Past or Perfect?

Level 3

Eile käisin kinos means Yesterday I went to the cinema. Ma olen seal käinud means I have been there.

How It Works

Estonian has two main past tenses for everyday speech.

Simple past (käisin, tegin, läks): a finished event that you tell as it happened. It is the tense of stories, and it goes with time words like eile, eelmisel nädalal, 2019. aastal or kaks päeva tagasi.

  • Hommikul ärkasin, jõin kohvi ja läksin tööle.

Perfect (olen käinud, on teinud): the past seen from now.

  • Experience: Kas sa oled Tartus käinud? (Have you been to Tartu?)
  • A result that matters now: Ta on haigeks jäänud. (He has fallen ill, and he is ill now.)
  • Not yet: Ma pole seda filmi veel näinud.

A conversation often switches tenses. A general question uses the perfect, and the answer with a specific time uses the simple past: Kas sa oled Tartus käinud? – Jah, käisin seal eelmisel suvel.

Estonian is less strict than English. Both Ma sündisin Tallinnas and Ma olen sündinud Tallinnas are correct and common. For something that started in the past and is still going on, Estonian often uses the present with juba: Ma elan siin juba kolm aastat.

Examples (6)

  1. Eile käisin kinos.

    Yesterday I went to the cinema.

    A finished event at a known time uses the simple past.

  2. Ma olen seal käinud.

    I have been there.

    The perfect sums up experience.

  3. Ta on haigeks jäänud.

    He has fallen ill.

    The result matters now: he is ill.

  4. Kas sa oled Tartus käinud? – Jah, käisin seal eelmisel suvel.

    Have you been to Tartu? – Yes, I went there last summer.

    The question uses the perfect, and the answer with a specific time uses the simple past.

  5. Ma pole seda filmi veel näinud.

    I haven't seen that film yet.

    Veel with a negative perfect means not yet.

  6. Hommikul ärkasin, jõin kohvi ja läksin tööle.

    In the morning I woke up, drank coffee and went to work.

    A chain of events in a story uses the simple past.

Common Mistakes

  • Using the simple past form after olema.

    Kas sa oled kunagi Soomes käisid?
    Kas sa oled kunagi Soomes käinud?

    The perfect is olema plus the -nud form, not the simple past form.

  • Using the negative past to mean "not yet, up to now".

    Ma ei käinud veel seal.
    Ma ei ole seal veel käinud.

    To say you have not been there yet, up to now, use the negative perfect. Ei käinud tells about a finished past time.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Past or Perfect?Level 3

Learn This First

Choosing between the tenses compares both.