past tense

English

Noun

Examples
Isawthe #5 bus across the street. Ididn'tmake it.

pasttense(pluralpast tenses)

1. (grammar)A grammatical form (often averbform) that refers to anevent,transaction,occurrence,or object that happened (or had happened), or existed, at some time beforenow(the applicable reference time).
   • 2004,Tomoko Koneko, “The Use ofPast TenseForms by Japanese Learners of English”, in Junsaku Nakamura, Nagayuki Inoue, Tomoji Tabata, editors,English Corpora under Japanese Eyes,Rodopi,page215:

     This is a report on a study of the use of thepast tenseforms in the 53 Japanese samples compiled for the Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage (LINDSEI) project.

   • 2009,Eric W. Vogt,Practice Makes Perfect: SpanishPast-TenseVerbs Up Close,McGraw Hill,page v:

     As you have studied Spanish, you have probably had the feeling that there are just too manypast tenses.

   • 2012,Robert I. Binnick,ThePast Tensesof the Mongolian Verb,BRILL,page 1:

     Some members of the [Mongolic language] family have three or more different affixes which seem to be markers of thepast tense,so that in Khalkha, for example,irev,irjee,irlee,andirsenall can translate, and be translated by, the Englishpast tenseverbcame.

Translations

grammatical form

• Afrikaans:verlede tyd(af)
• Albanian:kohë e shkuarf,koha e shkuarf(definite)
• Arabic:مَاضٍ(ar)m(māḍin)(indefinite),الْمَاضِيm(al-māḍī)(definite),فِعْل مَاضٍm(fiʕl māḍin),الْفِعْل الْمَاضِيm(al-fiʕl al-māḍī)(definite)
• Armenian:անցյալ ժամանակ(hy)(ancʻyal žamanak),անցյալ(hy)(ancʻyal)
• Azerbaijani:keçmiş zaman
• Bashkir:үткән заман(ütkən zaman)
• Basque:lehenaldi
• Belarusian:міну́лы часm(minúly čas)
• Bengali:অতীত কাল(otit kal)
• Breton:amzer-dremenet(br)f
• Bulgarian:ми́нало вре́меn(mínalo vréme)
• Buryat:үнгэрһэн саг(üngerhen sag)
• Carpathian Rusyn:минулый часm(mynulŷj čas)
• Catalan:passat(ca)m,pretèritm
• Chinese:

  Mandarin:Quá khứ thời thái／Quá khứ thời thái(guòqù shítài),Quá khứ thức／Quá khứ thức(zh)(guòqù shì),Quá khứ thời／Quá khứ thời(zh)(guòqùshí),Quá khứ thức／Quá khứ thức(zh)(guòqùshì)

• Chuvash:иртнӗ вӑхӑт(irtnĕ văh̬ăt)
• Crimean Tatar:keçken zaman
• Czech:minulý časm
• Danish:datid(da)c,præteritum(da)n
• Dutch:verleden tijd(nl)m
• Estonian:minevik
• Faroese:tátíðf
• Finnish:imperfekti(fi),kertoma(fi)
• French:passé(fr)m
• Georgian:ნამყო(namq̇o)
• German:Vergangenheit(de)f,Präteritum(de)n(preterite)
• Greek:αόριστος(el)m(aóristos)
• Gujarati:ભૂતકાળ(bhūtkāḷ)
• Hindi:भूतकाल(hi)m(bhūtkāl),भूत कालm(bhūt kāl),माज़ीm(māzī)
• Hungarian:múlt idő(hu)
• Icelandic:þátíð(is)f
• Indonesian:kala lampau
• Italian:passato(it)m
• Japanese:Quá khứ thời chế(かこじせい, kako jisei),Quá khứ hình(ja)(かこけい, kakokei)
• Kalmyk:өңгрсн цаг(öñgrsn tsag)
• Kazakh:өткен шақ(ötken şaq)
• Khmer:អតីតកាល(ʼaʼtəytaʼkaal)
• Korean:과거시제( quá khứ thời chế )(ko)(gwageosije),과거형( quá khứ hình )(ko)(gwageohyeong)
• Kumyk:гетген заман(getgen zaman)
• Kyrgyz:өткөн чак(ötkön cak)
• Latin:tempuspraeteritumn,praeteritumn
• Latvian:pagātnes laiksm,pagātne(lv)f
• Lithuanian:būtasis laikas(lt)m
• Macedonian:минато времеn(minato vreme)
• Malay:masa lampau(ms)
• Malayalam:ഭൂതകാലം(ml)(bhūtakālaṁ)
• Maori:wāmua
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic:өнгөрсөн цаг(öngörsön cag)

• Navajo:tʼáá íídą́ą́ʼ
• Nogai:озган заман(ozgan zaman)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål:preteritumn,datidmorf

  Nynorsk:preteritumn,datidf

• Old English:forþġewiten tīdf
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian:ماضی(fa)(mâzi),گُذَشْتِه(fa)(gozašte),زَمانِ گُذَشْتِه(zamân-e gozašte)

• Polish:czas przeszły(pl)m
• Portuguese:pretérito(pt)m,passado(pt)m
• Romanian:timp trecutn
• Russian:проше́дшее вре́мя(ru)n(prošédšeje vrémja)
• Scottish Gaelic:tràth caithtem
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic:прошло времеn,прошло вријемеn

  Roman:prošlo vremen,prošlo vrijemen

• Shor:эрткен тем(ertken tem)
• Slovak:minulý časm,préteritumn
• Slovene:preteklikm,pretekli časm
• Southern Altai:ӧткӧн ӧй(ötkön öy)
• Spanish:tiempo pasadom,pretérito(es)
• Swedish:preteritum(sv)n,dåtid(sv)c,förfluten tidc,imperfekt(sv)n
• Tagalog:pangnagdaan,naganap
• Tajik:замони гузашта(zamon-i guzašta),гузашта(tg)(guzašta),мози(moz-i)(dated)
• Tatar:үткән заман(ütkän zaman)
• Telugu:భూతకాలము(te)(bhūtakālamu)
• Thai:อดีตกาล(th)(à-dìit-dtà-gaan)
• Tibetan:འདས་པ('das pa)
• Turkish:geçmiş zaman(tr)
• Turkmen:öten zaman
• Tuvan:эрткен үе(ertken üe)
• Udmurt:ортчем дыр(ortćem dyr)
• Ukrainian:мину́лий час(uk)m(mynúlyj čas)
• Urdu:ماضیm(māzī),زَمانَۂ ماضیm(zamāna-yi māzī)
• Uyghur:ئۆتكەن زامان(ötken zaman)
• Uzbek:oʻtgan zamon
• Vietnamese:thời quá khứ,thì quá khứ
• Walloon:passé(wa)m
• Welsh:amser gorffennolm
• West Frisian:doetiid(fy)c
• Yakut:ааспыт кэм(aaspıt kem)

See also

• be
• is
• was
• were
• aorist
• past continuous
• past indicative
• past perfect
• past perfect continuous
• past subjunctive
• preterite

Further reading

• Grammatical tenseon Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Tense–aspect–moodon Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Subjunctiveon Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Irrealis moodon Wikipedia.Wikipedia