The past: gaya, gayi, gaye — gender and number in one tail
The simple past hangs its whole grammar on one tail: gaya of a man, gayi of a woman, gaye of many. Baarish aa gayi — the rain came (the rain is feminine); woh waqt par pahunch gaye — they arrived on time. For example: “بارش آ گئی، سفر ملتوی کرنا پڑا” — The rain came — the trip had to be put off. A rule from the Urdu course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
The simple past hangs its whole grammar on one tail: gaya of a man, gayi of a woman, gaye of many. Baarish aa gayi — the rain came (the rain is feminine); woh waqt par pahunch gaye — they arrived on time.
The tail carries gender and number together, and nothing else changes: the verb stem stays, the doer stands before, the tail closes. Chaabi ghar mein bhool gayi — the key stayed at home: "she forgot" — the key did the forgetting, as the language sees it.
You know the same tail from the very first phrases: phir milenge. We will meet — is future. phir mile — we met — is this tail at work in the past.
Table
| who | the tail | example |
|---|---|---|
| he went | گیا | woh gaya |
| she went | گئی | woh gayi |
| they went | گئے | woh gaye |
| they (f.) went | گئیں | woh gayein |
| it happened (f.) | ہو گئی | baarish ho gayi |
By example
- بارش آ گئی، سفر ملتوی کرنا پڑاbarish a gai, safar multawi karna paraThe rain came — the trip had to be put off
- چابی گھر میں بھول گئیchabi ghar main bhul gaiThe key stayed at home — she forgot
- وہ وقت پر پہنچ گئےwo waqt per pahunch gaeThey arrived on time
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
The past: how does it work in Urdu?
The simple past hangs its whole grammar on one tail: gaya of a man, gayi of a woman, gaye of many. Baarish aa gayi — the rain came (the rain is feminine); woh waqt par pahunch gaye — they arrived on time.
What does it look like in a Urdu example sentence?
“بارش آ گئی، سفر ملتوی کرنا پڑا” (barish a gai, safar multawi karna para) — The rain came — the trip had to be put off. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.