The Marathi Past Tense: गेलो, आला and खाल्ला

The Marathi past tense agrees with the subject for some verbs and with the object for others. Both patterns are regular.

Intransitive verbs: agreement with the subject

For verbs without an object, such as जाणे (go) and येणे (come), the verb agrees with the subject:

Subject	Masculine	Feminine
मी	गेलो	गेले
तू	गेलास	गेलीस
तो / ती	गेला	गेली
आम्ही	गेलो	गेलो
तुम्ही	गेलात	गेलात
ते / त्या (they)	गेले (m.)	गेल्या (f.)

Examples:

• मी काल पुण्याला गेलो. — I went to Pune yesterday. (male speaker)
• ती लवकर आली. — She came early.
• तो उशिरा आला. — He came late.
• आम्ही घरी आलो. — We came home.

Transitive verbs: agreement with the object

With verbs that take an object, such as खाणे (eat) or वाचणे (read), the verb agrees with the object, not the subject:

• मी भात खाल्ला. — I ate rice. (भात is masculine)
• मी पोळी खाल्ली. — I ate a chapati. (पोळी is feminine)
• मी फळ खाल्ले. — I ate a fruit. (फळ is neuter)
• तिने पुस्तक वाचले. — She read a book.
• त्याने चित्रपट पाहिला. — He watched a film.

Notice the ending -ने on the subject in those sentences: तिने (by her), त्याने (by him), रामाने (by Ram). It marks the doer in this construction.

Past time words

• काल — yesterday
• परवा — the day before yesterday
• गेल्या आठवड्यात — last week

Past continuous

To say "was doing", use -त होतो / होते / होती:

• मी वाचत होतो. — I was reading.
• ती जेवण करत होती. — She was cooking.

Tips

1. Learn the intransitive pattern first.
2. Learn the -ने pattern for eating, reading and seeing.
3. Use the dictionary to check verb forms.

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