Course 2, Session 4, Grammar Notes : Past Tense

[Accura]

The past tense forms of verbs look like the following, where 〜 stands for the stem of a verb.

メアリーさんは ９じごろ うちに かえりました。

mearii-san wa kuji goro uchi ni kaeri mashita.

Mary returned home at about nine.

(time + goro = at about time)

わたしは きのう にほんごを べんきょう しませんでした。

watashi wa kinou nihongo o benkyou shimasen deshita.

I did not study Japanese yesterday.

The various details of formation of the long forms (= masu-forms) that we learned in previous lesson, like the ru-verb/ u-verb/ irregular verb distinctions, all apply to the past tense forms as well.

The past tense versions of "X wa Y desu" sentences look like the following.

やましたせんせいは とうきょうだいがくの がくせいでした。

Yamashita sensei wa Tokyo Daigaku no gakusei deshita.

Prof. Yamashita was a student at Tokyo University.

あれは にほんの えいがじゃありませんでした。

are wa nihon no eiga jya arimasen deshita.

That was not a Japanese movie.