ました・ませんでした

## What it means **ました** means "did" — something happened in the past — and **ませんでした** means "didn't" — something did not happen. They're the past-tense partners of ます and ません.

## When to use it Take the ます form of any verb, drop ます, and add ました for the affirmative past or ませんでした for the negative past: 食べます → 食べました ("ate") / 食べませんでした ("didn't eat"). This works the same way no matter which verb group you started with, since you're building on the ます form you already know.

## Don't confuse it with Don't confuse ませんでした (didn't do, for verbs) with **じゃありませんでした** (wasn't, for nouns and な-adjectives). ませんでした attaches to verbs, like 行きませんでした ("didn't go"), while じゃありませんでした attaches to nouns, like 学生じゃありませんでした ("wasn't a student"). Mixing the two up is a very common beginner error.