Past Tense Verbs (ました)
“It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary. ” - Winston Churchill
At this point, you know how to say you’ll do something… but, you don’t know how to say you won’t do something… or you did do something… or you didn’t do something. That’s what we’re going to start doing now.
As you go through these, make sure you keep studying your Verbs 2 Vocab List. It’s going to be important that you know those words so you can focus on the grammar portions of these lessons, rather than trying to remember the words themselves.
The first conjugation we’ll learn is ました. Like です, it’s going to be as simple as switching one thing out with another. Let’s review really quickly what you know right now:
a すし を たべます
To eat sushi / I eat sushi
a ビール を のみます
To drink beer / I drink beer
The ます you see there is “ます form.” It’s what you learned in the last chapter. Now, you’re learning ました form (past tense verbs). As you can imagine, all you need to do is switch ます out with ました.
a すし を たべました
I ate sushi
a ビール を のみました
I drank beer
It really is just that simple. One thing to note, however, is the pronunciation of ました. Like でした, the “i-sound” is suppressed, basically giving you a “mashta” sort of sound.
a ました
Just keep this in mind as you use ました form with your verbs. Now, let’s take a look at some words and practice.