The past tense - an aimsir chaite - describes an event which has already happened.
Rules
To put a verb into the past tense, follow these three rules.
- When the verb begins with a consonant, aspirate / séimhiú the verb.
- When the verb begins with a vowel, put a d' before the verb.
- When the verb begins with an f, put a d’ before the verb and aspirate / séimhiú the verb.
An aspiration / séimhiú is when the letter h is placed after the first letter in a word.
Remember that you cannot séimhiú / aspirate words that begin with l, n, r and sc, sm, sp, st or vowels.
Here is a shorter version of the rules.
- consonant + séimhiú / aspirate
- vowel + d’
- f + d’ + séimhiú / aspirate