Lihtminevik - simple past

[Linguaphile]

Since we have been making threads for grammar topics, I thought I'd add one for lihtminevik - the simple past tense in Estonian. It is fairly straightforward, with only a few irregular verbs.

The lihtminevik for regular verbs formed by taking the ma-infinitive form, removing the -ma ending, and adding the following:

pronoun	verb ending
ma	-sin
sa	-sid **
ta	-s / -is *
me	-sime
te	-site
nad	-sid **

*The rules:
1. If the stem of the -ma infinitive form of the verb ends in a vowel, the ending for the third-person singular is -s.
2. If the stem of the -ma infinitive form of the verb ends in a consonant, the ending for the third-person singular is -is.
3. If the stem of the -ma infinitive form of the verb ends in -s-, the ending for the third-person singular becomes -is, and for all other forms besides the third-person singular the s of the stem is omitted.
4. If the stem of the -ma infinitive form of the verb ends in -p- or -t- following a short vowel, the -p- or -t- is doubled for the third-person singular, and the third-person singular ending is -is).

**The past tense ending for the second person singular and third person plural are the same: -sid.

Examples:
1. For a verb whose stem ends in a vowel: ütlema

ma ütlesin	I said
sa ütlesid	you (singular) said
ta ütles	he/she said
me ütlesime	we said
te ütlesite	you (plural) said
nad ütlesid	they said

2. For a verb whose stem ends in a consonant: teadma (note that the third-person singular ending is -is here; other than that it is the same as #1 above):

ma teadsin	I knew
sa teadsid	you (singular) knew
ta teadis	he/she knew
me teadsime	we knew
te teadsite	you (plural) knew
nad teadsid	they knew

3. For a verb whose stem ends in an -s: seisma (note that the -s- of the stem has been removed here, with the -s of the past tense remaining; except for the third-person singular, which retains both):

ma seisin	I stood
sa seisid	you (singular) stood
ta seisis	he/she stood
me seisime	we stood
te seisite	you (plural) stood
nad seisid	they stood

4. For a verb whose stem ends in a -t: võtma (note the double -tt- in the third person singular):

ma võtsin	I took
sa võtsid	you (singular) took
ta võttis	he/she took
me võtsime	we took
te võtsite	you (plural) took
nad võtsid	they took

Irregular verbs (of which there are thankfully relatively few for the lihtminevik) and negative lihtminevik will be discussed soon in my next posts!

[Linguaphile]

Irregular lihtminevik
This is a list of the irregular simple past forms in Estonian. They must be memorized but fortunately, there are only seventeen of them (or sixteen since one of them has a parallel, regular form which can be used instead), and they fit neatly into five categories:

1. The verb minema "to go", which (as usual) is completely irregular, with a different stem:

ma läksin	I went
sa läksid	you (singular) went
ta läks	he/she went
me läksime	we went
te läksite	you (plural) went
nad läksid	they went

2a. Eight verbs whose stems end in -e, for which the lihtminevik forms lack -s, such as olema "to be":

ma olin	I was
sa olid	you (singular) were
ta oli	he/she was
me olime	we were
te olite	you (plural) were
nad olid	they were

2b. The other verbs that follow this same model are: nägema "to see" (nägin, nägid, nägi, nägime, nägite, nägid); panema "to put" (panin, panid, pani, panime, panite, panid); pesema "to wash" (pesin, pesid, pesi, pesime, pesite, pesid); surema "to die" (surin, surid, suri, surime, surite, surid); tegema "to do" (tegin, tegid, tegi, tegime, tegite, tegid); tulema "to come" (tulin, tulid, tuli, tulime, tulite, tulid).

2c. The verb laskma "to hit, to let" also fits into this category: (lasin, lasid, lasi, lasime, lasite, lasid); however, it is also possible to use the regular conjugation for it (lasksin, lasksid, laskis, lasksime, lasksite, lasksid). The two sets of conjugations have the same meaning for this verb and either set can be used, with the irregular form being more common than the regular one.

3a. Two verbs whose stems end in -aa or -ää for which the lihtminevik forms lack -s and for which the double vowel becomes a single vowel, such as saama "to get":

ma sain	I got
sa said	you (singular) got
ta sai	he/she got
me saime	we got
te saite	you (plural) got
nad said	they got

3b. The (only) other verb that follows this rule is jääma "to stay, remain" (jäin, jäid, jäi, jäime, jäite, jäid).

4a. Five verbs whose stems end in -oo or -öö for which the lihtminevik forms lack -s and for which the double vowel becomes the single vowel õ, such as sööma "to eat":

ma sõin	I ate
sa sõid	you (singular) ate
ta sõi	he/she ate
me sõime	we ate
te sõite	you (plural) ate
nad sõid	they ate

4b. The (only) other verbs that work this way are: jooma "to drink" (jõin, jõid, jõi, jõime, jõite, jõid); looma "to create" (lõin, lõid, lõi, lõime, lõite, lõid); lööma "to hit" (lõin, lõid, lõi, lõime, lõite, lõid); tooma "to bring" (tõin, tõid, tõi, tõime, tõite, tõid).

4c. Note that the point above means that the lihtminevik conjugations for the verbs looma "to create" and lööma "to hit" are identical (lõin, lõid, lõi, lõime, lõite, lõid). In other words, they are homonyms in the lihtminevik, even though their present tense and infinitive forms aren't homonyms. This is the only pair of words for which this occurs.

5a. The verb pidama "to have to" behaves much like the examples in #2 above (despite having a stem that ends in -a rather than -e):

ma pidin	I had to
sa pidid	you (singular) had to
ta pidi	he/she had to
me pidime	we had to
te pidite	you (plural) had to
nad pidid	they had to

5b. However, its homonym pidama "to hold, celebrate" follows the rules for regular verbs (in other words, although the two meanings of pidama are homonyms in the present tense and infinitive forms, they aren't homonyms in the lihtminevik):

ma pidasin	I celebrated
sa pidasid	you (singular) celebrated
ta pidas	he/she celebrated
me pidasime	we celebrated to
te pidasite	you (plural) celebrated
nad pidasid	they celebrated

[Linguaphile]

Practice

Practice irregular past tense forms (the verb jääma)
Practice irregular past tense forms (i-lihtminevik)

Practice regular and irregular past tense (fill in blanks)
Practice regular and irregular past tense (fill in blanks)

Practice past tense (write the past-tense form of the given present-tense verb)
Practice past tense (write the past-tense form of the given present-tense verb)
Practice past tense (change from present tense to past in sentences)
Practice past tense (fill in the blanks with the correct form)

Practice past and present tense (verbs sööma, jooma, nägema)

[Linguaphile]

The negative forms of the lihtminevik differ from the affirmative form in a couple of important ways:

• It is formed using the -nud participle, which itself is formed from the da-infinitive. This means that the negative and affirmative forms of the lihtminevik can have different stems (i.e affirmative ootasin "I waited", negative ei oodanud "I didn't wait"; affirmative ütlesin "I said", ei öelnud "I didn't say").
• It takes the same form regardless of the subject.

Before forming the negative lihtminevik, it is necessary to form the -nud participle

To form the -nud participle, take the da-infinitive and simply replace da (or other da-infinitive ending: -ta, -ra, -la, etc.) with nud.

ma-infinitive	da-infinitive	nud-participle
lugema	lugeda	lugenud
olema	olla	olnud
ootama	oodata	oodanud
pidama	pidada	pidanud
seisma	seista	seisnud
võtma	võtta	võtnud

The verb ütlema has two da-infinitives and therefore two nud-participles. They are synonyms and can be used interchangeably.

ma-infinitive	da-infinitive	nud-participle
ütlema	öelda	öelnud
ütlema	ütelda	ütelnud

Note that in verbs like teadma, the letter d is part of the stem and therefore it is retained when forming the nud-participle from the da-infinitive.

ma-infinitive	da-infinitive	nud-participle
teadma	teada	teadnud (not *teanud)
andma	anda	andnud (not *annud)
püüdma	püüda	püüdnud (not *püünud)

The following verbs have irregular nud-participles (below they are grouped according to their characteristics, because each set has its own rules/patterns and learning them in these sets can make them easier to remember):

Set 1

ma-infinitive	da-infinitive	nud-participle
minema	minna	läinud
nägema	näha	näinud
tegema	teha	teinud

Set 2

ma-infinitive	da-infinitive	nud-participle
jooma	juua	joonud
tooma	tuua	toonud
lööma	lüüa	löönud
sööma	süüa	söönud

Set 3

ma-infinitive	da-infinitive	nud-participle
jooksma	joosta	jooksnud

Now to form the negative form of the lihtminevik, you simply take this nud-participle and put the word ei "no, not" in front of it. Unlike the affirmative past tense, the form is the same regardless of who the subject is.

ma teadsin "I knew"
ma ei teadnud "I didn't know"

ta teadis "he/she knew"
ta ei teadnud "he/she didn't know"

nad teadsid "they knew"
nad ei teadnud "they didn't know"

me seisime "we stood"
me ei seisnud "we didn't stand"

te võtsite "you took"
te ei võtnud "you didn't take"

and so on.

One last point about the negative lihtminevik is that in spoken language, the -nud participle is often pronounced -nd. It is not written that way (unless the style of writing is meant to imitate speech), but it is often spoken that way:

Written: me ei söönud
Spoken: me ei söönd
"we didn't eat"

Written: ma ei läinud
Spoken: ma ei läind
"I didn't go"

Written: nad ei tulnud
Spoken: nad ei tulnd
"they didn't come"

Written: sa ei rääkinud
Spoken: sa ei rääkind
"you didn't speak"

[Linguaphile]

More practice with affirmative and negative past tense:

Practice negative past tense forms (choose the correct form) (choose from drop-down list)
Practice negative past tense forms (fill in the blanks) (use the verb in parenthesis)
Practice negative past tense forms (fill in the blanks) (use the same verb provided in the affirmative part of the sentence)

Practice regular past tense forms (si-lihtminevik: affirmative and negative) (use the verb in parenthesis)

Practice past tense forms (fill in the blanks as you read about Friedrich Robert Faehlmann) (use the verb in parenthesis)
Practice past tense forms (fill in the blanks as you read about Kristian Jaak Peterson) (use the verb in parenthesis)
Practice past tense forms (fill in the blanks as you read about Lydia Koidula) (use the verb in parenthesis)

Practice past tense forms (fill in the blanks as you read about Ferdinand Wiedemann) (more advanced; no wordbank)
Practice past tense forms (fill in the blanks as you read about Juhan Liiv) (more advanced; no wordbank)
Practice past tense forms (fill in the blanks as you read about Anton Hansen Tammsaare) (more advanced; no wordbank)

[Prantsis]

2a. Eight verbs whose stems end in -e, for which the lihtminevik forms lack -s, such as olema "to be":

A ninth one: kusema