This article discusses verbs in the East Slavonic dialect in Proto-Slavic whose temporal meanings were made largely through an opposition of the present form and the -л form. Other kinds of temporal forms served to make modal meanings. It is argued that in the East Slavonic dialect the -л form was the only way of rendering the meaning of a past action or state, the category of person was shown either through a personal pronoun or a personal form of the verb быти.