The Past Perfect

Level 6

Bol som urobil means I had done. Both bol and the l-form agree with the subject, and som, si, sme, ste work just as in the ordinary past tense.

How It Works

How it is built. Take the ordinary past tense and add the past form of byť: bol, bola, bolo, boli. Both past forms agree with the subject in gender and number.

  • bol som prišiel / bola som prišla: I had come
  • bol si prišiel / bola si prišla: you had come
  • bol prišiel / bola prišla / bolo prišlo: he / she / it had come
  • boli sme prišli: we had come
  • boli ste prišli: you had come
  • boli prišli: they had come

As in the ordinary past, the third person has no som-type word, and som, si, sme, ste go in the second position of the clause: Už som bol odišiel. (I had already left.)

What it means. The past perfect shows that one action was finished before another past action: Keď som prišiel, už boli odišli. (When I arrived, they had already left.) The later action is in the ordinary past. Most examples use perfective verbs. The academic Slovak morphology also records imperfective uses, such as izba, v ktorej bol odpočíval (the room where he had been resting), and uses that stress a distant or finished past: Kde si sa bol stratil? (Where had you disappeared to?)

How common it is. Unlike English, Slovak does not need this tense. The plain past is normal and correct: Keď som prišiel, už odišli. Words such as už (already) and predtým (before), or a clause with skôr ako / potom ako, make the order of events clear. You will meet the past perfect mainly in literature, folk tales and older texts. Learn to recognize it; you will rarely need to use it yourself.

Do not confuse it with the past conditional, which also contains bol but adds by: bol by som prišiel means I would have come.

Examples (5)

  1. Keď som prišiel, už boli odišli.

    When I arrived, they had already left.

    Word by Word: When I-arrived, already were left.

    Odišli happened first, so it is in the past perfect; prišiel is the ordinary past.

  2. Keď lekár dorazil, pacient už bol zaspal.

    When the doctor arrived, the patient had already fallen asleep.

    Word by Word: When doctor arrived, patient already was fallen-asleep.

  3. Izba bola vychladla, a tak mama rýchlo zakúrila.

    The room had gone cold, so Mom quickly lit the stove.

    Word by Word: Room was cooled-down, and so mom quickly heated.

    Bola vychladla agrees with the feminine noun izba.

  4. Zabudla, čo mu bola sľúbila.

    She forgot what she had promised him.

    Word by Word: She-forgot, what him she-was promised.

  5. Kde si sa bol stratil?

    Where had you disappeared to?

    Word by Word: Where you-are self was lost?

    A question of this kind, quoted from Timrava in the academic morphology, stresses that the absence is over.

Common Mistakes

  • Letting bol and the l-form disagree in gender.

    Mária už bol odišla, keď sme prišli.
    Mária už bola odišla, keď sme prišli.

    Both parts of the past perfect agree with the subject. Mária is feminine, so both are feminine: bola odišla.

  • Using the conditional by for "had done".

    Keď som prišiel, už by boli odišli.
    Keď som prišiel, už boli odišli.

    By turns the phrase into a conditional meaning "they would have left". For "they had left" use boli odišli, or simply the plain past odišli.

How It Connects

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

The Past PerfectLevel 6

Learn This First

Before The Past Perfect, learn Aspect in the Past. The past perfect builds on aspect in the past.

Words in This Pattern