Talking about your weekend in Japanese

Level A2

Talking about your weekend in Japanese

It's Monday morning and someone asks about your weekend. By the end of this lesson, you can say where you went, what the place was like, and adjust your tone for a colleague or a friend. The central idea: the past sits at the end of the sentence, with ました for people you're polite to, た for friends and, when you assess a place, 大きかったです or きれいでした.

Quick review: ました, です and the dictionary form

These five sentences hold what you'll reuse, even if this is the first time you see them. パンを食べました (pan o tabemashita), "I ate bread", and 駅に行きました (eki ni ikimashita), "I went to the station", are in the polite past: ます became ました. これは大きいです (kore wa ōkii desu), "this one is big", and きれいです (kirei desu), "it's clean", describe something now. きれい ends in い, but it belongs to the other group, the one that takes な before a noun: きれいな机 (kirei na tsukue), "a clean desk". Among friends, a verb can appear in its dictionary form, without ます: コーヒー、飲む？ (kōhī, nomu?), "do you drink coffee?".

The words of the story

週末 (shūmatsu) is the weekend, made up of 土曜日 (doyōbi), "Saturday", and 日曜日 (nichiyōbi), "Sunday". 公園 (kōen) is "park". どう (dō) asks how something is or was: 公園はどうでしたか (kōen wa dō deshita ka), "how was the park?".

  • 週末(しゅうまつ)weekend
  • 土曜日(どようび)Saturday
  • 日曜日(にちようび)Sunday
  • 公園(こうえん)park
  • どうhow

Model: Monday morning at work

Listen once without reading. Two colleagues talk about the weekend politely: ました for what they did, 大きかったです and きれいでした for what the park was like. 週末は, 土曜日は and 日曜日は set the time as the topic, like 昨日は (kinō wa), "yesterday". Nobody says "I": the conversation already makes it clear who is meant.

Adjectives like 大きい: 大きかったです

To say what a place was like, 大きい swaps its final い for かった: 大きかったです (ōkikatta desu), "it was big". The past is carried by かった; です doesn't change and only keeps the sentence polite. That's why 大きいでした and 大きかったでした are wrong. Add か and it becomes a question: 駅は大きかったですか (eki wa ōkikatta desu ka), "was the station big?". Most adjectives in 大きい's group change this way.

公園は大きかったです。

Adjectives like きれい: きれいでした

With きれい, it's です that changes: きれいです becomes きれいでした (kirei deshita), "it was clean". There is no きれいかったです, because the い in きれい isn't an ending that drops. Compare 公園は大きかったです and 公園はきれいでした: the past is in かった in the first and in でした in the second. English uses "was" for both, so the choice here depends only on the adjective's group. To ask without suggesting an answer, use どうでしたか: カフェはどうでしたか (kafe wa dō deshita ka), "how was the café?".

公園はきれいでした。

Model: among friends

Now two friends talk about the weekend. The verbs end in た or だ, without ました, and the questions here have no か: the voice rises at the end. 行かなかった (ikanakatta), "I didn't go", is for recognition only; it comes back shortly with an explanation.

Three verbs in the た form

Listen to the pairs: the sentence is the same, and only the end of the verb changes. 食べる swaps る for た: 食べた (tabeta). 飲む becomes 飲んだ (nonda), with the same sound change as 飲んでください (nonde kudasai), "please drink", and 行く becomes 行った (itta), with a small っ, a short pause before "ta". Learn these three whole, because each changes in its own way and the rule for every verb comes later. The meaning is the same as ました; what changes is who you're talking to: た with friends and family, ました with people you don't know well, like a new colleague or someone at a counter.

The three forms side by side

This chart is for checking spelling and reading; you can hear the past forms in the sentences of the previous section.

DictionaryPolite pastPlain past
食(た)べる（たべる）食べました（たべました）食べた（たべた）
飲(の)む（のむ）飲みました（のみました）飲んだ（のんだ）
行(い)く（いく）行きました（いきました）行った（いった）

Recognition only: 本でした

After a noun, でした works just as it does after きれい: 本です (hon desu), "it's a book", becomes 本でした (hon deshita), "it was a book". You might hear this from someone telling you what was inside a parcel. For now, recognizing it is enough; the focus stays on places.

Recognition only: the negative past

These four sentences are only for understanding. なかった is the past of ない: 行かない (ikanai), "I'm not going", becomes 行かなかった (ikanakatta), "I didn't go", among friends. In the polite tone, it's いいえ、行きませんでした (iie, ikimasen deshita), "no, I didn't go". With qualities, 大きくないです becomes 大きくなかったです (ōkiku nakatta desu), "it wasn't big", and きれいじゃないです becomes きれいじゃなかったです (kirei ja nakatta desu), "it wasn't clean". If you hear なかった or ませんでした, it didn't happen, or it wasn't so.

Your turn

Cover the sentences below. To a colleague, say you went to the station on Saturday and that it was big; then ask how the café was and, in your colleague's place, answer that it was clean. To a friend, say you had tea at a café. Only then check. If you use another place or drink you know, even better.

To sum up

In the polite tone, ました tells what you did, and 大きかったです and きれいでした say what the place was like. With friends, the verbs become 食べた, 飲んだ and 行った. 大きい changes to かった; きれい stays the same and takes でした. With friends, adjectives have a plain past too, which comes later. 本でした and the negative past are recognition only for now.

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