It's all in the past
Changing verbs to the 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」.
To change ru-verbs into the past tense
- Drop the 「る」 part of the ru-verb and add 「た」
- 例） →
- 例） →
Examples
（１） は、。
- As for meal, ate.
（２） は、。
- 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 「」. I've bundled it with the regular exception verbs 「」 and 「」 even though 「」 is a regular u-verb in all other conjugations.
Past tense conjugations for u-verbs
| Ending | Non-Past | changes to... | Past |
|---|
| す |
|
す→した | |
く
ぐ |
|
く→いた
ぐ→いだ |
|
む
ぶ
ぬ |
|
む→んだ
ぶ→んだ
ぬ→んだ |
|
る
う
つ |
|
る→った
う→った
つ→った |
|
|
|
Exceptions
| Non-Past | Past |
|---|
| |
| |
| * |
|
* exceptions particular to this conjugation
Examples
（１） は、。
- As for today, ran.
（２） が。
- Friend is the one that came.
（３） も。
- I also played.
（４） は、。
- 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」.
To change verbs into the past-negative tense
- Change the first verb to the negative tense and replace the 「い」 with 「かった」
- 例） → →
- 例） → →
Examples
（１） アリスは。
- As for Alice, did not eat.
（２） ジムが。
- Jim is the one that did not do.
（３） ボブも。
- Bob also did not go.
（４） が。
- There was no money. (lit: As for money, did not exist.)
（５） は。
- As for me, did not buy.
（６） は。
- There was no cat. (lit: As for cat, did not exist.)
This page has last been revised on 2007/1/3