Minulý čas

The Ukrainian past tense is one of the easiest parts of the verb: one set of forms covers "I read", "I was reading" and "I have read". The surprise for English speakers is what the ending agrees with. It does not show the person (I, you, we); it shows the gender and number of the subject.

How to form it

Take the infinitive, remove -ти, and add the ending:

"I" has two forms

Because the ending shows gender, a man and a woman say "I read" differently:

• Я читав «Кобзар». - a man speaking.
• Я читала «Кобзар». - a woman speaking.
• Ти був у Львові? "Were you in Lviv?" - to a man; Ти була у Львові? - to a woman.
• Ми / ви / вони читали. - the plural form, whoever is in the group.

The polite ви takes the plural form even for one person: Ви були в Одесі? "Have you been to Odesa?" English speakers tend to pick the form by the pronoun; pick it by the person behind it.

Sound and spelling

The masculine -в is pronounced as a short [w]: ходив sounds like "khodyw", читав like "chytaw". Not every masculine past ends in -в: verbs whose stem ends in a consonant have none, and some change their vowel: нести "to carry" gives ніс but несла, несли; могти "to be able" gives міг but могла; везти "to transport" gives віз. These are worth learning one by one.

One past for three English tenses

Учора я писала листа can be "I was writing a letter yesterday" or "I wrote a letter yesterday" (without saying whether it got finished); Я вже написала листа is "I have already written the letter". The difference between "was doing" and "did / have done" is carried by the verb's aspect (писати versus написати), which has its own topic at A2. For now: one past tense, endings by gender and number.