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 (19 in total)
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
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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