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Hindi
verbs A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...
are highly inflected in comparison to
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
, but markedly simple in comparison to Sanskrit, from which Hindi has inherited its verbal conjugation system (through
Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...
). Verbs in Hindi conjugate according to mood, tense,
person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
and
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual number ...
. Aspect-marking participles in Hindi mark the aspect.
Gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...
is not distinct in the present tense of indicative mood, however, all the participle form of verbs agree with the gender and number of the subject. Verbs in Hindi agree with the gender of the subject or the object depending on whether the subject pronoun is in the dative or ergative case (agrees with the object) or the nominative case (agrees with the subject).


Overview


Verbs

In Hindi, all verbs have a base form called the infinitive which is marked by the -''nā'' ending of verbs. Some of the most common verbs are: ''honā (to be), karnā (to do), rêhnā (to stay), calnā (to walk), bolnā (to speak).''


Complex verbs

Hindi is extremely rich in complex verbs which are formed by the combinations of noun/adjective and a verb. Complex verbs are of two types: transitive and
intransitive In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs ar ...
. * The transitive verbs are obtained by combining nouns/adjectives with verbs such as ''karnā'' ‘to do’, ''lenā'' ‘to take’, ''denā'' ‘to give’, ''jītnā'' ‘to win’ etc. * The intransitive verbs are formed with the help of verbs such as ''honā'' ‘to be/happen’, ''lagnā'' ‘to feel’, ''ānā'' ‘to come’ etc. Complex verbs (Complex
predicates Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: **Predicate (mathematical logic) **Propositional function **Finitary relation, ...
) are of the following three combinations: # ''Noun + Verb'' # ''Adjective + Verb'' # ''Verb + Verb'' where the noun, adjective or the first verb contributes the
semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
content and the verb or second verb accounts for the
syntactic In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency) ...
information of the construction. Noun/adjective and verb combinations are termed conjunct verbs, as in (1) and (2) in the examples below whereas the combinations of two verbs are called compound verbs, as in the example (3) below: In the above examples, there are Hindi verbal constructions which can be grouped into two categories of complex verbs in Hindi, namely, ''conjunct verbs'' and ''compound verbs''. (1) and (2) are examples of conjunct verbs since in (1) we find a noun ''kām'' ‘work’ and a perfective form of the verb ''karnā'', ‘do’ whereas in (2) the verbal predicate exhibits a complex construction made of two elements, namely an adjective ''sāf'' ‘clean’ plus a verb ''karnā'', ‘do’. The example in (3), on the other hand, is considered be compound verbs since the predicates exhibits two or more than two verbal elements, ''bol'' ‘tell’, ''denā'' ‘give’, and ''diyā'' 'gave'.


Aspects

There are three primary grammatical aspects in Hindi: ''
habitual aspect In linguistics, the aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in a given action, event, or state. As its name suggests, the habitual aspect ( abbreviated ), not to be confused with iterative aspe ...
'', ''
perfective aspect The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the ...
'' and ''progressive aspect''.
Periphrastic In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...
Hindi verb forms consist of two elements, the first of these two elements is the aspect marker and the second element is the tense-mood marker. These three aspects are formed from their participle forms being used with the copula verb (''honā'' "to be") of Hindi. However, the primary participles which mark the aspects can be modified periphrastically by adding auxiliary participles constructed from auxiliary verbs of Hindi such as ''rêhnā'' (to stay/remain), ''ānā'' (to come), ''jānā'' (to go) after the primary participle to add a nuance to the aspect.


Habitual aspect

The
habitual aspect In linguistics, the aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in a given action, event, or state. As its name suggests, the habitual aspect ( abbreviated ), not to be confused with iterative aspe ...
in Hindi is marked using the habitual participle, which is constructed by taking the verb root and suffixing ''-tā'' to it. It declines according to gender and number of the subject asː ''-tā'', ''-te'', ''-tī'', ''-tī̃'' for ''masculine singular'', ''masculine plural'', ''feminine singular'', ''feminine plural'', respectively.


Perfective aspect

The
perfective aspect The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the ...
in Hindi is marked using the perfective participle, which is constructed by taking the verb root and suffixing ''-ā'' to it. If the verb root ends in a vowel, then ''-yā'' is suffixed to the verb root instead. It declines according to gender and number of the subject asː ''-(y)ā'', ''-(y)e'', ''-(y)ī'', ''-(y)ī̃'' for ''masculine singular'', ''masculine plural'', ''feminine singular'', ''feminine plural'', respectively.


Progressive aspect

Hindi has distinct constructions to convey progressive and continuous actions. Progressive actions are marked through the progressive aspect participle ''rahā'' used along with the verb root, while the continuous action is conveyed through the perfective adjectival participle which is constructed by conjugating the verb into its
perfective aspect The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the ...
participle and combining it with the perfective aspect participle of the verb ''honā'' (to be), which is ''huā''. The verbs in the examples ''1a'' and ''2a'' below are in the progressive aspect while in ''1b'' and ''2b'' the verbs are in their perfective adjectival participle form.


Moods

There are five grammatical moods which the three aspects of Hindi can be put into. Moods in Hindi are mentioned below: #
Indicative Mood A realis mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Most ...
#
Presumptive Mood In linguistics, irrealis moods ( abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods. Every ...
#
Subjunctive Mood The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality ...
#* Regular Subjunctive #**Present Subjunctive #**Future Subjunctive #* Perfective Subjunctive #**Future Subjunctive # Contrafactual Mood #*
Conditional Conditional (if then) may refer to: *Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y *Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred *Conditional proof, in logic: a proof that asserts a co ...
#* Past Subjunctive #
Imperative Mood The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that forms a command or request. The imperative mood is used to demand or require that an action be performed. It is usually found only in the present tense, second person. To form the imperative mood, ...
#* Present Imperative #* Future Imperative Notes: * When making an if-clause, the conditional mood is used in both apodosis and the protasis unlike other languages such as the ones in the Romance branch which make use of unique past-subjunctive and conditional verb forms in the apodosis and the protasis, respectively. *The regular future subjunctive is replaced by the perfective future subjunctive when an if-clause or a
relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...
is used.


Set of Related Verbs

Verbs are morphologically contrastive in Hindi, leading to the existence of related verb sets divisible along such lines. While the derivation of different verb forms shows patterns, it does reach a level of variegation so as to make it somewhat difficult to outline all encompassing rules. Furthermore, some verb sets may have as many as four to five distinct members; also, the meaning of certain members of given sets may be
idiosyncratic An idiosyncrasy is an unusual feature of a person (though there are also other uses, see below). It can also mean an odd habit. The term is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity. A synonym may be "quirk". Etymology The term "idiosyncr ...
. These below are the verb forms that a verb in Hindi can have — # Intransitive ## Involitional — these are actions that cannot be done intentionally. ###Dative — these involitional verbs require the subject to be in the dative case. ###Non-dative — these verbs require the subject to be in the nominative case. ## Volitional — these are actions that can be intentionally done. ### Ergative — these verbs require the subject to be in the ergative case in when the verb is in the perfective aspect.̟ ### Non-ergative — these verbs always require the subject to be in the nominative case even when the verb is in perfective aspect. # Transitive ## Direct — the subject itself experiences the action but the subject and the object are not the same ## Indirect — the subject imparts the action onto the object, the object is the experiencer of the action by the usually translated into English as "to make (someone/something) verb" ## Reflexive — the verb does action on the subject itself, the doer and experiencer of the action is the same subject ## Causative — the subject causes the action to happen Starting from direct transitive verb forms, the other verb stems i.e., intransitive, causative, reflexive, indirect stems are produced according to these following (not exhaustive) assorted rules — # Root vowel changeː #* ''a → ā'' #* ''u / ū → o'' #* ''i / ī → e'' # Sometimes the root vowel change accompanies the root's final consonant changeː #* ''k → c'' #* ''ṭ → r̥'' #* ''l → Ø'' # Suffixation of ''-ā'' to form the indirect or reflexive formː #* Root vowel changeː ''ū/o → u; e/ai/ā/ī → i'' #* Insertion of
semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the c ...
''l'' between such vowel-terminating stems # Suffixation of -''vā'' (in place of ''-ā'' where it would occur) to form the causative verb stem The meaning each verb in the verb set has is constructed from the direct form of the verb, for example: dekhnā (to see), dikhnā (to be seen), dikhānā (to make someone see; to show), dikhvānā (to cause to see). The table below shows some verbs and its verb set.


Verb Conjugations

There are four distinguished conjugation sets in Hindi. The first person Psingular pronoun ''mãĩ,'' the second person Psingular intimate pronoun ''tū,'' the 2P plural familiar pronoun ''tum,'' and the 2P plural formal pronoun ''āp''. The 1P plural pronoun ''ham'' and the 3P plural conjugations are the same as the conjugations of ''āp'', and the 3P singular conjugations are the same as that of 2P singular pronoun ''tū''. Hindi does not have 3P personal pronouns and instead the demonstrative pronouns (''ye'' "this/these", ''vo'' "that/those") double as the 3P personal pronouns when they lack a noun argument. There are very few irregular verbs in Hindi. There are three types of irregularities that Hindi verbs haveː # Irregular indicative perfect conjugationsː #* ''honā - to be;'' ''karnā - to do;'' ''denā - to give;'' ''lenā - to take;'' ''pīnā - to drink;'' ''jānā - to go'' #Irregular subjunctive conjugationsː #*''honā - to be;'' ''lenā - to take;'' ''denā - to give;'' ''pīnā - to drink; jīnā - to live'' #Irregular imperative conjugationsː #*''lēnā - to take; dēnā - to give; pīnā - to drink; jīnā - to live''


Subjunctive mood conjugations

Subjunctive mood The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality ...
in Hindi can be put into 2 tenses, the present and future tense. The only verb in Hindi that has both the present and future subjunctive conjugations is the verb ''honā'' "to be" while all the other verbs only have the future subjunctive conjugations.


Present regular subjunctive

The present subjunctive conjugations for the verb ''honā'' "to be" are mentioned below. Present subjunctive conjugations of ''honā'' "to be" act as copulas that mark present subjunctive when used with aspectual participles.


Future regular subjunctive

The future subjunctive forms are constructed the following way by adding the conjugational suffixes to the verb root. The future subjunctive conjugations for the
regular verb A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. This is one instance ...
''bolnā'' "to speak" (the verb root is ''bol-'') is shown below. Future subjunctive conjugations of ''honā'' "to be" and ''rêhnā'' "to stay" act as copulas that mark future subjunctive when used with aspectual participles. There are a couple of verbs with irregular future subjunctive forms, they are mentioned below. Every one-syllabled verb root such as in ''pīnā'' "to drink"'','' ''jīnā'' "to live" and ''sīnā'' "to sew" etc. change their long vowel ''ī'' to short vowel ''i'' when conjugated into future subjunctive.


Future perfective subjunctive

(The conjugations for future perfective subjunctive are the same as past perfect conjugations and they are discussed in the past perfect section below) There are two future subjunctive moods in
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, first the regular subjunctive and the second, the perfective subjunctive which superficially has the same form as the perfect past forms of verbs but still expresses future events, it is only used with if clauses and
relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...
s. In a semantic analysis, this use of the perfective aspect marker would not be considered perfective, since it is more closely related to subjunctive usage. Only the superficial form is identical to that of the perfective. This usage of perfective past as a future subjunctive is especially common colloquially; by describing the future action with a perfective verb and so stressing its completion.


Regular and perfective subjunctive usage

The regular subjunctive when used implies that the event in question is not envisaged as definitely, but does not at all imply that it is unlikely to come about. It also expresses desire or wish. # ''āp cāhẽ to ma͠i āpse hindi bolū̃gā. — "If you like, I'll speak Hindi with you".'' # ''acchā rahegā agar āp āyẽ — It'll be better if you come.'' # ''vo cāhtī hai ki ma͠i āū̃. — "she wants that I come."'' # ''usne bolā ki tum nā jāo. — "s/he said (wanted) that you don't go."'' The perfect future subjunctive either assumes that an event will definitely happen or the event is actually going to happen. Perfective future subjunctive are not used with events that are relatively unlikely happeningsː # ''agar vo āye to mujhe usse milvānā. — Introduce me to him in case he comes.'' # ''jab vo āye to mujhe usse milvānā. — Introduce me to him when he comes.'' Usually with if-clauses using either the regular future subjunctive or the perfect future subjunctive will give grammatically correct sentences, the meanings however will be different. There's a nuance of precaution, and perfective (completed) action attached to the future perfective subjunctive, it is also used when giving out warnings, while the regular subjunctive expresses just a desire or wishː # ''agar tūm kaho to ma͠i nahī̃ gāū̃gā — I won't sing if you say. (nuanceː "If you say so then I'll take your advice and won't sing.")'' # ''agar tūmne kahā to ma͠i nahī̃ gāū̃gā — I won't sing if you say (anything). (nuanceː "If you'd say anything to me, I won't sing at all.")'' And usually replacing the perfective subjunctive with the regular subjunctive in
relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...
s makes the sentence ungrammatical. However, replacing the perfective subjunctive with indicative future would still result in a grammatical sentence but with a different nuanceː # ''jis din tum āye us din karū̃gā — I'll do it the day you come.'' # ''*jis din tum āo us din karū̃gā — (intended) I'll do it the day you (will) come.'' # ''jis din tum āoge us din karū̃gā — I'll do it the day you will come.''


Indicative mood conjugations


Present tense

The only verb in Hindi that has indicative present tense forms is the verb ''honā'' "to be" and all other verbs lack this conjugation. Older forms of Hindi used to have present indicative forms but over time their meaning have change and now those forms are considered the future subjunctive forms which are discussed in the section above. These conjugations act as the present indicative copula with aspectual participles. Indicative present tense conjugations of ''honā'' "to be" act as copulas that mark the indicative present tense when used with aspectual participles.


Perfect past tense

The indicative perfect conjugations in Hindi are derived from a participle and hence decline according to number and gender of the pronoun and not the pronoun itself. They are constructed by taking the verb root and adding the vowels -ā, -e, -ī, & -ī̃ respectively for masculine singular, masculine plural, feminine singular, and feminine plural. The perfect past conjugation also doubles as the perfective participle. Past perfect conjugations for the
regular verb A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. This is one instance ...
''bolnā'' "to speak" (verb root is ''bol-'') is shown below. Past perfect tense conjugations of ''honā'' "to be" and ''rêhnā'' "to stay" act as copulas that mark future perfective subjunctive when used with aspectual participles. There are a couple of verbs that have irregular perfect past forms, these are mentioned belowː


Imperfect past tense

The only verb in Hindi that has indicative present tense forms is the verb ''honā'' "to be" and all other verbs lack this conjugation. These indicative imperfect forms of ''honā "to be"'' come from
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
स्थित ''(stʰita)'' "standing, situated" which are derived from the PIE root ''*steh₂-'' (“to stand”). Imperfect past tense conjugations of ''honā'' "to be" act as copula that mark indicative imperfect past when used with aspectual participles.


Future tense

The indicative future tense forms are constructed using the future subjunctive conjugations (which are discussed above) by adding the future marking suffix ''-gā'' that declines for the number and the gender of the noun that the pronoun refers to.


Presumptive mood conjugations

The only verb in Hindi that has
presumptive mood In linguistics, irrealis moods ( abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods. Every ...
conjugations is the verb ''honā'' "to be" and all other verbs lack this conjugation. These are constructed from the present subjunctive by adding the future suffix -''gā''. The same conjugation is used for all three tensesː present, past, and future. Presumptive mood conjugations of ''honā'' "to be" act as copulas that mark presumptive mood when used with aspectual participles.


Contrafactual mood conjugations

Just like the indicative imperfect past and the indicative perfect past conjugations, the contrafactual mood conjugations are also derived from a participle form and declines the same way as them. It is constructed by taking the verb root and adding the suffix ''-tā'' to it which declines for number and gender of the noun that the pronoun refers to. Contrafactual mood conjugations for all verbs are regular. Contrafactual mood can only be used in the past tense as it expresses hypothetical scenarios that "could have" happened but didn't. It acts as both the past subjunctive and the past conditional. Contrafactual mood conjugations of ''honā'' "to be" and ''rêhnā'' "to stay" act as copulas that mark contrafactual mood when used with aspectual participles. The participle that makes up the contrafactual mood conjugations also double as the
habitual aspect In linguistics, the aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in a given action, event, or state. As its name suggests, the habitual aspect ( abbreviated ), not to be confused with iterative aspe ...
participle.


Imperative mood conjugations

The rules to form the imperatives areː Whenever a single-syllable verb root ends in the vowel -ī then the consonant -j- is added between the imperative conjugation suffix and the verb root. # Intimate pronoun (''tū'')ː ## ''Present imperative'' — The verb root is the imperative form. All the present imperatives for the pronoun ''tū'' are regular. ## ''Future imperative'' — The suffix -''iyo'' is added to the verb root. For the verbs ''lenā'' and ''denā'', the verb stem changes from ''le-'' and ''de-'' to just ''l-'' and ''d-'', respectively. Hence forming the future imperatives ''diyo'' and ''liyo''. # Familiar pronoun (''tum'')ː ## ''Present imperative'' — The suffix ''-o'' (or ''-yo'' when the verb root ends in a vowel) is added to the verb root. For the verbs ''lenā'' and ''denā'' the verb root changes to ''l-'' and ''d-'', respectively. Hence forming ''do'' and ''lo''. For ''pīnā'' the stem changes to ''pi-''. ## ''Future imperative'' — The future imperative for ''tum'' is the same as the infintive form. All future imperative forms of ''tum'' are regular. # Formal pronoun (''āp'')ː ## ''Present imperative'' — The suffix ''-iye'' is added to the verb root. Some verbs whose roots are one-syllabled and end in the vowel ''-ī'' or ''-i'' form the formal imperatives by adding the consonant ''-j-'' between the root and suffix as ''-j-iye''. ## ''Future imperative'' — The future suffix ''-gā'' is added to the present imperative form for the pronoun ''āp''. So, equivalently the suffix ''-iyegā'' is added to the verb root as suffix following the same rules as the present imperative for ''āp''.


Participles

There are two types of participles in Hindi, aspectual participles which mark the aspect and non-aspectual participles which do not mark aspect. In the table below which mentions the different participles present in Hindi, ''ɸ'' denotes the verb root. The verb root ''ɸ'' for non-complex verbs is a single root however for complex verbs ''ɸ'' is in the form of ''ɸ1 + ɸ2'' where ''ɸ2'' acts like ''ɸ'' of the non-complex verbs which is declinable according to the aspect, for example, for the verb ''karnā'' ("to do") the root is ''kar'' and for the complex verb ''kar jānā'' (which is one of the perfective forms of "to do") the root is "''kar jā-''" where ''ɸ1 = kar'' and ''ɸ2 = jā.'' Notes: * ''ɸ-(y)ā denotes that when the verb root ɸ ends in a vowel, the consonant -y- is added, else it isn't.'' * ''The participles which do not end in the vowel ā in their masculine singular form are cannot be declined according to gender or number, for example, the oblique infinitive and the progressive participle end in the vowel -e and hence have the same form for all gender and number combinations. Also, usually such participles do not take in the copula after them but instead a verb.'' * ''Infinitive participles always use the dative pronouns as subjects,Bhatt, Rajesh (2003). Experiencer subjects. Handout from MIT course “Structure of the Modern Indo-Aryan Languages”. while other participles can have the nominative or the dative case pronouns as subjects, depending on the verb used. For example:'' *#''mujhe bolnā acchā lagtā hai. = I like to speak.'' ("bolnā" here is the infinitive participle, and not the infinitive. It agrees in gender and number with the direct object in the sentence. It takes the default masculine form when no object is present.) *#''ma͠i bolnā pasand kartā hū̃. = I like to speak.'' ("bolnā" here is the infinitive, and hence it cannot decline according to the gender and number) *#''mujhe bolne se thakān hotī hai. = I get tired because of speaking.'' *#''ma͠i bolne se thak jātā hū̃. = I get tired because of speaking.''


Copulas & Subaspects

As discussed in the above section, there are three aspect marking participles which take in a copula in order to assign a grammatical mood and tense to the aspectual form. There are four verbs which can be used as the copula: ''honā'' (to be), ''rêhnā'' (to stay), ''ānā'' (to come), ''jānā'' (to go), and ''karnā'' (to do). Each of the four copulas provide a unique nuance to the aspect. The default (unmarked) copula is ''honā'' (to be). Below is a table showing the infinitive forms of each of the aspectual forms using different copulas: The other copulas unlike ''honā'' (to be) can also again be put into their aspectul forms and then the copula ''honā'' (to be) is used to mark the tense and the mood, hence forming subaspects. However, these copulas cannot be put into all three aspects. It depends on the verb and also the copula itself what grammatical aspects can the copula can be put into. The following two tables show subaspectual forms for each of the three aspects. ''1'' When the copula ''jānā'' (to go) is used, only transitive and volitional intransitive verbs can be put into the habitual and perfective subaspect. So, ''*huā jātā honā'' and ''*huā gāyā honā'' are not valid constructions. However, somehow ''huā jā rahā honā'' is a valid construction but it means the same as ''hotā jā rahā honā'' which is the progressive subaspect of the habitual aspect using the copula ''jānā'' (shown below) but just emphasising the rate (shows its faster) at which the action is happening; progressive subaspects of the perfective aspect using ''jānā (to go)'' is often just the more emphasised version of the progressive subaspect of the habitual aspect using ''jānā (to go)''. ''marnā'' ''(to die)'' is intransitive but it is a volitional action especially when used
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
ically as in "''pizzā khāne ke liye marā jā rahā hū̃''" = ''"I am dying to eat a pizza"''. Other commonly used voliational usage of ''marnā'' (to die) is for e.g. "''dying in a videogame''". ''2'' The progressive subaspect of the perfective aspect can also use the copula ''rêhnā (to stay, remain)'' and it can be again conjugated into aspectual participle forms, hence forming what could be called a sub-sub-aspect. An example using habitual sub-subaspectː ''"jab bhī uske sāth bāhar jātī hū̃ vo marā jā rahā rêhtā hai pizzā khāne ke liye"'' = ''"Whenever I go out with him he always is (nuanceː I always find him) dying to eat a pizza"''. This sentence combines and mixes the nuances of all the three, perfective ''(main)'', progressive ''(sub)'', and habitual ''(subsub)'', aspects on the same verb ''marnā'' (to die).


Light Verbs

Compound verb In linguistics, a compound verb or complex predicate is a multi- word compound that functions as a single verb. One component of the compound is a '' light verb'' or ''vector'', which carries any inflections, indicating tense, mood, or aspec ...
s, a highly visible feature of Hindi grammar, consist of a verbal stem plus a light verb. The light verb (also called "subsidiary", "explicator verb", and "vector") loses its own independent meaning and instead "lends a certain shade of meaning" to the main or stem verb, which "comprises the lexical core of the compound". While almost any verb can act as a main verb, there is a limited set of productive light verbs. Shown below are prominent such light verbs, with their independent meaning first outlined, followed by their semantic contribution as auxiliaries. Finally, having to do with the ''manner'' of an occurrence, compounds verbs are mostly used with completed actions and imperatives, and much less with negatives, conjunctives, and contexts continuous or speculative. This is because non-occurrences cannot be described to have occurred in a particular manner. The auxiliaries when combined with the main verb provides an aspectual sense to the main verb it modifies. Light verbs such as ''jānā "to go", ānā "to come", cuknā'' when combined with the main verb give the formed compound verb a
perfective aspect The perfective aspect ( abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the ...
, while retaining the original meaning of the main verb. The first three light verbs in the above table are the most common of auxiliaries, and the "least marked", or "lexically nearly colourless". The nuance conveyed by an auxiliary can often be very subtle, and need not always be expressed with different words in English translation. ''lenā'' (to take) and ''denā'' (to give), transitive verbs, occur with transitives, while intransitive ''jānā'' (to go) occurs mostly with intransitives; a compound of a transitive and ''jānā'' (to go) will be grammatically intransitive as ''jānā'' (to go) is.


Ergativity and Light verbs

Hindi is an aspectually split ergative language, with the ergative case marker, -''ne'', appearing on the subject of the transitive perfective clauses. A standard ergative construction in Hindi is shown below — the verb is a transitive perfective participle, the subject carries the ergative case marker -ne, the object is unmarked and the participle agrees in gender with the object. The light verb construction exemplified in (b) above has been has been studied extensively in Hindi linguistics. It is a two-verb sequence (referred to here as V1–v2) 'bec = V1, lī = v2'' in which the first verb (V1) is morphologically the bare stem and the second verb (v2) carries the usual clausal inflection. The V1 functions as the main verb, providing the bulk of meaning/thematic information, and the v2 is ‘‘relatively’’ light. This ‘‘light’’ v2 does provide certain subtle semantic information, mostly (though not entirely) aspectual/directional in nature.


Compound verbs and ergative marking

Ergative case marking in compound verb constructions is affected by the transitivity of the v2. McGregor (1972:104) notes that ‘‘''Compound verbs are used in construction with -ne when both the stem verb and the auxiliary (=v2) are themselves used independently with -ne.''’’ Amritavalli (1979:77–78) comments ‘‘''In sentences with compound verbs it is the transitivity (and perfectivity) of v2 that determines the ergative case-marking.''’’ The basic pattern of compound verb constructions is given in (1a)–(1c) below. Certain intransitive V1s do allow for ergative subjects when the light v2 is transitive. Intransitive V1s that permit ergative subjects with transitive v2’s belong to the unergative ''khā̃snā'' ‘‘to cough’’ class of verbs. Verbs in this class of intransitives in Hindi independently permit ergative subjects and the choice of -''ne'' subjects has been argued to be associated with properties of volitionality or conscious choice. Some other voliational (intransitive) verbs which allow ergative case assignment are ''bolnā'' "to speak", ''chī̃knā'' "to sneeze", ''cillānā'' "to shout", ''nahānā'' "to take a bath" etc. In all these cases the agent has complete control and volition of the activity. Examples in (1a)–(2b) show that V1v2 compound verb constructions allow ergative subjects when both V1 and v2, when functioning as main verbs, independently allow ergative subjects. Crucial evidence as to the source of ergativity in V1v2 constructions comes from pairings in which the case properties of the V1 are distinct from those of the v2. Though it is rare to find V1(
intransitive In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs ar ...
)v2( transitive) sequences in which the V1 is not independently an ergative case licensing verbs, such examples do exist: ''cal denā'' ‘‘to move-give’’ (=move, depart), ''khisak lenā'' ‘‘to slip away-take’’ (=to slip away) and ''sarak lenā'' ‘‘crawl-take’’ (=to slip away/to move away). Interestingly, V1v2 sequences of this type do not permit ergative subjects, despite the ability of the v2 to license ergative subjects when functioning as main verbs. Examples in (4a)-(4b) below show that the ergative case licensing property of the light v2 is nevertheless critical, as intransitive (usually unaccusative) v2’s never allow ergative subjects, regardless of the ergative case licensing properties of the V1.


Verb Paradigm


Non-personal Forms


Conjugation of verbs

All the verbs in Hindi except the verb ''honā'' (to be) are defective and cannot be conjugated into these following moods and tenses in their non-aspectual forms (or simple aspect): * ''present indicative'' * ''imperfect indicative'' * ''presumptive mood'' * ''present subjunctive'' The verb ''honā'' (to be) serves as the copula whose conjugations are used to form the three aspectual forms of verbs (habitual, perfective, and progressive). In the tables below all the conjugations of the copula are shown on the top and all the conjugations of the verb ''karnā'' (to do) (like which all other verbs behave) are shown on the bottom. ''VERB CONJUGATIONS (NON-ASPECTUAL FORMS)'' ''1'' the second person pronouns tum, āp can be used both in singular and plural sense akin to the English second person pronoun "you".
''2'' the indicative future and presumptive future conjugations are often used
synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...
ously.
''3'' ''the simple perfect verb forms when used in an if-cause or a
relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...
, they would not be considered perfect indicative but instead a type of future subjunctive.''


Aspectual form of verbs

Using the three aspectual participles, the habitual, perfective, and the progressive aspectual forms are constructed. The aspectual forms for the verb ''karnā'' (to do) are shown in the table below:


References


Bibliography

* * * * {{cite book, last1=Snell, first1=Rupert, last2=Weightman, first2=Simon, year=1989, title=Teach Yourself Hindi, publisher=McGraw-Hill, edition=2003, isbn=978-0-07-142012-9, title-link=Teach Yourself Hindi languages