Lesson #69: Was and Were

We’ve covered quite a lot about verbs and tenses in Hindi so far and we quickly revised over last time in Lesson #68. Today we’re going to begin to learn about the Past Tense in Hindi. Now although the past tense can be quite complex and difficult in Hindi I’m going to break it down into easy short sections and you’ll pick it up in no time!

Back in Lesson #22 we learnt the words; am - हूँ hoon, is - है hai and are - हैं hain and you should be quite familiar with these by now. For example we could ask the question;

आप कहाँ हैं? aap kahaan hain?
- Where are you?

Now to change this into the past tense in English we simply replace ‘are’ with 'were’; Where were you? And we do exactly the same in Hindi;

आप कहाँ थे? aap kahaan the?
- Where were you?

मैं घर पर था
main ghar par thaa
- I was at home (said by a male)

We already know how to say मैं घर पर हूँ main ghar par hoon - I am at home, so all we’ve done here is replace हूँ hoon - am with था thaa - was.

Now let’s have a look in a bit more detail. Like most words in Hindi the ending changes for gender and singular or plural:

था thaa - was - for Singular Masculine

थे the - were - for Plural Masculine

थी thee - was - for Singular Feminine

थीं theen - were - for Plural Feminine

Note - the word थे the is not pronounced like the English word 'the’. If you have difficulties pronouncing the Hindi word then please visit Hindi Script Tutor which will guide you through the pronunciation of the Hindi letters.

So now let’s see some examples!