ました (mashita) — Polite Past Tense
The polite past affirmative ending for verbs. It expresses finished actions or events, covering both the English simple past ('did') and present perfect ('have done').
Structure
[Verb stem] + ました
Examples
昨日映画を見ました。
Kinou eiga o mimashita.
I watched a movie yesterday.
昨日 (yesterday) 映画 (movie) を 見ました (watched)
先週日本に行きました。
Senshuu Nihon ni ikimashita.
I went to Japan last week.
先週 (last week) 日本に 行きました (went to Japan)
もう晩ご飯を食べました。
Mou bangohan o tabemashita.
I have already eaten dinner.
もう (already) — present-perfect nuance ('have eaten')
• The Paradigm: Affirmative ます (masu), Negative ません (masen), Past ました (mashita), Past negative ませんでした (masen deshita). • Nouns & な-adjectives: These DO take でした for the polite past (学生でした = was a student; 静かでした = was quiet). The verb form ます itself is never used on a noun/adjective. • Adjective Warning: Do NOT use でした to make い-adjectives past. 'It was cold' is NOT 寒いでした — い-adjectives have their own past form (寒かった), optionally followed by です for politeness (寒かったです).
Commonly confused with
The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones ました is tested against.
vs た-form (plain past: 見た, 行った)
ました is the polite past; the plain た-form is its casual equivalent and is also the form used before nouns and grammar patterns (行った時, 食べたことがある).
vs ませんでした (polite past negative)
ました states a completed action DID happen; ませんでした states it did NOT happen (食べました = ate / 食べませんでした = didn't eat).
More verb forms
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