Latest / Learn Japanese with Fexingo / Japanese Simple Past Tense Basics
Transcript
- Lucas: Hey everyone, welcome back to Learn Japanese with Fexingo. I'm Lucas. Luna: And I'm Luna! Ready to learn some more Japanese? Lucas: Today we're going to talk about the past tense. You know how to say 'I eat sushi' in Japanese, right? Luna: Sure, that's '私は寿司を食べます'. Lucas: Perfect. But what if you want to say 'I ate sushi'? That's where today's phrases come in. For past tense, we change ます to ました. Luna: Oh, so 食べます becomes 食べました? Lucas: Exactly! 食べました means 'ate' or 'have eaten'. Let's practice that. Repeat after me: 食べました. Luna: 食べました. Lucas: Great. 食べました. Now let's try a full sentence: 'I ate sushi.' That would be '私は寿司を食べました'. Luna: So '私は寿司を食べました'. Lucas: Perfect. 食べました. Let's try another verb. 'To go' is 行きます. The past tense is? Luna: 行きました? Lucas: Yes! 行きました means 'went'. For example, 'I went to Kyoto' is '私は京都に行きました'. Luna: Oh, 京都 is Kyoto, right? So '私は京都に行きました'. Lucas: Exactly. 行きました. Now another common verb: 'to see' or 'to watch' is 見ます. Past tense? Luna: 見ました? Lucas: Right. 見ました means 'saw' or 'watched'. For example, 'I watched a movie' is '私は映画を見ました'. Luna: 映画 is movie, got it. '私は映画を見ました'. Lucas: And 'to drink' is 飲みます. Past tense? Luna: 飲みました. Lucas: Good. 'I drank coffee' is '私はコーヒーを飲みました'. Luna: コーヒーを飲みました. Nice. So the pattern is just changing ます to ました. Lucas: Yeah, for these verbs it's that simple. Now let's add time words. 'Yesterday' is 昨日. Luna: 昨日. Lucas: So 'I ate sushi yesterday' is '私は昨日寿司を食べました'. Luna: 私は昨日寿司を食べました. That's a mouthful but I like it. Lucas: And 'last week' is 先週. 'I went to Kyoto last week' is '私は先週京都に行きました'. Luna: 先週京都に行きました. Got it. Lucas: Alright, let's do a quick practice. I'll say a present tense verb, and you say the past tense. Ready? Luna: Ready! Lucas: 食べます. Luna: 食べました. Lucas: 行きます. Luna: 行きました. Lucas: 見ます. Luna: 見ました. Lucas: 飲みます. Luna: 飲みました. Lucas: You're nailing it! Now let's put it all together in a little story. Yesterday, I ate sushi, watched a movie, and drank coffee. In Japanese: 昨日、寿司を食べました。映画を見ました。コーヒーを飲みました。 Luna: So: 昨日、寿司を食べました。映画を見ました。コーヒーを飲みました。That's a good day. Lucas: Yeah, a nice relaxing day. And you know, if Fexingo has been helping you make real progress with Japanese, and you'd like to support the show, we have a way you can do that. Luna: Yeah, it's something small that genuinely makes a difference. A couple of dollars a month is what keeps these episodes coming — ad-free and focused on learning. Lucas: If you've gotten something out of these lessons, you can head to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's it, no pressure. Anyway, back to Japanese. Luna: So we were saying, yesterday I did all those things. Let's try one more sentence: 'Last week I went to Tokyo.' How do I say that? Lucas: Tokyo is 東京. So 'I went to Tokyo last week' is '私は先週東京に行きました'. Luna: 私は先週東京に行きました. Nice. Lucas: And if you want to ask someone 'Did you eat sushi?' you say '寿司を食べましたか？' Just add か at the end. Luna: Oh, so 食べましたか is 'did you eat?' That's easy. Lucas: Exactly. So today we learned 食べました, 行きました, 見ました, 飲みました, and time words 昨日 and 先週. Let's do one more round of repetition. Repeat after me: 食べました. Luna: 食べました. Lucas: 行きました. Luna: 行きました. Lucas: 見ました. Luna: 見ました. Lucas: 飲みました. Luna: 飲みました. Lucas: 昨日. Luna: 昨日. Lucas: 先週. Luna: 先週. Lucas: You've got this. Practice using these with things you did yesterday or last week, and you'll be talking about the past in no time. Luna: Thanks, Lucas! And thanks to all our listeners. Practice these phrases and we'll see you next time on Learn Japanese with Fexingo. Lucas: Bye for now!