1. Perfective: ‘I went', etc.
|मैं चला m.||मैं चली f.|
|हम चले||हम चली|
(a) Perfective forms denote completeness of action, without specific reference to time. They are used chiefly, but not only, of events occurring in past time.
(b) Note some spelling conventions. The perfective forms of छूना ‘touch' and सीना ‘sew' and thus.
(c) Verbs whose stem ends in -ा, -े, -ि, or -ी show a semi-vocalic glide य before masculine singular endings.
(d) The perfective forms of five verbs require special note:
Note the difference between perfective हुआ ‘became' and past tense था
|मैं लड़ाई में ज़खमई हुआ |||I was wounded in the war.|
|युद्ध के समय भारत में था |||I was in India during the war.|
(e) In general, perfective forms of transitive verbs are not used in subject concord constructions of the type so far considered. Perfective forms of a few transitive verbs are, however, used in subject concord constructions: e.g.
बोलना speak, talk लाना bring समजना understand
(f) With perfective forms the negative न is common, as well as नहीं . The choice is semantic and discourse dependent.
2. Perfective present: ‘I have gone', etc.
|मैं चला हूँ m.||मैं चली हूँ f.|
|वह चला है||वह चली है|
|तुम चले हो||तुम चली हो|
|हम चले हैं||हम चली हैं|
(a) Perfective present forms define actions as completed and connected in some way with present time (present relevance). These forms have nothing to do with whether an action occurred in the immediate past or in the more distant past.
|मैं अभी आया हूँ |||I've just come.|
|मैं एक बार दिल्ली गया हूँ |||I've been to Delhi once. ‘on one occasion'|
3. Perfective past: ‘I went, had gone', etc.
|मैं चला था||मैं चली थी|
|वह चला था||वह चली थी|
|हम चले थे||हम चली थीं|
(a) Perfective past forms define actions as completed specifically in past time, and disconnected in some way from the present. They can correspond to the English verb forms ‘had come', ‘had gone', etc. as well as to simple past tenses: e.g.
|मैं कल आया था |||I came yesterday.|
The implication here is that whatever the speaker is now doing is not a direct sequel to the action of his coming. Compare:
|मैं कल आया हूँ |||I got here yesterday (in order to attend today's meeting, for a much anticipated stay, etc.).|
|मैं कल आया |||I came yesterday (matter-of-fact-statement, neutral with regard to time and context of action).|
4. Subjunctive: ‘I may go', etc.
(a) Spelling conventions.
|मैं चलूँ||तुम चलो|
|वह चले||हम चलें|
(b) Subjective forms characterize actions as possible, desired or desirable, hypothetical, subject to some doubt, etc., rather than as objectively realized or envisaged: e.g.
|मैं चलूँ ?||May I go? Shall I go?|
|मैं कल शायद दिल्ली जाऊँ |||I'll perhaps go to Delhi tomorrow.|
(c) The negative used with subjunctive forms is regularly न : e.g.
मैं कल शायद दिल्ली न जाऊँ | I perhaps won't go to Delhi tomorrow.
(d) The subjunctive forms of होना ‘be', देना ‘give', and लेना ‘take' are:
|तुम हो / होओ||दो||लो|
In construction with देना , “beneficiaries” are marked by the postposition को . More frequently than not the beneficiary (indirect object) precedes the direct object.
|मैं सीता को किताब दूँगा |||I shall give Sita the book.|
|मैं उसे किताब दूँगा |||I shall give her the book.|
(e) Subjunctives are often used as polite request forms and in making suggestions: e.g.
|आप मुझे पत्र लिखें |||Please write me a letter.|
|चलें ?||Shall we go?|
5. Future: ‘I shall go', etc.
(a) Spelling conventions
|मैं चलूँगा||मैं चलूँगी|
|वह चलेगा||वह चलेगी|
|तुम चलोगे||तुम चलेगी|
|वे चलेंगे||वे चलेंगी|
(b) Note that future forms can be derived from subjunctives by adding the adjectivally inflected element.
(c) Both नहीं and न are used as negatives with future forms. Discourse-related semantics determine the choice.
6. Imperfective, continuous, and perfective forms with the future auxiliary.
These forms express likelihood that a given action may be occurring, or may have occurred: e.g.
|अभी आते होंगे |||They're probably coming now / They'll be here directly.|
|अभी आ रहे होंगे |||They're probably on their way now.|
|आप जानते होंगे |||I expect you know. You will know.|
|अभी आए होंगे |||They must have just come.|
These forms are used freely in Hindi. Their function is to stress the importance of the word or syntactic group immediately preceding them in sentences.
(a) ही has a restrictive force:
|बनारस के लोग हिन्दी हि बोलते हैं |||The people of Banaras speak Hindi (not another language).|
|मैं एक हि बार वहाँ गया हूँ |||I've been there just once (not more often).|
1. घर पर ; or, if the sense is ‘I didn't go out all day', घर पर ही.
Note that the form अभी ‘now' represents अब-ही and contrasts with अब ‘now' as meaning ‘at this particular time' rather than ‘at the present time'. Note its use in such sentences as:
|मैं अभी आया हूँ |||I've just come.|
|मैं अभी नहीँ गया |||I haven't gone yet.|
(b) B:i has inclusive force, frequently being translatable as ‘also'. Sometimes as ‘even', especially with negatives:
|मैं भी वहाँ था |||I was there too.|
|उस गाँव में कुआँ भी नहीं थी |||There wasn't even a well in that village.|
|लड़ाई||f. war||काफ़ी||f. coffee|
|बार||f. time, occasion||रूपया||m. rupee; money (usu. pl.)|
|एक बार||once||सर्दियाँ||f. pl. cold season|
|अंगन||m. courtyard||मौसम||m. season, weather|
|बंबई||f. Bombay||लोग||m. pl. people|
|बनारस||m. Banaras||सब लोग||everyone|
|रेस्टराँ||m. restaurant||दूध||m. milk|
|बरसात||f. rainy season||लेना||take|
|कितना दिन||how many days?||समझना||understand|
|सारा दिन||all day||अब||now|
|जीना||live, be alive||शायद||perhaps|