The Preterit Tense

The preterit tense is a verbal form that expresses an action that was fully completed before the moment of the conversation. In Urdu, the preterit is expressed by the past participle.

بات چیت ختم ھوتے ھی میں بھاگا

baatciit kh'atm hote hii maiN bhaagaa

'After the conversation was over, I ran away'

اسے دیکھکر لڑکی بھاگی

use dekhkar laRkii bhaagii

'Having seen him, the girl ran away'

استاد باھر جاتے ھی ھم بھاگے

ustaad baahar jaate hii ham bhaage

'As soon as the teacher had gone out, we ran away'

یہ سنکر عورتیں بھاگیں

yah sunkar aurateN bhaagiiN

'Having heard this, the women ran away'

The rules of agreement for the participle are rather complicated, because they are different for transitive and intransitive verbs. If the participle is formed from an intransitive verb, it agrees with the subject of the sentence. (See the examples above.)

For most transitive verbs, the participle agrees with the object of the verb in the sentence. This agreement occurs when the subject of the sentence is in the oblique form and is followed by the postposition نے ne and the object is in the direct case.

لڑکے نے کچھ چٹھیاں لکھیں

laRke ne kuch ciTThiyaaN likhiiN

'a boy wrote some letters'

عورتوں نے کام کیا

auratoN ne kaam kiyaa

'the women did the work'

The personal pronouns میں maiN 'I' and تو tuu 'you' don't take the oblique form before the postposition نے ne:

میں نے کام کیا

maiN ne kaam kiyaa

'I did the work'

تو نے چٹھی لکھی

tuu ne ciTThii likhii

'you wrote a letter'

The pronouns یہ yah 'this, he, she, it' and وہ vah 'this, he, she, it' take special plural forms before the postposition نے ne when they function as subjects. These forms are اِنہوں inhoN and اُنہوںunhoN, respectively.

اِنہوں نے کام کیا

inhoN ne kaam kiyaa

'they did the work'

اُنہوں نے چٹھی لکھی

unhoN ne ciTThii likhii

'they wrote a letter'

There are, however, some transitive verbs (such as بولنا bolnaa 'to speak, to say' and لانا laanaa 'to bring') which don't require the oblique form of the subject and the postposition نے ne. Past participles formed from these verbs agree with the subject of a sentence:

وہ کچھ نہیں بولا

vah kuch nahiiN bolaa

'he didn't say anything'

لڑکا ایک بلی لایا

laRkaa ek billii laayaa

'a boy brought a cat'

The verbs سمجھنا samajhnaa 'to understand, to realize' and بھولنا bhuulnaa 'to forget' may be used with the subject both in the direct and oblique case. (In the latter case, the postposition نے ne is necessary.) Past participles formed from these verbs can agree either with the subject or with the object, depending on which case the subject of the sentence is in.

وہ یہ بات سمجھا

vah yah baat samjhaa

اس نے یہ بات سمجھی

us ne yah baat samjhii

'He understood this (literally: 'this fact')'

وہ یہ بات بھولا

vah yah baat bhuulaa

اس نے یہ بات بھولی

us ne yah baat bhuulii

'He forgot this fact'

On the other hand, a few intransitive verbs (such as کھانسنا khaaNsnaa 'to cough', چھینکنا chiiNknaa 'to sneeze') may optionally be used with the postposition نے ne and the oblique form of the subject. Participles formed from these verbs are always in the masculine singular form:

لڑکی نے کھانسا

laRkii ne khaaNsaa

'a girl coughed'

لڑکوں نے چھینکا

laRkoN ne chiiNkaa

'boys sneezed'

Certain Urdu verbs may have many meanings, some of which are transitive and some of which are intransitive. In this situation, the construction with the postposition نے ne and the subject in the oblique case is required only when the verb functions as a transitive verb. For example, the verb پڑھنا paRhnaa can be transitive when it means 'to read' and intransitive when it means 'to study somewhere'. The sentence structure in these two cases is different:

انہوں نے یہ کتاب پڑھی

unhoN ne yah kitaab paRhii

'We have read this book'

وہ اکٹھے پڑھے

vah ikaTThe paRhe

'They studied together'

In negative sentences in the preterit tense, the negative particle نہیں nahiiN is most often put before the participle.

ھم نہیں بھاگے

ham nahiiN bhaage

'we didn't run away'