In short

The Russian past is easy: drop -ть from the infinitive and add -л (he), -ла (she), -ло (it), -ли (plural). The form agrees with the subject’s gender and number, not its person - so я чита́л / чита́ла, ты чита́л / чита́ла, они́ чита́ли all use the same set.

The rule

1. How to build it. Take the infinitive, drop -ть, and add a past-tense ending. There is just one past tense, and only four forms - one for each gender plus one plural:

2. Agreement is by gender & number, not person. Unlike the present tense (lesson 7), the past does not change for я / ты / он. It only cares whether the subject is masculine, feminine, neuter, or plural:

So a man says я чита́л, a woman says я чита́ла. The polite вы always takes the plural -ли (вы чита́ли), even for one person.

3. The verb быть (to be). Its past forms are slightly irregular in stress - watch была́:

4. Special stems (-ти / -чь and a few others). Some verbs don’t simply drop -ть. The masculine form often ends in a bare consonant with no -л; the other forms add -ла / -ло / -ли to a changed stem:

In each of them the masculine is the odd one out; the other three share one stem and take -ла / -ло / -ли with the stress on the ending - so везти́ → вёз, везла́, везли́; расти́ → рос, росла́, росли́; лечь → лёг, легла́, легли́. A prefix leaves that stem untouched - пришёл, пошёл, ушли́, привёз, вы́рос - and найти́ (“to find”) is an идти́-compound in disguise, so its past is нашёл / нашла́ / нашло́ / нашли́, never *найл. With these verbs only вы́- takes the stress itself, and an unstressed ё is written е: вы́шел, not *вышёл.

5. Aspect shows up here too. The same -л endings work for both aspects, but the meaning differs: imperfective past = a process, a repeated or general action (я чита́л = I was reading / used to read), while perfective past = one completed action with a result (я прочита́л = I read it through / I’ve read it). Full aspect is lesson 21.

6. Past possession. “Had” uses у меня́ был / была́ / бы́ло / бы́ли…, where the быть-word agrees with the owned thing, not the owner: у меня́ был брат, была́ маши́на, бы́ло вре́мя, бы́ли де́ньги.

Forms & patterns

Regular verbs - drop -ть, add the ending:

быть (to be) - note the moving stress:

Aspect pairs in the past - same endings, different meaning:

Past possession - the быть-word matches the owned noun:

Examples

Common mistakes

• она́ чита́л -> она́ чита́ла - a feminine subject takes -ла.
• они́ рабо́тал -> они́ рабо́тали - a plural subject takes -ли (and вы рабо́тали even for one person).
• я был чита́л -> я чита́л - the Russian past is one word; don’t add быть as an auxiliary like English “was”.
• он идти́л -> он шёл - идти́ has a special past stem; there is no regular -л form.
• у меня́ был маши́на -> у меня́ была́ маши́на - the быть-word agrees with the owned noun (маши́на is feminine).

Tips

• One past verb has only four forms - learn them as a block: -л / -ла / -ло / -ли. No personal endings to memorize.
• Pick the ending by the subject, not by “I/you/he”: a woman always says я была́, я ходи́ла; a man says я был, я ходи́л.
• Memory hook: -л is the masculine baseline (like English “-l”); add -а for “she”, -о for “it”, -и for “they”.
• For “didn’t have / wasn’t”, the stress jumps onto не: у меня́ не́ было вре́мени (note: не́ было + genitive, never не́ была́). More in lessons 11 and 17.