Past Tense

Lesson 7

Numo has two grammatical tenses: nonpast and past. Everything you've seen until now has been in the nonpast; let's learn how to use the past.

In Numo, the past tense is used for any event that happened in the past and is not currently ongoing. This includes most stories.

To put a sentence in past tense, add the suffix -te onto the primary verb of that sentence. That's it. If the sentence doesn't have a verb, use te as an adverb and say it at the end, as its own word. We'll explore what the primary verb is in a later lesson (hint: it's the first one), but for now, we're only working with sentences that use one verb.

Let's look at some examples:

• Pu ires al dukan. "He goes to the store." → Pu ireste al dukan. "He went to the store." or "He has gone to the store."

• Mu gud in pijano. "She is good at piano." → Mu gud in pijano te. "She was good at piano."

That's all there is to it. Past tense works in a similar (yet simpler) way to English, so you should have little trouble picking it up quickly. If you're curious about other tenses, they're mostly inferred from context, although adverbs can be used to specify.

Practice 7

Change the following nonpast sentences into past tense:

Felin pijes joi milke mun. - "The cat happily drinks her milk."

Koje somnes in bed kun. -  "The child sleeps in their bed."

Fligmaskin alto. - "The airplane is high."

Vocabulary 7

Ires - Go

Gud - Good

Pijano - Piano

Koje - Child, Kid

Somnes - Sleep

Bed - Bed

Fligmaskin - Airplane, Aeroplane

Alto - High, Tall