Who did it?
The doer takes a special form in the past.
By the end of this lessonUse min, te, wî, wê, me, we, and wan as the doer of a past-tense verb with an object.
The idea
In the past tense of a verb with an object, such as xwendin (to read), the doer does not use ez, tu, or ew. It uses the oblique form: min (I), te (you), wî (he), wê (she), me (we), we (you, plural), and wan (they). With a third-person singular object, the verb has no person ending: xwend. With other objects, the verb agrees with the object; the next lesson explains this.
See it in a sentence
This is called the ergative pattern. You have already met min, te, and me as “my”, “your”, and “our”; the same words now also mark the doer in the past. When the object is a single third person, the verb has no ending.
Grammar reference: Thackston, Past tense and oblique pronouns