Japanese Verbs in the Past Plain Form (〜た)

By now, you should be able to use verbs in the present and future tense in Japanese. Today, we’re going to learn how to conjugate verbs and create sentences in the past tense. In this lesson, we will focus only on the plain past form for casual situations.

Japanese Verb Review

Before we begin with the past tense, let’s review some common verbs. In Japanese, there are three kinds of verbs: u–verbs, ru–verbs, and irregular verbs.

U–verbs are verbs that end in an “u” (as in “oo”) sound. Here are some examples of u–verbs.

U-VERBS

Japanese	Romaji	English
通う	kayou	to commute
建つ	tatsu	to build
ある	aru	to be/exist (non-living things)
住む	sumu	to live (somewhere)
死ぬ	shinu	to die
運ぶ	hakobu	to carry
焼く	yaku	to grill/bake
急ぐ	isogu	to hurry
壊す	kowasu	to break

Ru-verbs are verbs that end with the hiragana character る (ru). However, keep in mind that sometimes verbs ending in る can be considered u–verbs (like ある above). Here are a few examples of ru–verbs.

RU-VERBS

Japanese	Romaji	English
いる	iru	to be/exist(living things)
信じる	shinjiru	to believe
借りる	kariru	to borrow

And, finally, these are the irregular verbs.

IRREGULAR VERBS

Japanese	Romaji	English
する	suru	to do
来る	kuru	to come

Now that we’ve gone over some common verbs, let’s create a few sentences using the plain form!

私は来週から仕事の為に東京まで通う。
Watashi wa raishuu kara shigoto no tame ni Toukyou made kayou.
I will commute to Tokyo for work starting next week.

彼は占いの話を信じる。
Kare wa uranai no hanashi wo shinjiru.
He believes what the fortune-teller says.

彼女は博物館に来る。

Kanojo wa hakubutsukan ni kuru.

She will come to the museum.

Conjugating Verbs into the –Te Form

In order to conjugate verbs into the past plain form, you must first conjugate them into the –te form. Conjugating verbs into the -te form depends on the type of verb you are using.

With u-verbs, you remove the last hiragana character of the word and replace it with the characters according to the chart below. 

GUIDE TO CONVERTING U-VERBS INTO THE -TE FORM

If it ends in…	…replace it with…
う　・　つ　・　るu           tsu   ru	ってtte
む　・　ぬ　・　ぶmu          nu bu	んでnde
くku	いてite
ぐgu	いでide
すsu	してshite

Now, let’s take the u-verbs from earlier and conjugate them into their –te forms!

U-VERBS (-TE FORM)

Japanese	Romaji
通う  ➝ 通って	kayou  ➝ kayotte
建つ  ➝ 建って	tatsu  ➝ tatte
ある  ➝ あって	aru  ➝ atte
住む  ➝ 住んで	sumu  ➝ sunde
死ぬ  ➝ 死んで	shinu  ➝ shinde
運ぶ  ➝ 運んで	hakobu  ➝ hakonde
焼く  ➝ 焼いて	yaku  ➝ yaite
急ぐ  ➝ 急いで	isogu  ➝ isoide
壊す  ➝ 壊して	kowasu  ➝ kowashite

With ru-verbs, you remove the final hiragana character る and replace it with て (te).

RU-VERBS (-TE FORM)

Japanese	Romaji
いる  ➝ いて	iru  ➝ ite
信じる  ➝ 信じて	shinjiru  ➝ shinjite
借りる  ➝ 借りて	kariru  ➝ karite

And, finally, here are the irregular verbs.

IRREGULAR VERBS (-TE FORM)

Japanese	Romaji
する  ➝ して	suru  ➝ shite
来る  ➝ 来て	kuru  ➝ kite

Conjugating Verbs into the Past Plain Form (-Ta Form)

Now that we have conjugated the verbs into their -te form, it’s time to conjugate them into the past plain form—or the -ta form. Conjugating verbs from the -te form into the -ta form, is simple. If it ends with て, you replace it with た (ta). If it ends with で (de) you replace it with だ (da). 

Let’s take a few of the verbs from above and conjugate them into the past plain form.

PAST PLAIN FORM (-TA FORM)

Japanese	Romaji	English
焼いて  ➝ 焼いた	yaite  ➝ yaita	(-te form)  ➝ grilled/baked
壊して  ➝ 壊した	kowashite  ➝ kowashita	(-te form)  ➝ broke
いて  ➝ いた	ite  ➝ ita	(-te form)  ➝ was/existed(living things)
借りて  ➝ 借りた	karite  ➝ karita	(-te form)  ➝ borrowed
して  ➝ した	shite  ➝ shita	(-te form)  ➝ did

How to Use the Past Plain Form

The plain form is used in casual situations. 

When expressing the mere existence of something or someone in the past tense using the plain form, use either あった or いた. あった is used for non-living things, and いた is used for living things.

Examples:

テレビがあった。
Terbi ga atta.
There was a TV.

宴会でボブがいた。
Enkai de Bobu ga ita.
Bob was at the banquet.

In casual situations, in order to express that an action took place or has taken place, you use the verb in its plain -ta form.

Examples:

昨日家で魚を焼いた。
Kinou ie de sakana wo yaita.
I grilled fish at home yesterday.

先週健太さんは鏡を壊した。
Senshuu Kenta-san wa kagami wo kowashita.
Kenta broke a mirror last week.

２週間前あの店でDVDを借りた。
Ni-shuukan mae ano mise de DVD wo karita.
I rented a DVD at that store two weeks ago.

１時間前母は洗濯をした。
Ichi-jikan mae haha wa sentaku wo shita.
My mom did the laundry an hour ago.

In Summary

The past plain form is used for casual situations when talking about things that took place or have taken place in the past. 

In order to conjugate the verb into the past plain form, you must first conjugate it into the -te form. After that, you change it into the -ta form, which is simple. If it ends in a て, you replace it with a た. If it ends in a で, you replace it with a だ.

Now that you know how to use the past plain form, it’s time to get out there and practice with your Japanese speaking partner! You will be using the past plain form a lot, so don’t take this one lightly! 

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