Past Simple Tense
இறந்தகால வினைச்சொல் (எளிய வடிவம்)
English's past tense collapses down to a single form for every person — no he/she/it exception this time — but a large set of common verbs refuse to follow the regular -ed pattern.
Grammar Comparison
இலக்கண ஒப்பீடு
One past-tense ending for every person, unlike the present tense's exception
I walked, you walked, he walked, we walked, they walked — always identical
நான் நடந்தேன், நீ நடந்த, அவன் நடந்தான் — Tamil still conjugates separately for every person, even in the past
Tamil keeps its full person-by-person conjugation in the past tense, just as it does in the present. English actually simplifies here: -ed covers every person without exception, unlike the present tense's lone he/she/it -s. The real difficulty isn't the ending itself — it's that roughly 200 extremely common verbs (go, eat, see, have, do) are irregular and don't take -ed at all (went, ate, saw, had, did), and these have to be memorized individually since there's no reliable pattern.
Vocabulary
சொற்கள்
| English | Pronunciation | Tamil |
|---|---|---|
| I walked | eye wokt | நான் நடந்தேன்nān naḍandhēn |
| I went | eye went | நான் போனேன்nān pōṉēn |
| I ate | eye ate | நான் சாப்பிட்டேன்nān sāppiṭṭēn |
| I saw | eye saw | நான் பார்த்தேன்nān pārththēn |
| I had | eye had | எனக்கு இருந்ததுenakku irundhadhu |
| I played | eye playd | நான் விளையாடினேன்nān viḷaiyāḍiṉēn |