yomimashita

Yomimashita is the polite past tense form of the Japanese verb yomu, meaning to read. Written in kana as よみました or in kanji as 読みました, it is romanized as yomimashita. This form corresponds to the English past tense “read” in polite or formal speech.

Morphology and usage: Yomu is a godan (u-verb). The polite non-past form is yomimasu (読みます); the polite past form is yomimashita (読みました). The negative past polite is yomimasen deshita (読みませんでした). Yomimashita is used in formal conversation, writing, or when showing respect to the listener.

Nuance and expectations: Reading something in the past does not always specify when it happened; time is usually supplied by context or explicit time expressions (e.g., kyō, kinō). Japanese does not have a direct one-to-one equivalent of the English present perfect with a single form; to express ongoing relevance, speakers might use phrases like もう yomimashita, yomioeta, or yomitsudzukete imasu depending on nuance.

Examples:

- Kyō wa shinbun o yomimashita. (I read the newspaper today.)

- Kinō hon o yomimashita. (I read a book yesterday.)

- Nihongo no hon o yomimashita ka? (Did you read a Japanese book?)

See also: In casual speech, the plain past form is yomanda (読んだ), and other politeness levels use forms like yomimasu, yomimashita, or yomimasen deshita as appropriate.