Past Tense with -li-

01

The Pattern

• Ulifanya nini jana?

  What did you do yesterday?

• u- you
• -li- in the past
• fanya do
• ninasoma I am reading becomes nilisoma I read
• anafanya he is doing becomes alifanya he did
• tunakula we are eating becomes tulikula we ate

• Niliweka viatu ndani ya kabati.

  I put the shoes inside the wardrobe.

• Nilienda kwenye jengo la ununuzi.

  I went to a shopping centre.

02

A Finished Event, Nothing More

-li- reports that something happened. It says nothing about whether the result still stands, and that is what separates it from the perfect.

• Bibi yangu alifariki mwezi Februari.

  My grandmother died in February.

• Nilivunjika mkono nikicheza kandanda.

  I broke my arm playing football.

Both are closed events, filed away in the past.

03

Class Subjects in the Past

• Wiki iliyopita, nilifika New York.

  Last week I arrived in New York.

• Umeona kile? Kilikuwa kinavutia.

  Did you see that? It was interesting.

iliyopita opens with the class 9 i- for the week, and kilikuwa with the class 7 ki-.

04

Short Verbs Again Keep ku-

The one-syllable verbs keep their ku- after -li-, just as they do after -na-: tulikula we ate, nilikunywa I drank. kwenda often keeps its kw- the same way.

• Nilikwenda kwake jana jioni kunywa chai.

  I went to his place yesterday evening to drink tea.

05

The Negative Past Looks Nothing Like It

Here the neat swap breaks down. The negative past does not use -li- at all. It puts -ku- after a negative subject prefix.

• nilisoma I read becomes sikusoma I did not read
• alifika he arrived becomes hakufika he did not arrive

• Nilifaulu mtihani, ingawa sikusoma.

  I passed the exam, although I did not study.

One sentence with both: nilifaulu takes -li-, and sikusoma takes si- and -ku-.

• Sikuiona. Nini kimetokea?

  I did not see it. What happened?

06

Telling a Story

Because the past reports events rather than states, it is the tense a narrative runs in, one finished action after another.

• Alifunga mlango baada ya mimi kuingia.

  He closed the door after I came in.

• Nilikuza ndevu mwezi Novemba.

  I grew a beard in November.

07

With Time Words

A time expression fixes the event, and it may stand at either end of the sentence.

• jana - yesterday
• juzi - the day before yesterday
• mwaka jana - last year
• wiki iliyopita - last week

• Mwaka jana, nilianza kazi mpya.

  Last year I started a new job.

• Juzi nilienda sokoni.

  The day before yesterday I went to the market.

08

The Past of 'to Be'

The little word ni is cannot carry a tense, so was is built on the verb kuwa to be instead, giving -likuwa.

• Umeona kile? Kilikuwa kinavutia.

  Did you see that? It was interesting.

• Habari Bibi Kim, ilikuwaje kukaa kwako hospitalini?

  Hello Mrs Kim, how was your stay in hospital?