wa ringo o tabeta.
"Watashi" is our subject and is translated as "I." "Tabeta" is our verb. It is the past tense of "taberu." We translate it as "ate." And lastly, "ringo" is our object, so we translate it as "an apple" or "some apples." That wasn't so hard was it?
I ate some apples.
I saw a movie.
Our subject is "I" so we can go ahead and translate it as "watashi wa." Our object is "movie." "Movie" is "eiga" in Japanese. We add our object marker "o" after "eiga." Then we have our verb. "Saw" is the past tense of "see." "Miru" means "to see" in Japanese and the past of that is "mita." So we get
Watashi wa eiga o mita.
U verbs
Unfortunately, the past tense is a lot harder for U verbs. This is because the stems and suffixes have been merged and altered over time. There are 5 endings for the past tense of U verbs.
Endings Vocab (from last lesson)
su -> shita hanasu = to speak tobu = to jump, to fly
nihon-go = Japanese (language) tatsu = to stand up
ku -> ita eigo = English (language) suwaru = to sit down
de = in [a language] (postposition) inu = dog
gu -> ida neko = cat
tsu \ kaku = to write, to draw kau = buy
ru -> tta egaku = to draw uru = sell
u / e = picture KONPYUUTA = computer
tegami = letter kuruma = car
nu \
bu -> nda jitensha = bicycle
mu / oyogu = to swim
PUURU = (swiming) pool
tobi-komu = to jump in(to)
There are a lot of examples for the past tense of U verbs. This is because you need to learn them well. Many textbooks leave the student to figure out how to form the past, but this is worse in the long run. So just endure it and it will pay off later.
I spoke in Japanese.
"I" is the subject and becomes "watashi wa." "In Japanese" is translated first, with the word for "Japanese," "nihon-go," and then we add the postposition "de" after it which can mean "at [a place]" or "in [a language]" in addition to a few other things. "Spoke" is the past of "to speak" which is "hanasu" in Japanese. The past of "hanasu" is made by changing the last syllable to "shita."
Watashi wa nihon-go de hanashita.
Tanaka-san wa e o egaita.
The subject here is "Tanaka-san" which we will translate here as "Mr. Tanaka." The object is "e" which means "a picture." "Egaita" is the past form of the Japanese verb "egaku" which means "to draw." If you word backwards, you can figure out any verb that ends in "ita" is the past tense of a U verb that endings in "ku."
Tanaka drew a picture.
Inu wa ureshiku PUURU de oyoida.
The subject here is "inu" which means "dog." Then, there are two descriptive phrases before the verb. The first one is "ureshiku." this should look familiar if you've been practicing alongside the lessons. "Ureshiku" comes from the I adjective "ureshii" which means "happy." The "ku" ending makes it an adverb similar to "ly" in English. So "ureshiku" means "happily." "PUURU de" means "in the pool." Finally, "oyoida" is the verb. "Oyoida" is the past of "oyogu" which means "to swim."
The dog swam happily in the pool.
If you've been keeping up with hiragana and katakana, you may notice a corespondence between U verbs ending in "ku" and "gu." That verbs ending in "ku" change to "ita" and neither of those kana have voice marks, but the kana "gu" to "ida" both have voice marks.
The next three examples can be grouped together because they all end in "tta" in the past form.
Aiko bought a dog.
"Aiko" is the subject, but since it's a name, we usually need to put a title after it. Since we only know "-san" so far, we'll say "Aiko-san" and add "wa" after it as usual. The object here is "dog" which is "inu" in Japanese. The verb "bought" is the past tense of "to buy." In Japanese, "to buy" is "kau," so we remove the final "u" and add "tta."
Aiko-san wa inu o katta.
Suzuki-san wa kuruma o utta.
The subject here is "Suzuki-san" which we can translate here as "Mrs. Suzuki." The object here is "kuruma" which means "car." Here we can translate it as "her" car. Japanese leave out obvious information in their sentences, and obviously "Mrs. Suzuki" isn't selling someone else's car. The verb here is "utta." Since it ends in "tta," we know that it has to end in "u" "ru" or "tsu." "Utsu" means "to hit" and "uru" means "to sell," but there is no such verb as "uu." As you can see, there are sometimes different possibilities. We must rely on context to figure out the answer. Though it is conceivable that this sentence means "Mrs. Suzuki hit here car," but it's more likely
Mrs. Suzuki sold her car.
The cat stood up.
"Cat" is "neko" in Japanese. As always, it is followed by "wa." "To stand up" is "tatsu" in Japanese, and the past of that is "tatta" since we replace the final "tsu" with "tta."
Neko wa tatta.
The last three can also be grouped because their endings all change to "n`da" in the past tense. There is also a mnemonic for this group. The three endings are "nu" "bu" and "mu." You may remember that when the sound N` comes before the sound B in Japanese, it sounds like M.
Tori wa shinda.
This example seems kind of sad, but "shinu" (to die) is the only normal verb in Japanese that ends in "nu." This sentence is simple enough. "Tori" is the subject and is followed by "wa." "Shinu" becomes "shinda."
The bird died.
Tori wa tonda.
This one's easy. "Tori" is "bird" and "tonda" is the past of "tobu" (to fly). So this one means
The bird flew.
Rei jumped into the pool.
This is the last one. "Rei" is a name and so we usually put a title after it. So let's put "-san" at the end, since it's the only title we know, and add "wa" after it. "Pool" is "PUURU" and we translate "into" with the postposition "ni." So "into the pool" is translated as "PUURU ni." "Jump into" is translated as "tobi-komu." This may seem strange because already translated the "into" part, but "jumping" and "jumping into" are two different actions. You still keep the "ni" there and we add the past of "tobi-komu," "tobi-konda" after it.
Rei-san wa PUURU ni tobi-konda.
Irregular Verbs
Again, the two irregular verbs "suru" and "kuru" are completely different.
Japanese Past English
suru shita did
kuru kita came
Vocab
shigoto = work mou = already, soon, (not) any longer *
shukudai = homework
* Whenever you see (not) in a translation, it means that is the words meaning in a negative sentence.
Hiroshi-san wa kaigi ni kita.
"Hiroshi" here is the subject and is followed by "-san." Let's assume it's "Mr. Hiroshi" for now. "Kita" means "came" and "kaigi ni" means "to the meeting." So this means
Hiroshi came to the meeting.
Watashi wa mou shukudai o shita.
"Watashi" is the subject again and it still means "I." "Mou" is an adverb and it means "already." "Shukudai" is the object and it means "homework," and "shita" is the past of "suru," so all together this means
I already did my homework.
Semi-Irregular Verbs
As I mentioned before, "iku" (to go) is irregular in the past and the connective (which is a different tense that has a similar formation). "Iku" becomes "itta" in the past. This happens to be the same as the past as the regular U verb "iu" which means "to say" or "to tell." The verb "aru" is not irregular in the past and acts like a normal U verb.
Ano hito wa mise e itta.
Let's say "ano hito wa" means "him" in this case. "Mise e" means "to the store" and "itta" is the past of "iku."
He went to the store.
The Copula
As I've said, the copula came from the contraction of "de aru." So if the past of "aru" is "atta," then it becomes "de atta." "De atta" is not used, though, because it contracts to "datta."
Watashi wa sensei datta.
The subject here is "I" again. "Sensei" means teacher and "datta" means "was."
I was a teacher.
I Adjectives
The past of I adjectives is easy. You simply take the ending "-i" off and add the ending "-katta."
Densha wa hayakatta.
"Densha" means "train" in Japanese. It is the subject of this sentence. "Hayakatta" is the past form of "hayai." So this sentence means
The train was fast.
Yokatta!
This is actually just an interjection or word that expresses emotion. "Yokatta" is actually the past tense of "ii" (good), the irregular adjective. However, when just yelled out, it means something like "thank goodness." Note that in English, if there was a dangerous situation, but no one was hurt, it would sound odd to say "that was good." But the Japanese mentality is different, and it is assumed that it means "it was good (that no one was hurt)."
Thank goodness!
Negative-Past
Now that you know all this, you can also make negative-past verbs. All negative verbs end in "-nai," and this acts like an adjective. This means, all you have to do to make a negative-past verb is to change the final "nai" to "nakatta."
I didn't go to the pool.
"I" is translated as "watashi" and since it's the subject, it is followed by "wa." "To the pool" is translated as "PUURU ni." Then we have our verb. "Iku" means "to go." The negative of that is "ikanai." Then we change the "nai" to "nakatta." So we get
Watashi wa PUURU ni ikanakatta.
Tanaka-san wa kaeranakatta.
Let's assume that "Tanaka-san" means "Mr. Tanaka" here. "Kaeru" means "to come home." The negative of that is "kaeranai" and the past of that is made by changing the "nai" to "nakatta." So "kaeranakatta" means "did not come home."
Mr. Tanaka didn't come home.
I know this lesson was a bit heavy on the examples, especially with U verbs, but there's a lot to learn in this lesson. Make sure you know how to form the past of all of these or you will be lost later on. If you forget how the copula works in the past or something though, don't sweat. You can still use this page as reference until you are familiar with all of these forms.
Return