The Simple Past Tense

Lesson Notes

In this video, we cover how to conjugate verbs to talk about the past. Just like in English, Tigrinya has a set of rules for regular verbs, and a few exceptions you need to memorize.

• The most common suffix for the "I" form (First Person Singular) in the past tense is -ኩ (-ku).
• Example: "I went" is ኸይደ (kheyde) or ከይደ (keyde) depending on dialect context, but root applications often end in -ku for direct actions.
• Make sure to practice the pronunciation of the harder guttural sounds mentioned at the 4:12 mark in the video!