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JLPT N5Verb Forms

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').

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Free lessonUNIT 2 · VERB FORMS

Structure · 形

[Verb stem] + ました

Examples · 例文

  • 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')

Usage notes · 注意

  • 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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