Re: remedial yiddish: the past tense

[Joe Kurland & Peggy Davis <ganeydn...>]

For a guide to how to form past, or any other, tense in Yiddish, consult
the book, "201 Yiddish Verbs.*  (Sorry, I'm away from home and can't look
up the publisher, but it's a series and you should find similar books for
other languages in any college bookstore.)  It will give you a good idea of
how to form past participles and which verbs take hobn and which zaynen as
helper verbs to form the past tense.

(Please note that hobn is spelled "hey, kometz alef, beyz, langer nun" in
Yiddish, but is pronounced "hobm.")

Weinreich's dictionary also tells you which helper verb to use and gives
you  irregular past participles.

a gutn peysekh,

Yosl (Joe) Kurland
The Wholesale Klezmer Band
Colrain, MA 01340
413-624-3204