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Simple past

Usage

Simple past is widely used in the written language. In the spoken colloquial Upper Sorbian its usage largely depends on the dialectal background of a speaker. Speakers of northern and central dialects preserve simple past in their speech whereas southern dialects speakers tend to use compound past in all contexts instead.

The Upper Sorbian simple past tense used with imperfective verbs roughly correspond to the English past simple continuous tense. Perfective verbs in this tense roughly translate to the English past simple tense.

Compare the use of the simple past and the coumpound past tenses in the written literary language:

Formation

Simple past forms are made of the infinitive stem (for all perfective verbs and most of imperfective verbs) or the present stem (for some imperfective verbs with present stem ending in -e-) by adding the following endings:

The additional -e- shown in parenteses is only used when the simple past tense forms are made of an infinitive stem ending in a consonant.

Imperfective verbs with present stem in -e-

A majority of verbs in this group use the present stem to form the simple past tense:

brać bjerje impf. to take (infinitive stem bra-, present stem bjerje-):
bjerjech I was taking; bjerješe you were taking etc.

Verbs with monosyllabic infinitive change the stem vowel -e- into -a- in the 1st person singular and the 3rd person plural:

pić pije impf. to drink (infinitive stem pi-, present stem pije-):
pijach I was drinking; piješe you were drinking etc.

Verbs with infinitive stem in -owa- and present stem in -uje- make an exception among the verbs with the -e- present stem and use the infinitive stem to form the simple past tense forms:

kupować kupuje impf. to buy (infinitive stem kupowa-, present stem kupuje-):
kupowach I was buying; kupowaše you were buying etc.

Vowel stems

Verbs whose infinitive stems end in a vowel take these endings without the additional -e- shown in parenteses in the table above:

pisać pisa impf. to write (infinitive stem pisa-):
pisach I was writing; pisaše you were writing etc.

napisać napisa perf. to write (infinitive stem napisa-):
napisach I wrote; napisa you wrote etc.

The imperfective verbs whose infinitive stems end in -i-/-y- change the final vowel of their stems into -a- before the above endings. If the last consonant of the verb stem is a soft consonant the stem -a- furtherly changes into -e- before endings beginning with -š- (according to a general phonetical rule that any -a- changes into -e- when between two soft consonants):

wučić wuči impf. to teach (infinitive stem wuči-):
wučach I was teaching; wučeše you were teaching etc.

The corresponding perfective verbs do not undergo such a change:

nawučić nawuči perf. to teach (infinitive stem nawuči-):
nawučich I taught; nawuči you taught etc.

Consonantal stems

Verbs with infinitive stems ending in a consonant insert the additional -e- between the stem and the usual ending:

wjezć wjeze impf. to carry (by wehicle) (infinitive stem wjez-):
wjezech I was carryig; wjezeše you were carrying etc.

přiwjezć přiwjeze perf. to bring (by wehicle) (infinitive stem přiwjez-):
přiwjezech I brought; přiwjeze you brought etc.

If the final consonant of a consonantal infinitive stem is -s- it may be preserved in the simple past tense or it may change into either -ć- or -dź-. This depends on the last consonant of the present stem of the verb:

njesć njese impf. to carry (while walking) (infinitive stem njes-, present stem njes-):
njesech I was carryig; njeseše you were carrying etc.

kłasć kładźe impf. to put down (infinitive stem kłas-, present stem kładź-):
kładźech I was putting down; kładźeše you were putting down etc.

mjesć mjeće impf. to sweep (infinitive stem mjes-, present stem mjeć-):
mjećech I was sweeping; mjećeše you were sweeping etc.

2nd and 3rd person dual

In the 2nd and 3rd person dual a verb may facultatively take the -štaj ending if the subject of a sentence are two male persons, compare:

Studentce pisaštej.
(Two) female students were writing.

Studentaj pisaštej/pisaštaj.
(Two) male students were writing.

Examples:

Notice the difference in the 2nd and 3rd person singular between the imperfective (-še ending) and perfective (zero ending) verbs.

A consonantal stem verb:
njesć njese impf. to carry

A consonantal stem verb:
přinjesć přinjese perf. to bring

An -a- stem verb:
wołać woła impf. to call

An -a- stem verb:
zawołać zawoła perf. to call

An -i-/-y- stem verb:
wučić wuči impf. to teach

An -i-/-y- stem verb:
nawučić nawuči perf. to teach