How to Say ‘Came / have come (polite past)’ in Japanese
きました
ki mashi ta
[kee mah-shee tah]
💬 Usage Tip: When attached to a verb in [〜てきました], it means “have started to / have been doing and now”: [慣れてきました].
🇯🇵 In Japan: Japanese often describes gradual change with [〜てきました], emphasizing a natural process over a sudden switch.
Phrase Breakdown
き
ki
[kee]
came; have come (polite past)
き is from 来る (くる, “to come”). In ～てくる, it can show a change that has developed up to now (e.g., 慣れてきました = “have started to get used to it”).
最近、寒くなってきました。
Recently, it has started to get cold.
まし
mashi
[mah-shee]
(part of polite verb ending)
まし is the stem used to form polite verb forms like ～ます and ～ました. By itself it’s not used as an independent word.
毎日勉強しました。
I studied every day.
た
ta
[tah]
(past tense marker in polite form)
た completes the polite past form ～ました, indicating an action/state in the past or a change that has occurred.
昨日は早く寝ました。
I went to bed early yesterday.
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