Past tenses
Two everyday pasts: the aorist for finished events ("I wrote") and the imperfect for ongoing or habitual past ("I was writing"). The aorist comes with Georgian's most famous party trick: in the past, the subject changes case.
The aorist — finished events
Usually built with a preverb (here და-) plus its own endings. წერა "write":
| person | form | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| მე | დავწერე davts'ere | I wrote |
| შენ | დაწერე dats'ere | you wrote |
| მან | დაწერა dats'era | he/she wrote |
| ჩვენ | დავწერეთ davts'eret | we wrote |
| თქვენ | დაწერეთ dats'eret | you (pl) wrote |
| მათ | დაწერეს dats'eres | they wrote |
Same friendly markers as the present: ვ- for "I", -თ for plural.
"To be" has its own past: ვიყავი viq'avi "I was", იყო iq'o "he/she/it was", იყვნენ iq'vnen "they were". თბილისში ვიყავი tbilisshi viq'avi — "I was in Tbilisi."
The twist: the ergative case
With transitive verbs in the aorist, the subject swaps its nominative for the ergative -მა, and the object goes nominative:
| present | aorist |
|---|---|
| კაცი წერილს წერს k'atsi ts'erils ts'ers — "the man writes a letter" | კაცმა წერილი დაწერა k'atsma ts'erili dats'era — "the man wrote a letter" |
| ის წიგნს კითხულობს is ts'igns k'itkhulobs — "he/she reads the book" | მან წიგნი წაიკითხა man ts'igni ts'aik'itkha — "he/she read the book" |
Pronoun version: ის "he/she" → მან; ისინი "they" → მათ. მე and შენ conveniently don't change shape at all.
Treat this as a curiosity, not a wall:
- It only happens in the aorist family, only with certain verbs.
- It's one ending (-მა), applied with total regularity.
- If you forget and use the nominative, everyone still understands you — you just sound foreign for one syllable.
Linguists cross oceans to study this ("split ergativity"). You get it for free in chapter nine.
The imperfect — ongoing or habitual past
Take the present and add -დ- + past endings. No preverb, no ergative — the subject stays nominative:
| present | imperfect |
|---|---|
| ვწერ vts'er — "I write" | ვწერდი vts'erdi — "I was writing / used to write" |
| წერს ts'ers — "he/she writes" | წერდა ts'erda — "he/she was writing" |
| ვმუშაობ vmushaob — "I work" | ვმუშაობდი vmushaobdi — "I used to work" |
Which past when?
| aorist | imperfect | |
|---|---|---|
| feel | snapshot: done, over | film: in progress, repeated |
| example | წერილი დავწერე ts'erili davts'ere — "I wrote the letter" | წერილს ვწერდი ts'erils vts'erdi — "I was writing the letter" |
| example | გუშინ მოვიდა gushin movida — "he/she came yesterday" | ყოველდღე მოდიოდა q'oveldghe modioda — "he/she came every day" |
The same finished-vs-ongoing instinct as French passé composé / imparfait or Spanish pretérito / imperfecto — if you know one of those, you already have the feel.
Takeaway
- Aorist = preverb + own endings = "did it". Imperfect = present + -დ- = "was doing it".
- In the aorist, transitive subjects wear -მა (ის → მან). One ending, totally regular.
- Aspect logic matches the Romance past-tense split you may already know.
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