In Lesson 4 of GENKI I, you learned how to say where things are. Now, you’ll learn how to talk about things that happened in the past. This is a big step! You’ll also learn two new particles that are crucial for conversation.
1. The Past Tense of 「です」 (desu)
The easiest way to talk about the past is by changing the ending of a sentence that uses 「です」.
- 「です」 (desu): Present Tense (polite)
- マイクさんは 学生 です。Mike is a student.
- 「でした」 (deshita): Past Tense (polite)
- マイクさんは 学生 でした。Mike was a student.
This works for negative sentences, too.
- 「じゃないです」 (ja nai desu): Present Negative (polite)
- マイクさんは 学生 じゃないです。Mike is not a student.
- 「じゃなかったです」 (ja nakatta desu): Past Negative (polite)
- マイクさんは 学生 じゃなかったです。Mike was not a student.
2. The Past Tense of Verbs
Just like with 「です」, you can change the tense of a verb by changing its ending. You will change the 「-masu」 form you learned in Lesson 3.
- 「-masu」: Present/Future Tense (polite)
- たべます (tabemasu) → I eat / I will eat
- いきます (ikimasu) → I go / I will go
- 「-mashita」: Past Tense (polite)
- たべます → たべました (tabemashita)I ate.
- いきます → いきました (ikimashita)I went.
To make them past negative, you change 「-masen」 to 「-masen deshita」.
- 「-masen」: Present Negative (polite)
- たべません (tabemasen) → I don’t eat / I won’t eat
- いきません (ikimasen) → I don’t go / I won’t go
- 「-masen deshita」: Past Negative (polite)
- たべません → たべませんでした (tabemasen deshita)I did not eat.
- いきません → いきませんでした (ikimasen deshita)I did not go.
3. New Particles: 「も」 and 「と」
- 「も」 (mo): “also”This particle can replace 「は」 or 「が」 to mean “also” or “too.”
- 私は メアリーです。 私も 学生です。I am Mary. I am also a student.
- 「と」 (to): “and” or “together with”This particle connects two or more nouns.
- 私は メアリーさんと 日本に 行きました。I went to Japan with Mary.
- 本 と ペン を 買いました。I bought a book and a pen.
4. Talking About Time in the Past
When you talk about a past event, you often use specific time words. The particle 「に」 is not used with these words.
日 (ひ): Day
- おととい (ototoi) → The day before yesterday
- きのう (kinou) → Yesterday
週 (しゅう): Week
- 先週 (senshuu) → Last week
月 (つき/がつ): Month
- 先月 (sengetsu) → Last month
年 (とし/ねん): Year
- 去年 (kyonen) → Last year
Learn more about time words. The particle 「に」 is used with these words.
By combining these new past tense forms and time words, you can now tell stories about your past experiences. Keep practicing, and you’ll be able to describe everything you did yesterday and last week!