| Introduction |
We went through the present [the basics, anyway], the future [half of it], and now it’s time to explore the final tense – the past. Fortunately, the past tense is extremely easy to form. And here’s some additional good news: there are not many irregularities when forming the past, unlike the present!
We won’t be exploring the irregularities in this post. The main objective is to present it to you and then help you understand it.
| Formation |
Russian verbs in the past don’t technically conjugate. They function a little like adjectives and this is why it’s a little weird.
| In order to form the past tense, remove the infinitive ending –ть from the verb and replace it with –л. And you’re just about done! |
For further clarification, let’s observe this table:
| делать – ть = дела– дела– + -л = делал |
Now we have the past tense of the verb делать, but делал is only the masculine form. I said that verbs in the past tense function like adjectives, and that’s because you have to add, based on the noun’s gender and number, the following endings: -, –а, –о , –и. Have a look:
| он | делал |
| она | делала |
| оно | делало |
| мы | делали |
| они | делали |
| As you probably guessed, if the noun is masculine, use the ending –л, if the noun is feminine –ла, if the noun is neuter –ло, and if the noun is plural –ли. Now what about я and ты? They can be either masculine or feminine. This depends on the speaker. And for вы, use –и in all instances. It doesn’t matter if it’s one person or if this person is masculine or feminine. |
| masculine (он) | – |
| feminine (она) | –а |
| neuter (оно) | –о |
| plural (мы, вы) | –и |
| Notice something? The endings attached to the past tense ending line up with the personal pronouns. Он делал… Она делала… Оно делало… Они делали… |
Everything clear? I hope so! A useful example for you:
| Что ты делала? What did you do? (person being addressed is feminine) |
| Я делала домашнее задание. I did homework. (person responding is feminine) |
We’ll look at more examples later.
Let’s look at some verbs in the past tense:
| смотреть [to watch] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| смотрел | смотрела | смотрело | смотрели |
| видеть [to see] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| видел | видела | видело | видели |
| пить [to drink] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| пил | пила | пило | пили |
| читать [to read] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| читал | читала | читало | читали |
| быть [to be] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| был | была | было | были |
| слушать [to watch] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| слушал | слушала | слушало | слушали |
| рисовать [to draw] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| рисовал | рисовала | рисовало | рисовали |
| ждать [to wait] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| ждал | ждала | ждало | ждали |
| думать [to think] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| думал | думала | думало | думали |
| слышать [to hear] |
| он | она | оно | они |
|---|---|---|---|
| слышал | слышала | слышало | слышали |
Careful! There is an occasional stress shift in the feminine and neuter forms. You need to learn these ones by heart. There are some patterns, but for the time being, let’s not get into that.
Let’s make sure you understood how things work. Here’s a helpful table.
| Past Tense Endings |
| я | ты | он | она | оно | мы/вы/они |
| –л(а) | –л(а) | –л | –ла | –ло | –ли |
| The pronouns я and ты are the only tricky ones – they can take either masculine or feminine endings. Because the ending depends on the gender of the subject. |
And now some example sentences:
| Present | Past |
|---|---|
| Я слушаю радио. I listen to the radio. | Я слушал радио. I listened to the radio. [male talking] |
| Она слышит об этом. She hears about it. | Она слышала об этом. She heard about it. |
| Мы читаем газеты. We read newspapers. | Мы читали газеты. We read newspapers. |
| Где ты сегодня? Where are you today? [быть is not used in the present tense] | Где ты была вчера? Where were you yesterday? [female is being addressed] |
| Женщина ждёт 3 часа. The woman has been waiting (for) 3 hours. | Женщина ждала 3 часа. The woman waited (for) 3 hours. |
| Ребёнок пьёт чай. The child drinks tea. | Ребёнок пил чай. The child drank tea. |
| Чудовище стоит у двери. The monster stands at the door. | Чудовище стояло у двери. The monster stood at the door. |
| Because Russian only has three tenses: present, past and future, the past tense form слушал, depending on context, could translate as I listened [simple past], I used to listen [habitual past], I was listening [past progressive], I have listened [present perfect], I have been listening [present perfect progressive], I had listened [past perfect] and even I had been listening [past perfect progressive]. See? And you thought Russian tenses were complicated. |
| Reflexive Verbs |
Before ending this post, I need to go over one more thing – conjugating reflexive verbs in the past.
If you’ve read my post on reflexive verbs, you’ll be familiar with this table:
| vowel ending | –сь |
| consonant ending | –ся |
Having seen this table, let’s conjugate a reflexive verb.
We’ll use the verb учиться [to study, to learn, to be a student].
| учиться [to study, to learn, to be a student] |
| учился | училась | училось | учились |
Here are some in-context examples:
| Мы с нём учились в одной школе. He and I studied at the same school. |
| Она училась писать на грамотном русском. She learned to write in grammatically correct Russian. |
| Some commonly used reflexive verbs include: улыбаться [to smile], жаловаться [to complain], заниматься [to study], просыпаться [to wake up], ложиться [to lie down], etc. |
| Я ложусь спать в полночь. I go to bed at midnight. | Я ложился спать в полночь. I went to bed at midnight. |
| Катя просыпается в 8 часов. Katya wakes up at 8 o’clock. | Катя просыпалась в 8 часов. Katya woke up at 8 o’clock. |
| Он улыбается при её приезде. He smiles upon her arrival. | Он улыбался при её приезде. He smiled upon her arrival. |
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Я ночью тратил всё, что копил неделю,
На дне [МОТ]
Друзья кричали “Стоп”, но я им не верил.
Сколько литров в море, столько же во мне,
Я ночью был на дне, я был на дне.
At night I spent everything I saved for a week,
Friends yelled “stop”, but I didn’t believe them.
As many liters there are in the sea, there are as many in me,
At night I was at the bottom, I was at the bottom.
Я ночью делал то, за что мне утром стыдно,
На дне [МОТ]
Я будто был во сне, я был во сне,
И каждый такой раз мне всё очевидно,
Я ночью был на дне, я был на дне.
At night I did what I’m ashamed of in the morning,
I was seemingly in a dream, I was in a dream,
And it’s all obvious to me every one of these times,
At night I was at the bottom, I was at the bottom.
There it is! The past tense has been covered. I hope this lesson proved useful and helpful for you.
| Last Edit: 01/11/2026. |
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