The past tenses
What happened and what used to happen: હું ગયો, મેં ખાધું and હું રમતો હતો, and why મેં goes with a verb that has an object.
Learn
The past tenses, explained point by point
Everything the GCSE specification expects you to be able to do, and how to actually do it - the same lesson a signed-in student studies from.
Form the past from the stem
The past adds -્યો for a man or boy, -ી for a woman or girl, -્યું for something neuter and -્યા for a group of men or boys, and -્યાં for a group of men and women together: આવવું gives રાજ આવ્યો Raj came, પ્રિયા આવી Priya came, મમ્મી-પપ્પા આવ્યાં mum and dad came.
Learn the common irregular pasts
A few everyday verbs have their own past: જવું gives ગયો, ગઈ, ગયું; થવું gives થયો, થઈ; ખાવું gives ખાધું; પીવું gives પીધું; લેવું gives લીધું; બેસવું gives બેઠો. Learn them by heart.
Use મેં, તેણે and the other agent forms with a verb that has an object
In the past, a verb that does something to an object puts the doer in its agent form: મેં I, તેં you, તેણે he or she, અમે we, તમે you, તેમણે they; a name adds -એ, as in રાજે. So મેં ફિલ્મ જોઈ I watched a film, and રાજે મેચ જોઈ Raj watched the match.
Make the past agree with the object, not the doer
With મેં and the other agent forms, the verb matches the thing done: મેં કેરી ખાધી I ate a mango (કેરી is feminine), મેં કેળું ખાધું I ate a banana (neuter), મેં પત્ર લખ્યો I wrote a letter (masculine). A verb with no object still matches the person: હું ગયો, હું ગઈ.
Say what has happened with છે
Add the helper to the past for an action that is finished but still matters now: હું ભારત ગયો છું I have been to India, મેં ખાધું છે I have eaten.
Say what used to happen, or was happening, with the imperfect
Put the stem with -તો, then હતો: હું ક્રિકેટ રમતો હતો I used to play cricket, or I was playing cricket. Both parts match the person: હું રમતી હતી for a girl, અમે રમતા હતા for a group.
Use time words to place the past
ગઈકાલે yesterday, ગયા અઠવાડિયે last week, ગયા વર્ષે last year, હું નાનો હતો ત્યારે when I was small. કાલે on its own can mean yesterday or tomorrow: the tense of the verb tells you which.
The past tenses key terms
The words the specification and the mark schemes use, each defined the way an examiner wants it.
- Perfect tense
- The past for a finished action: હું ગયો I went, મેં જોયું I saw.
- Imperfect tense
- The past for a habit or something going on: હું રમતો હતો I used to play, I was playing.
- Transitive verb
- A verb that does something to an object, such as ખાવું to eat or લખવું to write. In the past it takes an agent form like મેં.
- Agent form
- The form of the doer with a transitive verb in the past: મેં, તેં, તેણે, તેમણે, or a name with -એ.
- Agreement
- A verb ending matching a noun in gender and number: મેં કેરી ખાધી, because કેરી is feminine.
- ગઈકાલે
- Yesterday. ગયા before a time word means last: ગયા મહિને last month.
Common mistakes in The past tenses
The slips that cost marks year after year, and what to do instead.
Writing હું ખાધું for I ate.
ખાવું takes an object, so the doer is in its agent form: મેં ખાધું.
Writing મેં ગયો for I went.
જવું has no object, so the person stays as it is: હું ગયો, or હું ગઈ for a girl.
Matching the verb to the person, as in મેં કેરી ખાધો.
With મેં, the verb matches the object. કેરી is feminine, so મેં કેરી ખાધી.
Making જવું regular, as in હું જયો.
The past of જવું is irregular: ગયો, ગઈ, ગયું, ગયા.
Practice
Try a The past tenses question
A GCSE-style original question from this topic. Have a go before you open the working - deciding on an answer first is what makes the working stick.
Which sentence is accurate?
- મારી બહેન ચોપડી વાંચી.
- મારી બહેને ચોપડી વાંચ્યો.
- મારી બહેને ચોપડી વાંચી.
- મારી બહેને ચોપડી વાંચ્યું.
Show the answer and the working
Answer: મારી બહેને ચોપડી વાંચી.
Reading has an object, so my sister takes -એ and the verb agrees with ચોપડી, a feminine noun: મારી બહેને ચોપડી વાંચી, my sister read a book.
- The doer of a verb with an object takes -એ: બહેને.
- The verb agrees with ચોપડી, feminine.
- So મારી બહેને ચોપડી વાંચી: my sister read a book.