1899.] 
The Past Tense. 
47 
4 (h). The Past Tense. 
This tense is peculiar to the first and second conjugations. It does 
not occur in the third conjugation. It describes something which has 
happened lately, e.g., Icarun, he has (just) made. 
It is formed from the Past Participle in ^ ™. This Participle is 
Passive in the case of verbs of the first conjugation. Thus, kgr ™, 
done, as™ (impersonal verb), laughed. It is Neuter in the case of 
verbs of the second conjugation. Thus, bov™, become. Verbs of 
the first conjugation are therefore passive in construction. Instead 
of saying ‘ I made this,’ we must say ‘ this was made by me,’ 
2RJ yili me kgr™, this ( yih ) by me (me) made ( kgr u ). Here 
the original object of the sentence has become the grammatical subject, 
and the logical subject has been put into the case of the agent. If the 
object (grammatical subject) is feminine, the participle must be femi¬ 
nine. If it is plural, the participle must be plural. Thus,— 
i&j kgr™ me kgr™, the bracelet (masc.) was made by me. 
jrj pat™ me kgr™, the tablet (fern.) was made by me. 
kgr 1 me kgr % the bracelets were made by me. 
xr^T JSJ 'pace me kare , the tablets were made by me. 
As regards the original subject, it is put in the agent case, and 
may also be added to the verb in the form of a pronominal suffix of the 
ageut case. This must always be done in the second person singular 
and plural. These suffixes are given on pp. 15 and ft. For the sake 
of ready reference, they are here repeated. 
Singular. 
Plural. 
1st 
Person. 
am. 
2nd 
ath. 
X 
aw a . 
3rd 
5) 
an. 
akh. 
X 
The initial a is elided when following a vowel. 
When the pronominal suffix is added to a verb (it is always added in 
the case of the second person), the original subject (now agent), if a 
pronoun, may be omitted. Thus, for 1 he made,’ we may say,— 
