Lesson 3: Past Tenses

In Lessons 1 and 2 introduced we learned basic concepts of verb conjugation and the use of objects with Georgian verbs.

Lesson 1: Basic Conjugation

Having picked up a number of basic phrases on the first trip to Georgia or from a Georgian friend outside of Georgia and after starting to become familiar with the Georgian alphabet, one might be interested to proceed with learning Georgian in a systematic way. At this stage it would

The Georgian Language UniverseStefan

Lesson 2: Verb Objects

Next to becoming familiar with the basic conjugation of the Georgian verbs in the present tense, it is useful to understand how to use and declense the objects of the verb’s action, as in our (now extended) example from Lesson 1: ის ჩაწერს სიტყვას წიგნში - she is writing a

The Georgian Language UniverseStefan

Today's Lesson 3 is all about how to use and form past tenses of Georgian verbs. We will start with the two most important past tenses in the most important verb class in this blog today and elaborate and extend beyond this in future lessons. If you look, for example, at the page with the conjugation schema of the verb დაწერს - to write something, you can write several tenses that take/took place some time in the past. Of these, the Imperfect and the Aorist are the most important for the beginner and intermediate learners. This is because both are used quite often and more often than the other past tenses in Georgian, so you will encounter them with high frequency when speaking to Georgians, which helps reinforce your learning and is a good motivation, of course. Go here to learn more about the differnt moods and tenses in Georgian.

When thinking about which of the two to learn first, well, there are several considerations:

1. The conjugation of the Imperfect is quite easily learned, when you already know the conjugation of the verb in the Present and Future tenses and the use of the Imperfect with objects and subjects is also exactly the same as in the Present and the Future. However, the imperfect is not quite as common as the Aorist.

2. The conjugation of the Aorist is not as easily learned because it can be considerably different from the Present and Future tenses and the use with objects and subjects (i.e. when to use nominative and dative) is is also quite different. So the Aorist is harder to learn than the Imperfect. However, the Aorist is worth learning because you will encounter it more often than the Imperfect AND if you know how to form and use the Aorist, you also get the Imperative Mood for free because it is identical to the Aorist!

So decide for yourself, which one to learn first, but I would always go and I did go for the Aorist in my early learning days (and still do when learning a new Georgian verb), it is just more common and versatile than the Imperfect. Let's look at both tenses in more detail:

How to Learn the Imperfect Tense?

The Imperfect is used much like the English Past Progressive to emphasize the duration of the action in the past, rather than just expressing that the action has happened and ended.

Forming the Imperfect from the Present Indicative is straight forward and the same for (almost) all Georgian verbs: for the first and second person you add -დი or -დით, and for the third persons you add -და or -დნენ. Have a look at the examples in this table:
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