Understanding the Lithuanian Past Simple Tense for Verbs
The Past Simple Tense in Lithuanian is used to talk about actions that happened and were completed in the past. It's like saying 'I ate' or 'She played' in English.
Important Points
- The Past Simple Tense is called "Būtasis Kartinis Laikas" in Lithuanian.
- Verbs change their endings to show they happened in the past.
- There are different endings for different groups of verbs.
- The endings also change depending on who did the action (I, you, he/she, we, you all, they).
To form the past tense, you need to know the verb's root and then add the correct ending. The root is the part of the verb that doesn't change.
Examples
- Aš valgiau obuolį. (I ate an apple.)
- Jis žaidė futbolą. (He played football.)
- Mes klausėme muzikos. (We listened to music.)
Let's look at some common verb endings for the past tense. These endings are added to the root of the verb.
Important Points
- For 'I' (aš), add '-au' to the root. Example: 'valgyti' (to eat) becomes 'valgiau' (I ate).
- For 'you' (tu), add '-ai'. Example: 'valgyti' becomes 'valgei' (you ate).
- For 'he/she' (jis/ji), add '-o'. Example: 'valgyti' becomes 'valgė' (he/she ate).
- For 'we' (mes), add '-ome'. Example: 'valgyti' becomes 'valgėme' (we ate).
- For 'you all' (jūs), add '-ote'. Example: 'valgyti' becomes 'valgėte' (you all ate).
- For 'they' (jie/jos), add '-o'. Example: 'valgyti' becomes 'valgė' (they ate).
Practice makes perfect! Try forming sentences using these endings to talk about things you did yesterday or last week.