Past tense of to be (olin, olit, oli)

The Past Tense of "olla" (to be)

Here is how to conjugate the past tense of olla (to be) in the affirmative:

To form the negative past tense, combine the standard negative verb (en, et, ei, emme, ette, eivät) with the past participle of olla:

• Use ollut for singular subjects (e.g., minä en ollut — I was not).
• Use olleet for plural subjects (e.g., me emme olleet — we were not).

Note: The examples below use the present tense to introduce new vocabulary for seasons, but you will practice the past tense forms in the exercises!

Seasons

When stating that something happens during a specific season, Finnish uses the adessive case (-lla/-llä). Notice how the stems of some words change before adding the ending:

• kesä (summer) -> kesällä (in the summer)
• talvi (winter) -> talvella (in the winter) (the i changes to e)

The same rule applies to the other seasons:

• syksy (autumn) -> syksyllä (in the autumn)
• kevät (spring) -> keväällä (in the spring) (the stem becomes kevää-)

In Childhood

When talking about life stages such as childhood, Finnish typically uses the inessive case (-ssa/-ssä). The word lapsuus (childhood) changes its stem to lapsuude- before taking the ending:

• lapsuus -> lapsuudessa (in childhood)