# Estonian: past tenses



## jonquiliser

Tere,

I would like to know how to form the past tenses of verbs:

[to be]
*was/were
has/have been
had been
*

Aitäh!


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## halfminded

jonquiliser said:


> Tere,
> 
> I would like to know how to form the past tenses of verbs:
> 
> [to be]
> *was/were
> has/have been
> had been
> *
> 
> Aitäh!



I`ll try my best with explanation, but as I am having a mayor headache and insomnia, then I hope someone will correct the mistakes that I might make.

*was/were*- past simple, right?
_I was- ma olin
you were- sa olid
he/she was- ta oli
we were- me olime
you were- te olite
they were- nad olid_
(It seems more simple in English)

*has/have been*-present perfect, eh?
_I have been- ma olen olnud
you have been- sa oled olnud
he/she have been- ta on olnud
we have been- me oleme olnud
you have been- te olete olnud
they have been- nad on olnud_
(the first part is like "to be" in present and you just add "olnud")

*had been*- past perfect..probably.. 
You take past simple of "To be" (olema) and add "olnud". I start to see some kind of pattern here...
_I had been- ma olin olnud
you had been- sa olid olnud
he/she had been- ta oli olnud
we had been- me olime olnud
you had been- te olite olnud
they had been- nad olid olnud
_


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## jonquiliser

Perfect, halfminded! Your answer, I mean; not your headache and insomnia . Have been there myself, not very nice at all :|. Hope it gets better soon!


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## halfminded

jonquiliser said:


> Hope it gets better soon!



I hope that too...
And by the way... *Suslik*, did we reply almost at the same time to this topic..as i got a notification that you had replied to this topic, but here isn`t your reply anywhere... Now I am confused...


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## suslik

yes we replied at the same time, but your reply came first, so when I was done with mine, yours was already here and I thought that it's pointless to leave mine here, because it was same anyway.


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## suslik

and I think I wasn't quick enough, because it takes more time for me, because I have to find letters like õäöü and copy paste them here. I don't have them on my keyboard.


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