Grammar Info

N5 Lesson 4: 8/13

う-Verb (Past)う - Verbs (Past tense)

Structure

Examples:
(すわ) + った
(うた) + った
() + った

(ある) + いた
(およ) + いだ

() + んだ
() + んだ
(やす) + んだ

(はな) + した

Exceptions:
()く → ()った
するした
くるきた
()う → ()うた
()う → ()うた

Details

  • Part of Speech

    Verb

  • Word Type

    Auxiliary Verb

  • Register

    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 .

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(かこ) - Happened at some point in the past. (Did/Was)

Completion: 完了(かんりょう) - An action that has finished 'happening'. (Done)

Continuation: 存続(そんぞく) - 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.

Examples

--:--

    昨日(きのう)(ほん)()んだ
    昨日(きのう)(ほん)()みました

    I read a book yesterday.

    牛乳(ぎゅうにゅう)()んだ
    牛乳(ぎゅうにゅう)()みました

    I drank milk.

    ロンドン()んだ
    ロンドン()びました

    I flew to London.

    (わたし)たちチーム()った
    (わたし)たちチーム()ちました

    Our team won!

    メアリー日本(にほん)(かえ)った
    メアリー日本(にほん)(かえ)りました

    Mary returned to Japan.

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う-Verb (Past) – Grammar Discussion

Most Recent Replies (19 in total)

  • MikkaT

    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

    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

  • Sammy49

    Sammy49

    Seeing as this lesson doesn’t seem to have undergone any further change, just wanted to say that the same goes for me. This is the one grammar point I’m really stuck on. Splitting it into multiple lessons would be amazing!

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