After the present tense, with its two conjugations and shifting stems, the Russian past tense comes as a relief: it is one of the simplest things in the whole verb system to build. You take the infinitive, chop off the -ть, and add a single-syllable ending — -л for one form, plus three close variants. There is just one genuinely surprising thing about it, and you must grasp it from day one: the Russian past does not mark person (I / you / he). It marks gender and number instead. The same form чита́л serves "I read," "you read," and "he read" — as long as the subject is masculine. This page shows you the pattern, the reflexive twist, and the small set of verbs whose masculine form drops the -л.
The basic pattern: drop -ть, add -л / -ла / -ло / -ли
Take a regular verb, remove the infinitive -ть, and you have the past-tense stem. Then add one of four endings depending on the gender and number of the subject:
| Subject is… | Ending | чита́ть → "to read" | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | -л | чита́л | (he / I-male / you-male) read |
| feminine singular | -ла | чита́ла | (she / I-female / you-female) read |
| neuter singular | -ло | чита́ло | (it) read |
| any plural | -ли | чита́ли | (we / you / they) read |
That is the entire system for regular verbs. The same four endings apply to every verb whose infinitive ends in a vowel + -ть:
| Infinitive | Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| чита́ть (to read) | чита́л | чита́ла | чита́ло | чита́ли |
| говори́ть (to speak) | говори́л | говори́ла | говори́ло | говори́ли |
| де́лать (to do) | де́лал | де́лала | де́лало | де́лали |
| рабо́тать (to work) | рабо́тал | рабо́тала | рабо́тало | рабо́тали |
| ви́деть (to see) | ви́дел | ви́дела | ви́дело | ви́дели |
Вчера́ я весь ве́чер чита́л.
Yesterday I read all evening. — чита́л, masculine (a man speaking), so -л.
Она́ до́лго говори́ла по телефо́ну.
She talked on the phone for a long time. — говори́ть → говори́ла, feminine subject она́, so -ла.
Ра́дио рабо́тало всю ночь.
The radio was on all night. — рабо́тать → рабо́тало, neuter subject ра́дио, so -ло.
The big surprise: gender and number, not person
This is the point to fix in your head, because it overturns the English (and Spanish, and French) habit. In those languages a past-tense verb changes by person — I walked / he walks differ. In Russian the past tense ignores person entirely. What it tracks instead is the gender of a singular subject and the number of any subject.
So all of these use the very same form чита́л, purely because the subject is masculine:
Я чита́л, ты чита́л, он чита́л — все формы одина́ковы.
I read, you read, he read — all the forms are identical. (Said of a male subject — the verb marks gender, not person.)
The flip side: change the subject's gender and the verb must change, even though the person ("I") is unchanged.
— Что ты де́лал вчера́? — спроси́ли Ива́на.
— What did you do yesterday? — they asked Ivan. — де́лал, addressing a man.
— Что ты де́лала вчера́? — спроси́ли Ма́шу.
— What did you do yesterday? — they asked Masha. — де́лала, addressing a woman.
Reflexive verbs add -ся / -сь
Reflexive verbs (the ones ending in -ся — see reflexive verbs) form the past the same way, then tack on the reflexive particle. The particle has two shapes, chosen by what comes before it:
- -ся after a consonant (so after the masculine -л);
- -сь after a vowel (so after the -ла / -ло / -ли endings).
| Infinitive | Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| учи́ться (to study) | учи́лся | учи́лась | учи́лось | учи́лись |
| смея́ться (to laugh) | смея́лся | смея́лась | смея́лось | смея́лись |
Он учи́лся в Москве́ пять лет.
He studied in Moscow for five years. — учи́ться → учи́лся, masculine: -л + -ся.
Она́ учи́лась игра́ть на скри́пке.
She was learning to play the violin. — учи́ться → учи́лась, feminine: -ла + -сь.
Мы до слёз смея́лись над его́ расска́зом.
We laughed until we cried at his story. — смея́ться → смея́лись, plural: -ли + -сь.
Consonant-stem verbs: the masculine -л vanishes
Here is the one wrinkle that catches learners. A group of verbs has a past-tense stem ending in a consonant. After a consonant, Russian cannot tack on a bare -л in the masculine — so the masculine form simply has no -л at all, ending in the bare consonant. The feminine, neuter, and plural keep their -ла / -ло / -ли, because there a vowel follows. The result is that the masculine looks oddly bare next to the other three forms.
| Infinitive | Masc. (no -л!) | Fem. | Neut. | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| нести́ (to carry) | нёс | несла́ | несло́ | несли́ |
| везти́ (to transport) | вёз | везла́ | везло́ | везли́ |
| мочь (to be able) | мог | могла́ | могло́ | могли́ |
| бере́чь (to take care of) | берёг | берегла́ | берегло́ | берегли́ |
Он нёс тяжёлый чемода́н.
He was carrying a heavy suitcase. — нести́ → нёс, bare consonant stem, no -л.
Она́ несла́ тяжёлый чемода́н.
She was carrying a heavy suitcase. — нести́ → несла́, the feminine keeps -ла.
Я не мог откры́ть дверь.
I couldn't open the door. — мочь → мог (a man speaking), bare masculine; cf. feminine могла́.
Note that verbs whose infinitive ends in -чь (мочь, бере́чь, печь "to bake," течь "to flow") all belong here, and the consonant of the stem comes back: мочь → мог / могла́, бере́чь → берёг / берегла́.
A related quirk: some verbs ending in -нуть drop the -ну- in the past, especially the "achieved-state" perfectives. So привы́кнуть ("to get used to") gives привы́к / привы́кла, not *привы́кнул.
Я бы́стро привы́к к но́вой рабо́те.
I quickly got used to the new job. — привы́кнуть → привы́к (the -ну- drops, no -л).
A handful of irregular pasts
A small number of high-frequency verbs build the past from a stem you cannot predict from the infinitive. The one you will use constantly is идти́ ("to go on foot"), whose past is fully suppletive — a different root altogether:
| Infinitive | Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| идти́ (to go) | шёл | шла | шло | шли |
Я шёл домо́й и встре́тил ста́рого дру́га.
I was walking home and ran into an old friend. — идти́ → шёл (man speaking).
Она́ шла по у́лице под дождём.
She was walking down the street in the rain. — идти́ → шла (feminine).
The full inventory of these unpredictable stems is on the irregular past-tense stems page.
Both aspects form the past identically
One reassuring fact: aspect changes the meaning of the past, but not the way you build it. The perfective forms its past with exactly the same -л / -ла / -ло / -ли endings. Since the perfective чита́ть-partner is прочита́ть, its past is прочита́л / прочита́ла / прочита́ло / прочита́ли — the same procedure, drop -ть and add the ending.
Я чита́л э́ту кни́гу, но не прочита́л её до конца́.
I was reading this book but didn't finish it. — чита́л (imperfective) and прочита́л (perfective): same -л ending, different meaning.
Common Mistakes
❌ Я чита́ю кни́гу вчера́.
Wrong — 'yesterday' needs the past tense, not the present. Drop -ть, add the ending: чита́л / чита́ла.
✅ Я чита́л кни́гу вчера́.
I read a book yesterday.
❌ Я чита́л (said by a woman).
Wrong — the past marks gender, not person. A female speaker must use the feminine -ла.
✅ Я чита́ла.
I read / was reading. (woman speaking)
❌ Он несл чемода́н.
Wrong — after a consonant stem the masculine has NO -л at all: нёс, not несл. The feminine keeps it: несла́.
✅ Он нёс чемода́н.
He was carrying the suitcase.
❌ Он идёл домо́й.
Wrong — идти́ has a suppletive past from a different root: шёл / шла / шло / шли, never *идёл.
✅ Он шёл домо́й.
He was walking home.
❌ Я могл откры́ть дверь.
Wrong — мочь has the bare masculine мог (no -л); the feminine is могла́.
✅ Я мог откры́ть дверь.
I could open the door. (man speaking)
Key Takeaways
- Build the past by dropping the infinitive -ть and adding -л (masc.), -ла (fem.), -ло (neut.), -ли (plural): чита́ть → чита́л / чита́ла / чита́ло / чита́ли.
- The past marks gender (singular) and number — NOT person. The same form serves я / ты / он when the subject is masculine.
- Reflexive verbs add -ся after a consonant (учи́лся) and -сь after a vowel (учи́лась, учи́лись).
- Consonant-stem verbs lose the masculine -л: нести́ → нёс / несла́, мочь → мог / могла́, везти́ → вёз / везла́, бере́чь → берёг / берегла́. Some -ну- verbs drop -ну-: привы́кнуть → привы́к / привы́кла.
- идти́ is irregular: шёл / шла / шло / шли.
- Both aspects form the past the same way (чита́л / прочита́л) — aspect changes the meaning, not the construction.
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- Past-Tense Gender and Number AgreementA2 — The Russian past tense agrees with its subject in gender (singular) and number — он чита́л, она́ чита́ла, оно́ чита́ло, они́ чита́ли. The traps: я/ты take the gender of the real speaker or addressee; polite Вы always takes plural -ли even for one person; кто forces masculine and что forces neuter regardless of the real referent. This page works through every agreement target.
- Irregular Past-Tense StemsB1 — Some Russian verbs build their past on a stem you can't read off the infinitive: идти́ becomes шёл / шла / шло / шли, and the masculine often drops -л and shows ё/о (нёс, вёл, вёз, пёк) while the feminine, neuter, and plural restore the consonant and add -ла / -ло / -ли. This page covers the consonant-stem verbs in -ти / -сти / -зти / -чь, the -ну- droppers, умере́ть / запере́ть, and the high-frequency suppletive past шёл and its whole prefixed family (пришёл, ушёл, вошёл, нашёл).
- Past-Tense Forms: A Reference TableA2 — The one-stop lookup for past-tense formation. The regular pattern: infinitive minus -ть + -л/-ла/-ло/-ли (чита́л, чита́ла, чита́ло, чита́ли), agreeing by gender and number, never person. The consonant-stem irregulars whose masculine drops -л (нёс/несла́, мог/могла́, вёз/везла́, берёг/берегла́, шёл/шла). The reflexive forms (-лся/-лась/-лось/-лись). The feminine end-stress class (была́, взяла́, поняла́, начала́). Organized by pattern so you can both build and recognize any past form.
- The InfinitiveA1 — The infinitive is the dictionary form of the verb — a single word ending in -ть, -ти, or -чь (чита́ть, идти́, мочь). It names the action without person, tense, or number, carries aspect, and follows modal words, phase verbs, and impersonal expressions with no 'to' particle: хочу́ чита́ть, на́до идти́, Кури́ть запрещено́.
- Reflexive Verbs (-ся / -сь)A2 — The particle -ся (after a consonant) / -сь (after a vowel) attaches AFTER the personal ending — умыва́ю → умыва́юсь, у́чится, учи́лся / учи́лась / учи́лись. It rarely means 'oneself': most -ся verbs are intransitive (открыва́ться), reciprocal (встреча́ться), or emotional (боя́ться, смея́ться, нра́виться). The key pattern is the transitive/intransitive pair открыва́ть / открыва́ться.
- Negating the Past TenseA2 — Past negation puts не before the gendered past form (Я не зна́л, Она́ не пришла́), but it bundles in two things the present doesn't: the existential не́ было + GENITIVE for 'wasn't there' (Его́ не́ было до́ма), with the stress jumping onto не́ in не́ был / не́ было / не́ были — but NOT in feminine не была́ — and an aspect contrast where не чита́л means 'didn't read at all' while не прочита́л means 'didn't finish'.