Past Tense Negative Conjugation

Here is the last of the "simple" conjugations for us to look at (you'll find out about the other conjugations later on). The negative form of the past tense is formed using the present tense conjugation as a base, unlike the present tense negative, where a different conjugation is used altogether. The past tense negative conjugation is formed as follows:

 

አል- Past Tense Positive Conjugation -ም / al- Past Tense Positive Conjugation -ïm

 

It's that simple. Here is the verb መምጣት mämTat 'to come' conjugated in the past tense negative conjugation:

 

እኔ: አልመጣሁም almäTTahum 'I didn't come'

አንተ: አልመጣህም almäTTahïm 'You didn't come' (m)

አንቺ: አልመጣሽም almäTTašïm 'You didn't come' (f)

እርስዎ: አልመጡም almäTTum 'You didn't come' (frm)

እሱ: አልመጣም almäTTam 'He didn't come'

እሷ: አልመጣችም almäTTaččïm 'She didn't come'

እሳቸው: አልመጡም almäTTum 'He/She didn't come' (frm)

እኛ: አልመጣንም almäTTanïm 'We didn't come'

እናንተ: አልመጣችሁም almäTTaččïhum 'You didn't come' (pl)

እነሱ: አልመጡም almäTTum 'They didn't come'

 

That's the past tense negative conjugation. You may have noticed that for እሱ, the past tense negative conjugation of መምጣት is the same as the present tense negative conjugation for እኔ; both are አልመጣም almäTTam. This is the same for any verb whose root (both present and past) is CäCCa, where C is any consonant. Some example verbs are መውጣት mäwTat 'to exit', መርሳት märsat 'to forget', and መብላት mäblat 'to eat'. Either using the subject pronoun (እኔ/እሱ) or using context can be used to work out which is meant.

 

Now let's look at some example sentences with the past tense negative conjugation.

 

ወደ ላሊበላ ለምን አልሄዳችሁም? wädä lalibbäla lämïn alhedaččïhum 'Why didn't you go to Lalibela?'

አይ፣ ዓረብኛ አልተማርኩም። ay, aräbbïñña altämarkum 'No, I didn't learn Arabic.'

አንዳንድ ሰዎች አልመጡም። andand säwočč almäTTum 'Some people didn't come.'

 

Since the negative conjugation of the past tense is based off the positive conjugation, there won't be any practice questions for this section.