Today we’re going to learn all about yet another tense in Hindi, The Past Imperfect Tense! So firstly, what is the Past Imperfect Tense? Well it’s simple, in English it’s sentences that include ‘used to’. It shows something used to happen in the past and doesn’t happen anymore. For example we might say “I used to eat meat”, “We used to play cricket” etc etc. Don’t worry though, you’ll see plenty of examples as we go through! As usual there’s a few questions at the end of the lesson to check you’ve understood everything! 

Now can you remember back to Lesson #28: The Present Tense? The Past Imperfect Tense is actually very similar to The Present Tense! Let me show you an example! We know how to say 'I live in India’, (using the verb रहना rahnaa - To Live) we just say…

मैं भारत में रहता हूँ
main bhaarat men rahtaa hoon
- I live in India (Said by a Male)

This is in the Present Tense, so how do we change it to the Past Imperfect? It’s easy, we simply change the हूँ hoon - am to the correct 'version’ of था thaa - was! (As we learnt in Lesson #69). So we’d say…

मैं भारत में रहता था
main bhaarat men rahtaa thaa
- I used to live in India (Said by a Male)

Can you see the difference? अच्छा acchaa - Great! Ready for another example? Do you remember how we say “She writes stories”, that’s right, we say…

वह कहानियाँ लिखती है
voh kahaaniyaan likhtee hai
- She writes stories

So how would we change this to The Past Imperfect Tense? So it says “She used to write stories” instead? That’s right, we say…

वह कहानियाँ लिखती थी
voh kahaaniyaan likhtee thee 
- She use to write stories

Remember that we use थी thee - 'was’ here because the subject (she) is feminine!

So all you need to remember for the Past Imperfect Tense is that we use the normal Present Tense and then we drop the है hai, हैं hain or हूँ hoon from the end and instead add one of था thaa, थे the, थी thee or थीं theen depending on the subject of the sentence! Told you it was easy! Ready for another example? 

शनिवार को हम तैरते थे shanivaar ko ham tairte the
- On saturdays we used to swim.

Can you remember the word शनिवार shanivaar - Saturday from Lesson #91? And then we’ve just used हम तैरते थे ham tairte the - We used to swim. Are you getting the hang of it? 

Ready for another example? How would we say 'He used to study German’? The word for German (as in the language) is जर्सन भाषा jarman bhaasaa. So we’d say…

वह जर्मन भाषा पढ़ता था
voh jarman bhaasaa parhtaa thaa
- He used to study German

Finally for today then, when you want to use the Past Imperfect Tense with an adjective, for example saying 'I used to be short’, or  'They used to be very fat’ you still drop the है hai, हैं hain or हूँ hoon from the end of the sentence, but then you add either होता hotaa, होते hote or होती hotee before the था thaa, थे the, थी thee or थीं theen! Does that make sence? Let me show you an example, we know how to say 'I am fat’ (said by a male), it’s just…

मैं मोटा हूँ main motaa hoon
- I am fat (Said by a Male)

So to change this to 'I used to be fat’, just as I said just above, we simply drop the हूँ hoon and add होता था hotaa thaa to give…

मैं मोटा होता था main motaa hotaa thaa
- I used to be fat (Said by a Male)

So one last example for today! How would you say 'You used to be tall’ to a female? That’s right, it’s simply…

तुम लंबी होती थीं tum lambee hotee theen
- You used to be tall (To a Female)

Remember that  तुम tum is always treated as plural so we have to use थीं theen! Have you understood everything today? Hopefully! Feel free to leave me a comment with a question if you’re confused by anything! Do you think you can try and answer the five questions below? Just give a go, even if you’re not sure. I’m here to help! Leave your answers or guesses in a comment below and I’ll let you know how well you did…

1. I used to learn Hindi (Said by a Female)
2. We used to drink tea 
3. He used to sing on Mondays (Remember To Sing is गाना gaanaa and see Lesson #91)
4. I used to love you (Said by a male; See Lesson #29 for help!)
5. We used to be clever (Remember: Clever - होशियार hoshiyaar)

Leave your answers in a comment below and I’ll let you know how well you’ve done! And remember feel free to ask me if you have any questions at all! 

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