Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu) verbs conjugate according to mood, tense, person, number, and gender. Hindustani inflection is markedly simpler in comparison to Sanskrit, from which Hindustani has inherited its verbal conjugation system (through Prakrit). Aspect-marking participles in Hindustani mark the aspect. Gender is not distinct in the present tense of the indicative mood, but all the participle forms agree with the gender and number of the subject. Verbs 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 Hindustani, all verbs have a base form called the infinitive which is marked by the -nā ending of verbs (compare Proto-Germanic *-aną). Some of the most common verbs are: honā (to be), karnā (to do), rahnā (to stay), chalnā (to walk), bolnā (to speak).
Complex verbs Hindustani is extremely rich in complex verbs formed by the combinations of noun/adjective and a verb. Complex verbs are of two types: transitive and intransitive.
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) are of the following three combinations:
noun + verb adjective + verb verb + verb
where the noun, adjective or the first verb contributes the semantic content and the verb or second verb accounts for the syntactic 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: NOUN + VERB (1)ADJECTIVE + VERB(2)VERB + VERB(3) In the above examples, there are verbal constructions which can be grouped into two categories of complex verbs, 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 a compound verb since the predicate exhibits two or more than two verbal elements, bōl 'tell' and diyā 'gave' (a form of dēnā 'give').
Aspects There are three primary grammatical aspects: habitual aspect, perfective aspect and progressive aspect. Periphrastic 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. The three aspects are formed from their participle forms being used with the copula verb (honā "to be"). However, the primary participles which mark the aspects can be modified periphrastically by adding auxiliary participles constructed from auxiliary verbs such as rahnā (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 is marked using the habitual participle, which is constructed by taking the verb root and suffixing -tā to it.
Perfective aspect The perfective aspect 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.
Progressive aspect Hindustani 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 a combination of the verb's perfective participle and the perfective 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. HindustaniTranslation1abaiṭh rahā haiHe is sitting. (nuance: he is in the process of sitting)1bbaiṭhā huā haiHe is sitting. (nuance: he is already sitting)2aśarṭ pahan rahī hū̃I am wearing a shirt. (nuance: I (female) am in the process of wearing a shirt)2bśarṭ pahnī huī hū̃I am wearing a shirt. (nuance: I (female) am already wearing a shirt) +Aspectual declensionGenderNumberHabitualPerfectiveProgressiveContinuousMasculineSing.-tā-(y)ā+ rahā+ huāPlu.-te-(y)e+ rahe+ hueFeminineSing.-tī-(y)ī+ rahī+ huīPlu.-tī̃-(y)ī̃+ rahī̃+ huī̃
Moods There are five grammatical moods which the three aspects can be put into. Moods in Hindustani are:
Indicative mood Presumptive mood Subjunctive mood Regular subjunctive Present subjunctive Future subjunctive Perfective subjunctive Future subjunctive Counterfactual mood Conditional Past subjunctive 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 is used.
Set of related verbs Verbs are morphologically contrastive, 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. These below are the verb forms that a verb 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 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 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.; Set of related verbsEnglish verbsIntransitiveTransitiveinvolitionalvolitionaldirectindirectreflexivecausativenon-dativedativenon-ergativeergativebehonā— — — — — ——happen—honāhovānādo —— — —karnākarānā —karvānāfallgirnā— — — —girānā —girvānāpreparebannā— — — —banānā —banvānāsendbhijnā— — —bhejnā —bhejānābhijvānādancenacnā— —nācnā —nacānā—nacvānābe foundmilnā———————unite—milānāmilvānāreceive—milnā—milvānāopenkhulnā— — —kholnā —khulānākhulvānākholānākholvānālearn —— — —sīkhnāsikhānā —sikhvānāeat —— — —khānākhilānā —khilvānācome——anā—————to know how toanā—drink —— — —pīnāpilānā —pilvānāsellbiknā— — —becnā —becānābikvānāsee—dikhnā — —dekhnādikhānā —dikhvānālook likelagnā———————touch, stick (to)—lagnālagānālagvānāfeel, feel likelagnā—tell —— —kêhnā — —kêhlānākêhêlvānāsay —— —bolnā —bulānā —bulvānāspinghumnā—ghūmnā — —ghumānā—ghumvānātravel around —— ——ghūmnā —lie down ——leṭnā — —leṭānā —leṭvānāsitbiṭhnā—baiṭhnā — —baiṭhānā —baiṭhvānāwalk——calnā——calānā—calvātāmove—calnābe okay withcalnā—sleepsutnā—sonā — —sulānā —sulvānāwash, cleandhulnā— — —dhonā —dhulānādhulvānābreakṭūṭnā— — —tor̥nā —tur̥ānātur̥vānādiemarnā— — —mārnā —marānāmarvānāmove, shakehilnā— — —hilānā — —hilvānāunderstand —— —samajhnā —samjhānā —samajhvānāspread outbichnā— — — —bichānā —bichvānāfriction, rub —— — —ghisnā — —ghisvānāwear outghisnā— —ghisānāashtonishca͠uknā— — — —ca͠ukānā—ca͠ukvānātearphaṭnā— — —phār̥nā —phar̥ānāphar̥vānāblast, shatterphūṭnā, phaṭnā— — —phor̥nā —phor̥ānāphor̥vānābeatpiṭnā— — —pīṭnā —piṭānāpiṭvānācough —— —khā̃snā — — —khãsvānāsneeze —— —chī̃kna — —chĩkānachī̃kvānabathe —— —nahānā —nêhlānānêhêlnānêhêlvānāshout —— —cillānā — — —cilvānāscream —— —cīkhna — —cikhānācīkhvānādigestpacnā— — —pacānā —pacvānāplay —— — —khelnākhelānā —khelvānāknow —— —jānnā — — — janvānāsing —— —gānā — — —gavānāfry —— — —talnā —talānātalvānālaugh—— hãsnā — —hãsānā —hãsvānā
Verb conjugations There are four distinguished conjugation sets in Hindustani. The first person singular [1S] pronoun mãĩ, the second person singular [2S] intimate pronoun tū, the second person singular/plural [2S/2P] familiar pronoun tum, and the 2P formal pronoun āp. The first person plural [1P] pronoun ham and the third person plural [3P] conjugations are the same as the conjugations of āp, and the 3S conjugations are the same as that of the 2S pronoun tū. Hindi does not have third person personal pronouns and instead the demonstrative pronouns (ye "this/these", vo "that/those") double as the third person personal pronouns when they lack a noun argument.
There are very few irregular verbs. There are three types of irregularities that may occurː
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 can be put into two tenses: the present and future tense. The only verb 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. moodtensegendersubjunctivepresent♂ & ♀hū̃hohõ
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 bolnā "to speak" (the verb root is bol-) is shown below. Future subjunctive conjugations of honā "to be" and rahnā "to stay" act as copulas that mark future subjunctive when used with aspectual participles. moodtensegendersubjunctivefuture♂ & ♀-ū̃-e-o-ẽ♂ & ♀bolū̃bolebolobolẽ