Structure
Examples:
座る + った
歌う + った
打つ + った
歩く + いた
泳ぐ + いだ
死ぬ + んだ
飛ぶ + んだ
休む + んだ
話す + した
Exceptions:
行く → 行った
する → した
くる → きた
問う → 問うた
請う → 請うた
Details
Part of Speech
Verb
Word Type
Auxiliary Verb
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Standard
About う-Verb (Past)
To make the past form of a う-Verb in Japanese, just like all other conjugations of う-Verbs, you will need to change the last kana, before adding the auxiliary verb た (casual), or ました (polite). This change in kana is a bit different to other conjugations of う-Verbs, so let's take a look at them for the casual form.
As can be seen in these examples, the changes consist of った, いた, いだ, んだ, した (the same as the changes for て form, but using た instead). For the conjugations using だ in place of た, this is simply a sound change in the language that happened over the course of history, to make words easier/smoother to say. It is not the auxiliary verb だ.
For the polite past form of う-Verbs, the change in sound is far more consistent. This only requires a change from the う sound, to the い sound within the same column (from う to い, or from く to き, for example).
When た is added to verbs (or any other word), it can have one of three possible meanings.
Past: 過去 - Happened at some point in the past. (Did/Was)
Completion: 完了 - An action that has finished 'happening'. (Done)
Continuation: 存続 - A new state of something that is continuing. (Has been done)
Caution
With う-Verbs, there are a few verbs that are exceptions to the regular conjugation rules. Please check the structure guide for these.
Synonyms
Examples
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昨日、本を読んだ。
昨日、本を読みました。
I read a book yesterday.
牛乳を飲んだ。
牛乳を飲みました。
I drank milk.
ロンドンへ飛んだ。
ロンドンへ飛びました。
I flew to London.
私たちのチームは勝った!
私たちのチームは勝ちました!
Our team won!
メアリーは日本に帰った。
メアリーは日本に帰りました。
Mary returned to Japan.
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う-Verb (Past) – Grammar Discussion
Most Recent Replies (18 in total)
Tjack102
for this question: 彼は学校へ行った。彼は学校へ行きました。
the correct answer is: いった but it says my answer is wrong. the only way that it’ll accept my answer is if i copy/paste った and add い. am i missing something here? annoying af
MikkaT
I’m using hints so I have no problem, but out of curiousity.
Is there actually a way to know that the past is requested just by looking at the sentence?
大学にカフェが________。[ある]
IcyIceBear
Nope. None whatsoever from that sentence.
Unless the sentence references some event in the past, like “yesterday, before, when I attended college” you usually won’t know it’s past tense until the end, without having any context from earlier conversation
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