Past Tense Positive Conjugation

We've now seen how to get the past tense root for verbs - now let's look at how we conjugate for the past tense. Like with the present-future tense, there are two sets of conjugations: one for positive conjugations (like 'I ate'), and one for negative conjugations (like 'I didn't eat'). Here's the positive conjugation for the past tense:

 

እኔ: Root -ሁ* / Root –w*

አንተ: Root -ህ* / Root –h*

አንቺ: Root -ሽ / Root –š

እርስዎ: Root -ኡ*** / Root –u***

እሱ: Root -ኧ / Root -ä

እሷ: Root -ኧች / Root -äčč

እሳቸው: Root -ኡ*** / Root –u***

እኛ: Root –(እ)ን** / Root –(ï)n**

እናንተ: Root -አችሁ / Root –aččuh

እነሱ: Root -ኡ*** / Root –u***

 

Those are the positive conjugations for the past tense! There's a bit less to remember than for the present-future tense conjugations. Note that for እኔ, although the character is usually pronounced 'hu', when at the end of the verb it is pronounced 'w', like how it is pronounced in the present tense positive conjugation.

 

*For እኔ and አንተ, the -ሁ and -ህ endings become -ኩ and -ክ after sixth order consonants.

**For እኛ, the እ vowel is inserted only where it would be awkward to say otherwise - for example, 'we spoke' is ተናገርን tänagärn, but 'we wanted' is ፈለግን fällägïn.

***For እርስዎ, እሳቸው, and እነሱ, the vowel -ኡ overrides the final vowel on the verb root. For example, 'they heard' is ሰሙ sämmu (መስማት mäsmat 'to hear' - past tense root ሰማ 'sämma').

 

Another important thing to remember is that similar sounds merge. So for instance, 'you arrived (f)' is ደረስሽ, pronounced dərrəš. For እኔ and አንተ, when adding the suffix onto a verb which ends in a sixth-order consonant of either ቅ or ግ, this final letter is dropped from speech, and may be dropped from writing - so 'I knew' is አወኩ or አወቅኩ awäku, and 'you did (m)' is አደረክ or አደረግክ adäräk.

 

Now let’s look at the past tense positive conjugation for the verbs መሄድ mähed 'to go' (past root ሄድ hed) and መምጣት mämTat 'to come' (past root መጣ mäTTa):

 

እኔ: ሄድኩ hedku 'I went' / መጣሁ mäTTaw 'I came'

አንተ: ሄድክ hedk 'You went' (m) / መጣህ mäTTah 'You came' (m)

አንቺ: ሄድሽ hedš 'You went' (m) / መጣሽ mäTTaš 'You came' (f)

እርስዎ: ሄዱ hedu 'You went' (frm) / መጡ mäTTu 'You came' (frm)

እሱ: ሄደ hedä 'He went' / መጣ mäTTa 'He came'

እሷ: ሄደች hedäčč 'She went' / መጣች mäTTačč 'She came'

እሳቸው: ሄዱ hedu 'He/She went' (frm) / መጡ mäTTu 'He/She came' (frm)

እኛ: ሄድን hedïn 'We went' / መጣን mäTTan 'We came'

እናንተ: ሄዳችሁ hedaččuh 'You went' (pl) / መጣችሁ mäTTaččuh 'You came' (pl)

እነሱ: ሄዱ hedu 'They went' / መጡ mäTTu 'They came'

 

Now that we've seen the past tense positive conjugation on two verbs, let’s look at a few example phrases with past tense verbs in:

 

ከአንድ ዓመት በፊት ወደ ዛምቢያ ሄድኩ። kand amät bäfit wädä zambiya hedku 'I went to Zambia one year ago.'

ሁለት ሰዓት ላይ ከሥራ ተመለሰ። hulät säat lay käsïrra tämäläsä 'He returned from work at two o'clock.'

ልጆቹ ብዙ ምግብ በሉ። lïjjočču bïzu mïgïb bällu 'The children ate a lot of food.'

 

That's all for this section. Here's some practice - work out which person the following verbs are conjugated for (remember that one specific conjugation set applies to three persons):

ወጣች

አየሁ

ጻፍን

ተነጋገሩ

ደረስክ

ገባችሁ

ጠጣ

ተማርሽ