Verbs
Verbs are ‘doing words’, they show that some action is taking place. In English, you know a word is a verb if you can put -ing or -ed at the end.
The verb is the most important part of a sentence. If you have mastered the verb, you have mastered the language.
Tense
As in English, there are three tense categories in Hindi:
- Present
- Past
- Future
The “tense” is a verbal category relating the time of a narrated event to the time of the speech event. Tenses are expressed by inflecting, or conjugating, the verb.
Here is a complete example of an English phrase in all tenses:
- Present
- Present Indefinite – I read
- Present Continuous (happening now) – I’m reading
- Present Perfect (just happened)
- Intransitive – I have come
- Transitive
- With no stated object – I just read
- With an object – I just ate bread
- Past
- Past Indefinite – I read
- Past Continuous – I was reading
- Past Perfect
- Intransitive – I had come
- Transitive
- With no stated object – I had just read
- With an object – I had just eaten bread
- Future – I will read
Note: With the perfect tense, in both present and past, there are intransitive verbs and transitive verbs. Intransitive verbs never act on an object. Transitive verbs act on an object, but the object can be explicitly or implicitly stated.
Verb Conjugation
The main form of a verb is called the infinitive. In Hindi, every verb in its infinitive form ends in -naa.
Examples:
- parhnaato read
- bolnaato speak
- sonaato sleep
- khaanaato eat
- seekhnaato learn
- jaanaato go
When you use a verb in a sentence, you need to conjugate the infinitive form by changing the -naa to something that reflects the tense.
Verb Conjugation Charts
Present Tense
| Tense | Basis for Conjugation | Conjugation Rule Replace (-naa with…) Order is M s, M p, F s, F p | Aux Verb |
| Present I read | Conjugate based on the gender and number of the subject | -ta, -te, -ti | Aux verb |
| Present Continuous I am reading | Verb root then raha, rahe, rahi | Aux verb | |
| Present Perfect (Intransitive) I have come | -(y)a, -y(e), -y(i) | Aux verb | |
| Present Perfect (Transitive – no object) I just read | All verbs take the masculine singular form of present perfect | -ne pronoun declination, -(y)a to verb | Always ends in hai |
| Present Perfect (Transitive – with object) I just ate bread | Conjugate based on the gender and number of the object | -(y)a, -(y)e, -(y)i, -(y)in | Aux verb |
Past Tense
| Tense | Basis for Conjugation | Conjugation Rule Replace (-naa with…) Order is M s, M p, F s, F p | Aux Verb |
| Past I read | All verb conjugations are the same as the corresponding present tense | Past aux verb | |
| Past Continuous I was reading | Past aux verb | ||
| Past Perfect (Intransitive) I had come | Past aux verb | ||
| Past Perfect (Transitive – no object) I had just read | Past aux verb | ||
| Past Perfect (Transitive – with object) I had just eaten bread | Past aux verb |
Future Tense
| Tense | Basis for Conjugation | Conjugation Rule Replace (-naa with…) Order is M s, M p, F s, F p | Aux Verb |
| Future I will read | Conjugate based on the person and number of the subject | (main) -oonga (tum) -oge (ap, hum, ye and vo plural) -enge (ye and vo singular) -ega | No aux verb |
Auxiliary Verbs
The verb always comes last in a sentence, and the auxiliary verb comes at the very end.
| Present tense | hoon, hai, hain | Change based on the person and plurality of the subject |
| Past tense | tha, the, thi, thin | Change based on the gender and plurality of the subject |
Auxiliary Verbs in the Present Tense
| Person | Pronoun | Aux Verb |
| 1st person singular | mainI | hoonam |
| 2nd person informal | tumyou | hoare |
| 3rd person singular | ye (near), vo (far)he/she/it/this/that | haiis |
| 2nd person formal and 1st and 3rd person plural | ap, hum, ye (near), vo (far)you, us, they/these/those | hainare |
Auxiliary Verbs in the Past Tense
In the past tense, the aux verbs correspond to the gender and number of the subject.
| Subject | Aux Verb |
| Male singular | thawas |
| Male plural | thewere |
| Female singular | thiwas |
| Female plural | thinwere |
Note, when a sentence is negative, i.e. it has the word nahin, the auxiliary verb is often dropped.
Example Phrase in All Tenses
Note, each phrase is in the form: pronoun + verb + aux verb
The characteristics of the subject in these phrases are:
- First person
- Male
- Singular
| Tense | Present | Past |
| Indefinite | main parhta hoonI read | main parhta thaI read |
| Continuous | main parh raha hoonI am reading | main parh raha thaI was reading |
| Perfect (Intransitive) | main aya hoonI have come | main aya thaI had just come |
| Perfect (Trans, no sub) | maine parha haiI just read | maine parha thaI had just read |
| Perfect (Trans, with sub) | maine roti khayiI just at bread | maine roti khayi thaI had just eaten bread |
| Future | main parhoongaI will read |
The verbs used in these examples include:
- parhnaato read
- anaato come
- khanaato eat
Three Verb Conjugation Special Cases
- When you use tum and are talking to a male, the verb takes the male plural form.
tum padte hoyou read
2. Irregular intransitive verb
The intransitive verb janaa changes differently in the present perfect.
janaa (to go) becomes:
| gaya | instead of jaya |
| gaye | instead of jaye |
| gayi | instead of jayi |
3. Two irregular transitive verbs
These two transitive verbs change differently in the present perfect tense.
| denaa (to give) | |
| diya | instead of deya |
| diye | instead of deye |
| diyi | instead of deyi |
| karnaa (to do) | |
| kiya | instead of karya |
| kiye | instead of karye |
| kiyi | instead of karyi |
Additional Verb Forms
1. After
Rule: Replace -naa with -kar
For example:
- khanaa – to eat
- khakar – after eating
2. Imperatives (Instructions)
Verb: khanaa – to eat
| Type | Rule | Imperative | Negative Imperative |
| Polite (ap) | Replace -naa with -ie | khaieplease eat | nahi kahieplease don’t eat |
| Order (tum) | Replace -naa with -o | khaoeat | mat khaodon’t eat |