Saying what you did yesterday in Japanese

Level A1

Saying what you did yesterday in Japanese

By the end of this lesson, you can say what you did yesterday and ask what someone else did: 昨日は働きました (kinō wa hatarakimashita), “I worked yesterday.” The main idea is this: swap ます for ました, say 昨日 when you want to name the day, and the rest of the sentence stays the same. Put か at the end and it becomes a question: 働きましたか (hatarakimashita ka), “Did you work?”

Quick review: ます, を, で and に

These four sentences hold what you are about to reuse, even if this is your first time seeing them. In ご飯を食べます (gohan o tabemasu), “I eat rice”, を marks what is eaten. In 家で働きます (ie de hatarakimasu), “I work at home”, で marks where the action happens. In 駅に行きます (eki ni ikimasu), “I’m going to the station”, に marks the destination. In 今日は働きますか (kyō wa hatarakimasu ka), “Do you work today?”, か makes the question. In all four, the verb ends in ます, the polite form used for what usually happens and for what is going to happen.

The new word: 昨日

昨日 is read kinō (きのう), “yesterday”. Read it as one whole word, because its sounds don’t come from each kanji separately, just like 今日 (kyō), “today”, and 明日 (ashita), “tomorrow”. All three name a day counting from now.

Model: at lunch

Listen once without reading. Two colleagues are having lunch, and the first one didn’t see the other at the station yesterday. The questions end in ましたか and the answers in ました, with one exception: いいえ、行きませんでした (iie, ikimasen deshita), “No, I didn’t go”, which for now you only need to recognize. Nobody says “I” or “you”, because the conversation already makes it clear who is meant.

From ます to ました

Compare the sentences in pairs: the first says what you do or will do, the second what already happened. 働きます becomes 働きました (hatarakimashita), 食べます becomes 食べました (tabemashita) and 行きます becomes 行きました (ikimashita): only ます changes, and を, で and に stay where they were. English has “worked”, but also “ate” and “went”; in Japanese the swap is the same for every verb in the ます form. The verb doesn’t change with the person either: 働きました can be “I worked”, “she worked” or “we worked”, and the situation tells you who. It can also cover English “have”: 食べました is “I ate” or “I’ve eaten”. ました is just as polite as ます.

Naming the day: 昨日 and 昨日は

In these models 昨日 opens the sentence, either alone, as in 昨日パンを食べました (kinō pan o tabemashita), “I ate bread yesterday”, or with は, as in 昨日は働きました. は (wa) makes the day the topic, the same as 今日は. 昨日 takes no に, like 今日 and 明日, but a clock time does: 昨日は七時に食べました (kinō wa shichiji ni tabemashita), “Yesterday I ate at seven.” In this lesson the place comes after the day: 昨日は家で働きました (kinō wa ie de hatarakimashita), “Yesterday I worked at home.” Since ました already says it’s past, 昨日 only adds which day.

昨日(きのう)（は）…〜ました。

Asking: 〜ましたか

Add か after ました and the sentence becomes a question, with the words in the same order: 駅に行きましたか (eki ni ikimashita ka), “Did you go to the station?” With どこ (doko), “where”, and 何, “what”, the question word sits where the answer goes and keeps the particle: どこで働きましたか (doko de hatarakimashita ka) calls for 家で働きました, どこに行きましたか (doko ni ikimashita ka) for 駅に行きました, and 何を食べましたか (nani o tabemashita ka) for パンを食べました. で still marks where the action happens, and に where you go. Before を, 何 is read nani, unlike 何ですか (nan desu ka).

…〜ましたか。

Answering by repeating the verb

To say yes, use はい (hai) and repeat the verb: 働きましたか → はい、働きました (hai, hatarakimashita), “Yes, I did.” English shortens this with “did”, so the three answers below all read “Yes, I did.”; in Japanese, each one brings its own verb back: 働きました, 食べました, 行きました. The verb is enough, with no need to repeat the whole sentence.

  • formal

    はい、働(はたら)きました。

    Yes, I did.

  • formal

    はい、食(た)べました。

    Yes, I did.

  • formal

    はい、行(い)きました。

    Yes, I did.

Just to recognize: ませんでした

To say something didn’t happen, Japanese puts でした after ません: 今日は働きません (kyō wa hatarakimasen), “I don’t work today”, leads to 昨日は働きませんでした (kinō wa hatarakimasen deshita), “I didn’t work yesterday.” For now, understanding is enough: when you hear ませんでした, the action didn’t happen. You don’t need to produce this form yet. Saying how something was in the past, with adjectives and nouns, comes later.

Your turn

Now you’re the one at lunch. Cover the sentences below and try this, in order: ask where the other person ate, say that yesterday you ate rice at home, and ask whether they went to the station. Then check. If another food or another place you know comes out, even better.

In short

ます becomes ました: 働きました, 食べました and 行きました say the action already happened. 昨日 names the day and takes no に. か at the end makes the question, and はい with the repeated verb answers yes. The rest of the sentence doesn’t change: を, で and に stay in the same places. If you hear ませんでした, the action didn’t happen.

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