～ました
Polite way to say “did”
You’ll be able to describe completed actions politely when talking about what you did.
朝、パンを食べました。
asa, pan o tabemashita.
What do you think this sentence means?
I ate bread this morning.
Talk politely about completed past actions
Use ～ました to say that an action happened or was completed in the past.
昨日、映画を見ました。
kinou, eiga o mimashita.
I watched a movie yesterday.
Replace ます with ました
Use the verb’s ます-stem and add ました.
食べます → 食べました
tabemasu → tabemashita
eat → ate
行きます → 行きました
ikimasu → ikimashita
go → went
勉強します → 勉強しました
benkyou shimasu → benkyou shimashita
study → studied
Three common uses of ～ました
～ました politely reports affirmative actions completed before now. It can describe a single event, a repeated past action, or something that happened just now.
Single event, 昨日
昨日、映画を見ました。
kinou, eiga o mimashita.
I watched a movie yesterday.
昨日 places this completed event in the past.
Past habit, 去年
去年は毎日、日本語を勉強しました。
kyonen wa mainichi, nihongo o benkyou shimashita.
Last year, I studied Japanese every day.
去年 sets a past period in which the action happened repeatedly.
Just completed, 今
今、バスが来ました。
ima, basu ga kimashita.
The bus just arrived.
今 shows that the completed event happened just before speaking.
母はパンを買いました。
haha wa pan o kaimashita.
My mother bought bread.
朝、水を飲みました。
asa, mizu o nomimashita.
I drank water this morning.
昼、うどんを食べました。
hiru, udon o tabemashita.
I ate udon for lunch.
10 more examples in the grammar path — free for a limited time.