GrammarPast Tense

In Russian, to describe actions that happened in the past you change the verb form and luckily this is a very easy grammatical rule.

How the past tense is formed

The past tense is formed from the infinitive (dictionary form) by:

• removing -ть
• adding -л and the appropriate ending

Example:

• делать; делал делать → делал
• говорить; говорил говорить → говорил
• жить; жил жить → жил

Gender and number endings

For the past tense there are four different forms:

• Masculine: -л
  он делал (he did)
• Feminine: -ла
  она делала (she did)
• Neuter: -ло
  оно делало (it did)
• Plural: -ли (gender doesn't matter)
  они делали (they did)
  

Full forms

• я делал (I did - male speaker)
• я делала (I did - female speaker)
• ты делал (talking to a male person)
• ты делала (talking to a female person)
• он делал
• она делала
• оно делало
• мы делали
• вы делали
• они делали

Notice that the verb form depends on the gender of the subject, not the person.

"I" and "you"

With я (I), the verb form depends on the speaker's gender. With ты (you), it depends on the gender of the person being addressed.

• Я был в Москве Я был в Москве. (I was in Moscow - male speaker)

• Я была в Москве Я была в Москве. (I was in Moscow - female speaker)

• Ты был в Москве? (Were you in Moscow? - to a male)

• Ты была в Москве? (Were you in Moscow? - to a female)

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs keep their -ся or -сь:

• учиться; учился; училась; учились учиться → учился, училась, учились
• мыться; мылся; мылась; мылись мыться → мылся, мылась, мылись

Irregular forms and stem changes

Most verbs follow the pattern above, but some have small changes:

• идти; шёл; шла; шли идти → шёл, шла, шли
• нести; нёс; несла; несли нести → нёс, несла, несли

Aspect still matters

Russian verbs have aspect (imperfective vs perfective), and this still applies in the past tense:

• я делал (I was doing / used to do)
• я сделал (I did / completed)

So the past tense tells you when, and aspect tells you how the action happened.

Negation

To make the past tense negative, use не before the verb:

• я не делал (I did not do - male)
• она не говорила (she did not speak)

Formality (вы)

With the formal вы, the past tense always uses the plural form, regardless of whether it refers to one person (formal) or multiple people.

• Вы были дома? (Were you at home? - formal or plural)
• Вы делали это? (Did you do this? - formal or plural)

There is no gender distinction with вы.

Questions

Questions are formed by intonation or question words:

• Ты делал это? (Did you do this?)
• Когда ты пришёл? (When did you arrive?)

Summary

• Past tense is formed by adding -л to the verb stem.
• Masculine: -л, Feminine: -ла, Neuter: -ло, Plural: -ли.
• The form depends on the subject (including the speaker’s gender).
• Aspect (perfective vs imperfective) is still important in the past.