た

Syllable

た (romaji ta)

1. The hiragana syllable た (ta). Its equivalent in katakana is タ (ta). It is the sixteenth syllable in the gojūon order; its position is た行あ段 (ta-gyō a-dan, “row ta, section a”).

Pronoun

た (rōmaji ta)

1. interrogative personal pronoun; who
   • c. late 9th – mid-10th century, Taketori Monogatari

     あの書をきし文を讀み聞かせけれど、「なにせむにか命もおしからむ。たが為にか。何事も用もなし」とて[...]

Alternative forms

• だ (da) (when following -b, -g, -m, and -n base verbs)

Suffix

た (rōmaji -ta)

(auxiliary)

1. Indicates a past or completed action.
2. Indicates the realization of a situation that has not realized.
3. (modifying a noun) Indicates the resulting state of an action.

   Synonyms: てある (-te aru), ている (-te iru)

4. (at the end of a sentence)
   1. Indicates speaker's declaration, confirmation, or sudden realization.
   2. Makes a light command.

Usage notes

• This suffix follows the 音便 (onbin, “euphonic changes”) forms of certain verb classes, some of which cause the suffix た (-ta) to be voiced as だ (-da).

• In traditional Japanese grammar, this is a 助動詞 (jodōshi, “auxiliary verb”) with the defective paradigm たろ (taro), --, た (ta), た (ta), たら (tara), --. The 未然形 (mizenkei, “irrealis or incomplete form”) たろ (taro) is used to derive the past conjectural suffix たろう (-tarō), which is now old-fashioned and taken over by だろう (darō) following the past form. The 仮定形 (kateikei, “hypothetical stem”) たら (-tara-) used to further take the conditional particle ば (-ba), but now usually stands on its own to form the conditional.