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JLPT N5Verb Forms

た Form— Plain Past

The plain (casual) past tense of a verb, meaning 'did / have done.' It follows the exact same sound-change rules as the te-form.

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Pro lessonUNIT 24 · VERB FORMS

Structure · 形

Same conjugation as the te-form, then swap て→た and で→だ.

Examples · 例文

  • あの本、読んだ？

    Ano hon, yonda?

    Did you read that book?

    読む (ends in む) → te-form 読んで → ta-form 読んだ (rising intonation makes it a casual question)

  • 昨日、友だちと公園へ行った。

    Kinou, tomodachi to kouen e itta.

    I went to the park with my friend yesterday.

    行く is an exception: te-form 行って → ta-form 行った

  • 駅で先生に会った。

    Eki de sensei ni atta.

    I met my teacher at the station.

    会う (ends in う) → te-form 会って → ta-form 会った; the person met is marked with に

Usage notes · 注意

  • Foundation of many patterns: The ta-form is an essential building block. You need it for '〜たことがある' (have done X before) and '〜たら' (if/when X happens).
  • Register: Plain past. The polite equivalent is 〜ました (読みました).

Commonly confused with

The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones た is tested against.

vsた form vs ました

Both are past tense. 読んだ is plain/casual; 読みました is polite. Same meaning, different register.

vsた form vs て form

They conjugate identically, but て connects/continues (読んで、寝た = read, then slept) while た closes the sentence as past tense (読んだ = read/did read).

More verb forms

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