2.1 Past Tense Basics

Overview of Past Tense in Urdu

Past tense in Urdu is used to talk about actions and states that are finished. In this chapter you will:

• See how the perfect past is formed in simple, very common sentences.
• Learn the basic meanings of these past forms.
• Notice how past tense interacts with gender and number.
• Get ready for more detailed work with the ergative marker “نے” in the next chapter.

We will keep all examples short and everyday, and we will focus on “what it looks like” and “what it means” rather than full grammar theory.

What “Past Tense Basics” Means in Urdu

Urdu can talk about the past in many ways. At this level, we focus on perfect types of past that answer questions such as:

• “What did you do?”
• “What have you eaten?”
• “Where did you go?”

In English you often use “did” or “have done.” In Urdu the basic idea of “completed action” is shown with:

• A verb stem (the meaningful part of the verb)
• One of the past participle endings, often یا, ی, ے
• Forms of the verb “to be” (ہے, ہیں, تھا, تھے, تھی, تھیں) in some patterns

You already know present tense of “to be” (ہے, ہیں). In the past, these forms change. In this chapter you only need to notice them and understand simple examples. Exact tables will come later.

Perfect Tense: Basic Meaning

In simple everyday Urdu, the perfect is used when an action is completed and you see it as a whole.

For example:

• “I have eaten.” / “I ate.”
• “They have gone.” / “They went.”

In Urdu, this is usually expressed with a past participle plus sometimes a form of “to be.” Think of it as “completed-ness” attached to the verb.

Table of meaning comparison:

At A2 level you can usually translate both English “I ate” and “I have eaten” with the same basic Urdu perfect form. The exact nuance is often understood from context.

Recognizing the Past Participle

The past participle is the key part of the perfect. It is built from the verb stem, and it often ends in یا, ی, ے. The form usually changes with gender and sometimes with number.

Very frequent pattern with many verbs:

You do not need to memorize every form at once, but you should recognize them when you read or hear them.

“To Be” in the Past: تھا, تھی, تھے, تھیں

You know present “to be”:

• ہے (hai) for singular.
• ہیں (hain) for plural or polite.

In the past, Urdu uses:

Examples without any main verb, just “to be” in the past:

• وہ خوش تھا۔
  He was happy.
• وہ خوش تھی۔
  She was happy.
• وہ خوش تھے۔
  They were happy. / He was happy (polite).
• وہ خوش تھیں۔
  They were happy. / She was happy (polite).

Later, these forms will combine with participles, but first get comfortable seeing and understanding them.

Simple Perfect with “کرنا” (to do)

The verb کرنا is extremely common. You can understand many Urdu sentences just by knowing its past forms.

Main participle forms of کرنا

Masculine plural and feminine plural (کئے, کیں) exist but at this stage focus on the two main ones.

Examples in complete sentences

In many everyday sentences, the perfect by itself is enough:

• میں نے اپنا کام کیا۔
  I did my work. / I have done my work.
• اُس نے یہ سوال کیا۔
  He/she asked this question.
  (Literally “did this question.”)
• ہم نے سب کچھ کیا۔
  We did everything.
• تم نے کیا کیا؟
  What all did you do?

You will learn the role of نے in the next chapter, so here just notice that it often appears with people who performed the action in the past.

Simple Perfect with “جانا” (to go)

The verb جانا is also very common and has very visible gender differences.

Main participle forms of جانا

Examples

• میں بازار گیا۔
  I went to the market. (speaker male)
• میں بازار گئی۔
  I went to the market. (speaker female)
• وہ اسکول گیا۔
  He went to school.
• وہ اسکول گئی۔
  She went to school.
• ہم لاہور گئے۔
  We went to Lahore. (mixed or all-male group)
• ہم لاہور گئیں۔
  We went to Lahore. (all-female group)

When you speak about yourself, you choose گیا or گئی according to your own gender, not the gender of the place:

• A woman always says: میں گئی۔ (I went.)
• A man always says: میں گیا۔ (I went.)

Simple Perfect with “آنا” (to come)

The verb آنا behaves very similarly to جانا.

Main participle forms of آنا

Examples

• وہ گھر آیا۔
  He came home.
• وہ گھر آئی۔
  She came home.
• میں دیر سے آیا۔
  I came late. (speaker male)
• میں دیر سے آئی۔
  I came late. (speaker female)
• بچے واپس آئے۔
  The boys / children came back. (masc or mixed)
• لڑکیاں واپس آئیں۔
  The girls came back.

Again, you see the agreement with gender and number.

More Common Verbs in the Perfect

Here are a few more high-frequency verbs in their basic perfect forms. At this stage, you mainly need to recognize and start to use them in short sentences.

Table of frequent verbs and their participles

You can create many simple past sentences with this pattern:

• [Someone] + نے + [object] + [masc/fem participle].

The next chapter will explain this structure more deeply.

Perfect with “to be”: Was / Were

You already saw simple past of “to be” with adjectives:

• وہ بیمار تھا۔
  He was sick.
• وہ بیمار تھی۔
  She was sick.

You can combine these with time words to speak clearly about “was / were” in the past.

Common time words

Examples

• میں کل گھر پر تھا۔
  I was at home yesterday. (speaker male)
• میں کل گھر پر تھی۔
  I was at home yesterday. (speaker female)
• ہم پچھلے ہفتے مصروف تھے۔
  We were busy last week. (mixed or all-male)
• ہم پچھلے ہفتے مصروف تھیں۔
  We were busy last week. (all-female)

In many everyday situations, you will alternate:

• Present “to be”: ہے, ہیں → now.
• Past “to be”: تھا, تھی, تھے, تھیں → before, earlier, yesterday, etc.

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Time Expressions with the Perfect

To make past sentences clear, you often add time expressions to show when something happened.

Useful time expressions

Use these with the perfect to make clear, simple statements.

Short Questions in the Past

In conversation, you need to both ask and answer about completed actions.

Yes / no type questions

Structure is often:

• [Person] + نے + [object] + [participial verb] + ؟
• Or simply verb first with “کیا” when very short.

Examples:

• تم نے کھانا کھایا؟
  Did you eat?
• کیا تم نے کھانا کھایا؟
  Did you eat? (more explicit, polite)
• آپ لاہور گئے؟
  Did you go to Lahore? (to a man)
• آپ لاہور گئیں؟
  Did you go to Lahore? (to a woman)
• تم نے کتاب پڑھی؟
  Did you read the book?

Short replies:

• ہاں، میں گیا۔ / نہیں، میں نہیں گیا۔
  Yes, I went. / No, I did not go. (speaker male)
• ہاں، میں گئی۔ / نہیں، میں نہیں گئی۔
  Yes, I went. / No, I did not go. (speaker female)

At this level, focus on recognizing the past participle in the question and repeating it correctly with your own gender.

Short Answers in the Past

You can make very short, natural answers in everyday conversation.

Common short answers

Notice:

• For verbs like جانا and آنا, your answer changes with gaya / gayi, aaya / aayi.
• For کرنا, the short answer often just uses کیا and does not show the gender of the speaker so clearly in very short replies.

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Basic Contrast: Present vs Past

Seeing present and past side by side helps your memory.

Simple comparison table

You can see:

• Present uses forms with ہوں, ہو, ہیں etc.
• Perfect uses a participle (گیا, آیا, کیا, کھایا, پڑھی) and sometimes “نے.”

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Practice Ideas

Here are some practice prompts. You can try to answer them using the forms from this chapter.

1. Say in Urdu (if you are a woman):
   “I went to the market yesterday.”
2. Say in Urdu (if you are a man):
   “I came home late.”
3. Answer the question in Urdu:
   تم نے چائے پی؟
   (Give a yes and a no answer.)
4. Say in Urdu:
   “We went to Lahore last year.”
5. Ask a friend in Urdu:
   “Did you read this book?”

You can check your ideas against these sample solutions:

• میں کل بازار گئی۔ / میں کل بازار گیا۔
• میں دیر سے گھر آیا۔ / میں دیر سے گھر آئی۔
• ہاں، میں نے چائے پی۔ / نہیں، میں نے چائے نہیں پی۔
• ہم پچھلے سال لاہور گئے۔ / (all-female) ہم پچھلے سال لاہور گئیں۔
• تم نے یہ کتاب پڑھی؟

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New Vocabulary for This Chapter