Tense Markers

Tenses are generally much easier in Khmer than they are in English, because usually just a single word will change the tense of a sentence. This means you don’t have to worry about changing verb endings. Lets take a very simple sentence in the three tenses; past, present and future:

I ran – knyom baan ro-ad ខ្ញុំ បាន រត់
I run/I am running – knyom ro-ad/knyom gombong dai ro-ad ខ្ញុំ រត់/ ខ្ញុំ កំពុង តែ រត់
I will run – knyom nung ro-ad ខ្ញុំ នឹង រត់

As you can see from the sentences above, the tense marker is simply inserted before the verb:

Subject + Tense Marker + Verb ...

Past tense – baan បាន
Present continuous tense (-ing) – gombong dai កំពុង តែ
Future tense – nung នឹង

Although all of these tense markers exist in Khmer, it is very important to note that they are not always used. They are frequently left out when the context indicates clearly what tense is being employed. If for example you were to say that you visited Germany last year, the very fact that you have included ‘last year’ in your sentence means it is past tense, and so there is no need for a tense marker (it is still acceptable to include one if you want though).