〜たものだ

〜たものだ is used when reminiscing with emotion about a past habit that no longer exists: 子どものころ、よくこの川で泳いだものだ (when I was a child, I often used to swim in this river). The sentence usually comes with the adverb よく and phrases pointing to the distant past such as 子どものころ, 学生時代, 昔.

Formation: verb た-form + ものだ. The polite form is たものです; in casual speech it can become たもんだ.

You're already used to 〜ていた for narrating past habits neutrally; 〜たものだ differs in coating the sentence with a wistful layer of "looking back on it now…". Because it is nostalgia, this pattern isn't used for something that happened only once, nor for the very recent past — 先週 or 昨日 with たものだ sounds very strange.

Examples

• 子(こ)どものころ、よくこの川(かわ)で泳(およ)いだものだ。

  When I was a child, I often used to swim in this river.

• 学生時代(がくせいじだい)は朝(あさ)まで友達(ともだち)と話(はな)したものです。

  In my student days, I used to talk with my friends until morning.

• 祖母(そぼ)はよく昔(むかし)の話(はなし)をしてくれたものだ。

  My grandmother often used to tell me stories of the old days.

Related patterns

• 〜ものだ
• 〜ものではない