How to form the Russian past tense with verbs
To form the past tense of Russian verbs, you start with the infinitive form of the verb and remove the ending “-ть” (or other similar infinitive endings like “-ти” or “-чь”). Then you add one of the four past tense endings based on the gender and number of the subject:
- Masculine singular: add “-л”
- Feminine singular: add “-ла”
- Neuter singular: add “-ло”
- Plural (all genders): add “-ли”
For example, the verb “читать” (to read) forms the past tense as:
- он читал (he read) — masculine
- она читала (she read) — feminine
- оно читало (it read) — neuter
- они читали (they read) — plural
The past tense in Russian is quite simple because it does not conjugate by person, only by gender and number of the subject. Reflexive verbs add the reflexive ending “-сь” or “-ся” after these past tense endings (например, “одеваться” in past tense: одевался, одевалась, одевалось, одевались).
Irregularities and stem changes can occur for some verbs, especially those with infinitives ending in “-чь”, “-ти”, or “-нуть”, but the basic pattern is the same.
This system allows you to express all past tense meanings (simple past, past continuous, past perfect, etc.) with one form adjusted by gender and number of the subject. It is essential to pay attention to the gender of the subject as the verb must agree with it in the past tense. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
If you want, I can provide examples or explain exceptions and irregular verbs.