Past Tense and Present Perfect Tense with the Ta-form

Last time, you learned how to express existence and possession like "駅えきに田た中なかさんがいる (Tanaka-san is in the station)," and "田た中なかさんには大おおきな夢ゆめがある (Tanaka-san has a big dream)." Then, if you would like to say “Tanaka-san was in the station,” what should you do? In this lesson, you will learn how to express past tense and present perfect tense.

How Past Tense and Present Perfect Tense in Japanese Work with the Ta-form

Past tense indicates that actions were completed in the past, e.g. I studied Japanese. Present perfect tense has a number of different functions, e.g. to express completion: “I have just done my homework,” and experience: “I have studied Japanese before.” In English, you distinguish the two tenses by using “have.” However, in Japanese, we express the two tenses by using the same form.

Ta-form

When you conjugate verbs into the ta-form, you can utilize the conjugation rule of the te-form. Just like the te-form ends with て, the ta-form works the same as the te-form, but ends with た. Let's check the conjugation rule.

Ru-verbs: Replace る with た

Two Exceptions

U-verbs: Four Different Rules with One Exception

Negative Sentences

When it comes to negative expressions, the conjugation works differently from the te-form. There is just one conjugation rule regardless of the type of verbs. You just replace い with かった.

Polite Expressions

This is also simple. You just need to replace す with した in affirmative and add でした in negative sentences regardless of the type of verbs.

Question Markers with Past Tense

Question markers are always placed at the end.

How the Ta-form Works in Sentences

In Japanese, the ta-form just expresses that actions were completed in the past. Therefore, you cannot judge whether it is past tense or present perfect tense by looking at the form of verbs. Basically contexts given by temporal nouns or adverbs determine tense.

“もう: already” is a very useful word to express present perfect tense. When you would like to confirm something like “Have you done it?” you should utilize もう rather than temporal nouns.

Past Tense and Present Perfect Tense in Negative Sentences

As you can see, we don’t use the ta-form to express present perfect tense in negative sentences. The first example shows the fact that you didn’t do your homework in the past, which should be expressed by the ta-form. However, the second example shows that you haven’t yet done your homework. Essentially, this is not an action competed in the past. This is an ongoing state. Therefore, we use the te-form + いる.

“まだ: yet” is an important word here. Since we use the te-form for multiple tenses, we can easily distinguish them by placing the key word.

Advanced Topic: Past Perfect and Past Progressive Tense

Past Perfect Tense

This example essentially expresses a state that she had already eaten lunch (*see the chart from when she ate lunch to 11am marked in red). Therefore, we use the te-form + いる to express a state and replace る with た to express that it was in the past.

Past Progressive Tense

This example expresses an ongoing action taken at a particular time in the past. Therefore, we use the te-form + いる to express the continuous action and replace る with た to express that it was in the past.

As you notice, the te-form + いた can express both past perfect and past progressive tense. The key word is もう. If a sentence has もう, it will be past perfect tense. If not, it will be past progressive tense.

When it comes to negative sentences, the concept will remain the same. The te-form + いなかった can expresses both past perfect and past progressive tense. The key word is まだ.

Be careful; when you use まだ in affirmative sentences, まだ will work the same as “still” in English.

More Examples

Summary

1. The ta-form conjugates the same as the te-form, but ends with た.
2. In affirmative sentences, the ta-form expresses past tense and present perfect tense.
3. In negative sentences, the ta-form expresses past tense while the te-form expresses present perfect tense.
4. “もう: already” and “まだ: yet” are the key.
5. The te-form + いた expresses past perfect tense and past progressive tense.

The ta-form actually has several functions and you have learned one of them here. In order to be able to precisely express tense, you need to know how to conjugate verbs with temporal nouns and adverbs. Please try to memorize them in place. Next, you will learn how to express state-of-being and adjectives in the past.