Joy explains the simple past tense and its positive and negative forms.
What happens if you want to talk about the weather a few days ago in the past? You might have had incredible weather over the past few days, or you might be struggling to keep a conversation going. We’ll learn the simple past tense just now. You already know the structures.
Cò ris a bha an aimsir coltach an-dè?
What was the weather like yesterday?
Cò ris a bha an t-sìde coltach Diciadain?
What was the weather like on Wednesday?
Only one word has changed: tha to bha. Tha is the present tense of ‘to be’ (‘am, are, is’) and bha is the past tense (‘was, were’).
Bha i fliuch
It was wet
Bha i teth
It was hot
To say the weather wasn’t something we need a negative form of the verb. In the present tense we used Chan eil, but in the past tense we say Cha robh.
Tha -> Bha
Chan eil -> Cha robh
Bha
(It) was
Cha robh
(It) was not
To ask a Yes/No question in the present tense we used A bheil…? In the past tense, we ask An robh…? The answer Yes is Bha and the answer No is Cha robh .
We also learnt the negative question Nach eil…? In the past tense, the negative question is Nach robh…?
A bheil …? -> An robh …?
Nach eil …? -> Nach robh …?
An robh …?
Was …?
Nach robh …?
Wasn’t …?
This gives us a whole new structure we can add to the ones we have learnt already.