Imperfect Past Tense (*hiyyattanī*)

Imperfect Past Tense (hiyyattanī)

Kaccāyana 418. hiyyopabhuti paccakkhe hiyyattanī.

“starting from yesterday, when seen, is imperfect past tense”

As the name implies, hiyyo means “yesterday”, this past tense was used for events which happened before yesterday, but were seen by the speaker.

Modern grammars translate it as a continuous past tense “was going”, but it’s safe to translate it just as a normal past tense “went”.

This past tense has also almost completely died out in Pāli, apart from some common roots like √gam √chid √dis √vac etc, and mostly in poetry. In DPD there are about 38 Tipiṭaka examples so far.

This verbal form also can take an a- augment in front, like the aorist. Let’s look at the conjugation.

Imperfect Past Attanopada “went or was going”
(√gam)

	sg	pl
3 paṭhama	agamā	agamu agamū agamuṃ
2 majjhima	agamo	agamattha
1 uttama	agama agamaṃ	agamamhā

Imperfect Past Parassapada
“went by oneself or was going by oneself”
(√gam)

	sg	pl
3 paṭhama	agamattha	agamatthuṃ
2 majjhima	agamase	agamavhaṃ
1 uttama	agamiṃ	agamamhase

Technically there is also a Passive Imperfect Past. How would that be formed?