#currylangshindi

[currylangs]

Hindi Lesson 21: The Past, Part 2

If you know what ergativity is, you can skim this lesson. The simple past tense in Hindi is ergative.

If you’re not actually a linguist, here’s how it works. First, we have to think about the distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs (or trans verbs and cis verbs no not really please ignore me), because when you make a sentence using a transitive verb in the past tense, the first thing you have to do is put the postposition ने ne immediately after the subject of the sentence.

ने ne is difficult to translate, but if I had to, I would say it means “was done by”. Like all postpostitions, it causes the pronoun or noun before it to go into the oblique case -- with the exception of मैं main, I, which just becomes मैंने mainne.

Since the subject is now blocked by a postposition, the verb can’t agree with it. So, the gender and number of the verb now agree with that of the direct object.

Exception: If the direct object is animate (a person or animal), it is still required to take the postposition को ko, and, since both main parts of the sentence are blocked by a postposition now, the verb defaults to masculine singular.

If the direct object is unexpressed, ie मैंने (खाना) खाया mainne (khaana) khaaya, i ate food, said as just “मैंने खाया” “mainne khaaya” i ate, the verb defaults to masculine singular.

मैंने दरवाज़ा खोला mainne darvaaza khola - i opened the door. “i” can be any gender, it is the door that is masculine. (this is why transitive verbs are trans)

उसने मेरी चूड़ी तोड़ी usne meri choodi todi - he/she/etc. broke my bangle. the verb is feminine because chudi, bangle, is feminine.

उसने गाड़ी रोकी usne gaadi roki - he/she/etc. stopped the car. same deal.

तुमने बच्चे को बस से उतारा tumne bacche ko bus se utaara - you took the child down from the bus. all of the nouns in this sentence are blocked by postpositions, so the verb is masculine singular.

[currylangs]

Hindi Lesson 20: The Past, Part 1

Remember intransitive and transitive verbs?

The simple past tense in Hindi is formed differently depending on whether the sentence uses a transitive or intransitive verb.

For intransitive verbs, simply take the root of the verb and add -आ -aa, -ई -ee, or -ए -e, depending on the gender and number of the subject.

For example:

दरवाज़ा खुला  -  darwaaza khula  -  the door opened

कपड़े खुँटी से गिरे  -  kapde khunti se gire  -  the clothes fell from the hook

कुत्ता घर में आया  -  kutta ghar mein aaya  -  the dog came in the house

लड़की रूकी  -  ladki ruki  -  the girl stopped

मेरी चुड़ियाँ टूटी  -  meri chudiyaan tooti  -  my bangles broke

वो बस से उतरा  -  vo bus se utara  -  he got down from the bus

If you add है hai after a verb in the simple past tense, it becomes the present perfect tense.

Examples:

वो आयी है  -  vo aayi hai  -  she has come

खिड़की खुली है  -  khidki khuli hai  -  the window is open (lit: the window has opened)

The present perfect tense is also commonly used to expresss feelings, and is interchangeable with the present continuos form we learned in this lesson.

मुझे प्यास लगी है  -   mujhe pyaas lagi hai  -  thirst has affected me  -   i am thirsty

मुझे भूख लगी है  -  mujhe bhook lagi hai  -  hunger has affected me  -  i am hungry

तुम्हें डर लगा है  -  tumhein dar laga hai  -   fear has affected you  -  you are afraid

Lagna, to affect, always agrees in gender with the word for the emotion, not the person feeling it. Even a man would say “mujhe pyaas lagi hai.” That is because the grammatical subject is the emotion, causing itself to be felt by the person in the sentence.

Remember lagna is still an intransitive verb! It sounds transitive when translated literally into English, but if you take it 100% literally it’s actually more like “hunger is attaching to me”, and “to me” is an indirect object.

The transitive counterpart of लगना lagna is लगाना lagaana, which has the meaning “to attach” or “to put on”.

Remember this only works for intransitive verbs! We will learn how to make the past tense for transitive sentences in the next lesson.

[currylangs]

Hindi Lesson 19: The Future

Hindi has two future tenses: an indefinite future tense, for things that might happen, and a definite future tense, for things that you know almost-for-sure are going to happen.

The indefinite future tense is used for asking questions and permission to do something. It is also used to express uncertainty about whether or not something will happen, especially when you think it is likely that it won’t happen.

The definite future tense is used the rest of the time.

The indefinite future is formed by taking the root of the verb and adding these suffixes:

मैं -ऊँ                       Main --oon

तू, यह, वह -ए           Tu, yeh, voh  --e

तुम -ओ                    Tum --o (it is identical to the imperative)

आप, ये, वे, हम -एँ      Aap, ye, ve, hum --en

Here it is with karna, to do:

मैं करूँ                      main karoon                   I may do

तू, यह वह करे            tu, yeh, voh kare             you (intimate)/he/she/etc./it/this/that may do

तुम करो                    tum karo                          you (casual) may do

आप, ये, वे, हम करें    aap, ye, ve, hum karein   you (formal)/they/these/those/we may do

And here are some examples in use:

बैठूँ ? Baithoon? “May I/shall I sit?”

चाय पीयो ? chai peeyo? “Will you drink chai?”

वो शायद एक्टर बने। Vo shayad actor bane. “he might become an actor.”

There are two irregular verbs:

लेना Lena - to take

देना Dena - to give

These verbs drop the vowel from their stem and form the future tense on JUST the consonants ल l and द d, hence:

मैं लूँ                      main loon

तू, यह, वह, ले        tu, yeh, voh le

तुम लो                  tum lo

आप, ये, वे, हम लें  aap, ye, ve, hum lein

मैं दूँ                        main doon

तू, यह, वह दे           tu, yeh, voh de

तुम दो                    tum do

आप, ये, वे, हम दें    aap, ye, ve, hum dein

The definite future tense is formed by taking verbs conjugated for the indefinite future, and then adding -गा -ga (masculine singular subject), -गे -ge (masculine or mixed plural subject), or -गी -gi (feminine singular or plural subject) to the end.

So, तुम करोगे tum karoge - you (m) will do

आप करेंगी aap karengi - you (f) will do

मैं करूँगा main karoonga - I (m) will do

etc.

[currylangs]

Hindi Lesson 18: Passive Verbs

A passive verb is a verb that describes a state of being, or a state of being acted upon. In English, they usually translate as “to be x”. They are always intransitive.

Some examples are:

खुलना - khulna - to be open (as a door)

पकना - pakna - to ripen/to become cooked (food)

दिखना - dikhna - to be seen, to be visible (to someone)

We can make transitive versions of passive verbs -- and vice versa! -- by using the process we learned in the last lesson.

खुलना - khulna - to be open (in.)

खोलना - kholna - to open (t.)

पकना - pakna - to ripen/to become cooked (in.)

पकाना - pakaana - to cook (t.)

जलना - jalna - to be burnt (of food, skin, paper…) (in.)

जलाना - jalaana - to burn, to light on fire (t.)

दिखना - dikhna - to be seen (in.)

देखना - dekhna - to see (t.)

We can go one step further with देखना and get:

दिखाना - dikhana - to show, to cause (someone) to see (t.)

* in. = intransitive / t. = transitive

[currylangs]

Hindi lesson 17: causative verbs

In the last lesson, we made some transitive verbs from intransitive verbs. For example, nikalna निकलना (to emerge, intranstive) becomes nikaalna निकालना (to take out, transitive). Here are some specific details about the pattern for doing this.

The first thing we need to do is find the root of the verb. This is easy; you just remove -ना -na from the end of the infinitive. For example, the root of करना karna is कर- kar-.

Verb roots in Hindi can have one of three long vowels: आ aa, ए e, or ओ o. When we’re making causative verbs, these long vowels get shortened: आ aa becomes अ a (or sometimes इ i), ए e becomes इ i, and ओ o becomes उ u.

After we figure out the root, we apply one of two rules:

If the verb root ends in a consonant, add आ -aa to the end of the root. For example, हँसना hansna (to laugh) has the root हँस- hans. After we add आ -aa, we get हँसाना hansaana (to make (someone) laugh).

If the verb root ends in a vowel: add ला -laa to the end of the root. For example, सोना sona (to sleep) has the root so-. Because so- has a long vowel, we shorten it to su-. After we add ला -laa, we get सुलाना sulaana (to put (someone) to sleep).

Here are some more intransitive verbs that become transitive:

उगना - ugna - to grow (as a plant) (intransitive)

उगाना - ugaana - to make (something) grow, to raise (something) (transitive)

जागना - jaagna - to wake up (intransitive)

जगाना - jagaana - to wake (someone) up (transitive)

There are also verbs that are transitive to begin with, but where you can still get a derivative verb the same way! Some of these are:

खाना - khaana - to eat (transitive)

खिलाना - khilaana - to make (someone) eat; to feed (transitive)

पीना - peena - to drink (transitive)

पिलाना - pilana - to make (someone) drink; to serve a drink (transitive)

देना - dena - to give (transitive)

दिलाना - dilaana - to deliver (to cause to be given) (transitive)

करना karna - to do - (transitive)

कराना karaana - to make (someone) do (transitive)

[currylangs]

Merry Christmas from the Currylangs team!!

And to those who don’t celebrate it, happy holidays!

Tamil: நத்தார் தின நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள் [naththaar thina nalvaazhthukkal] Hindi: मेरी क्रिसमस [merry christmas]  Telugu: క్రిస్మస్ శుభాకాంక్షలు [christmas subhakankshulu] Bengali: শুভ বড়দিন [shubho bôṛodin] Malayalam: ക്രിസ്മസ് ആശംസകൾ [christmas ashamsakal]

[currylangs]

Hindi Lesson 16: Intransitive and Transitive Verbs

Hindi has two main verb classes, which sometimes behave differently from each other. The classes are transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. If you understand that, you can skip the rest of the explainy paragraphs and go straight to the vocab.

A Transitive verb is a verb that has a direct object. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the object is stated in every sentence, but it does mean that if it isn’t, it would be perfectly logical to ask “What”? after the verb, for instance, what did you do? eat. what did you eat? food.

By contrast, an Intransitive verb is any verb where that question…. just doesn’t make any sense. For instance, what did you sleep? huh? what did you go? are you even awake while you’re talking right now. “Where” would make sense in these questions, but what wouldn’t.

In English, most things in a sentence that aren’t either a subject or a direct object are preceeded by a postposition, for example I ate cake but I slept AT the store, so you can use this as a test too. Whichever is easier for you.

Eventually they will become automatic to tell apart, I promise.

Some Intransitive Verbs:

aana आना (to come)

jaana जाना (to go)

hona होना (to be)

Some Transitive Verbs:

khaana खाना (to eat)

peena पीना (to drink)

lena लेना (to take)

dena देना (to give)

You can form a transitive verb from most verbs of motion by adding -aa -आ to the end of the stem, or by lengthening -a अ to -aa आ in the final syllable of the stem . They’re not all completely regular, but they are easy to guess and recognize!

Some Examples are:

nikalna निकलना (to emerge, intranstive) - nikaalna निकालना (to take out, transitive)

utarna उतरना (to come down, intranstive) - utaarna उतारना (to take down, transitive)

chalna चलना (to walk, intranstive) - chalana चलाना (literally “to make walk/go”, this is what “drive” translates to, and it also has some more abstract meanings like “to turn on”, transitive)

This works for some emotional states too:

hansna हँसना (to laugh, intransitive) - hansaana हँसाना (to make [someone] laugh, transitive)

rona रोना (to cry, intranstive) - rulana रुलाना (to make [someone] cry, transitive)

[currylangs]

Hindi Lesson 15: Liking Things

Some things you might like:

बिल्लियाँ Billiyaan - cats (f, singular billee बिल्ली)

कुत्ते Kutte - dogs (m, singular kutta कुत्ता)

चिड़ियाँ Chidiyaan - birds (f, singular chidiya चिड़िया)

जानवर Jaanvar - animals (m, singular jaanvar जानवर)

कहानियाँ Kahaniyaan - stories (f, singular kahanee कहानी)

कविताएँ Kavitaen - poems (f, singular kavita कविता)

गाने Gaane - songs (m, singular gaana गाना)

हिंदी सीखना Hindi seekhna - learning Hindi

खेलना Khelna - playing

सोना Sona - sleeping

पढ़ना padhna - reading

There are two interchangeable ways to express if you like something, and they’re the same whether you want to say you like an object or doing something. The basic thing to keep in mind, is that we’re using the same indirect structure as to express feelings. (last lesson.)

One way is:

मुझे {noun or verb} अच्छा लगता है mujhe {noun or verb} acchai lagta hai. Literally, to me, {thing} is good affecting. The simple present tense is used here instead of the present continuous tense, because we’re talking about a habitual thing, rather than something that’s happening right now.

NOTE: Accha and the verb both have to agree in gender and number with the thing being liked. That means if the thing you like feminine and/or plural, they will change! Verbs are treated as masculine singular.

मुझे कहानियाँ अच्छी लगती हैं। mujhe kahaniyaan acchi lagti hain. - i like stories.

मुझे चिड़ियाँ अच्छी लगती हैं। mujhe chidiyaan acchi lagti hain. - i like birds.

मुझे सोना अच्छा लगता है। mujhe sona accha lagta hai. - i like sleeping.

मुझे दंगल फ़िल्म के गाने अच्छे लगते हैं। mujhe Dangal film ke gaane acche lagte hain. - I like the songs from the movie Dangal.

Another way to say this is to just use the word पसंद pasand. Pasand means something like “liked” or “pleasing”, so:

मुझे बिल्लियाँ पसंद हैं mujhe billiyaan pasand hain = cats are liked by me.

To make this negative and say you don’t like something, just add नहीं nahin right before the verb!

मुझे कुत्ते पसंद नहीं हैं। mujhe kutte pasand nahin hain. - i don’t like dogs. (it’s just an example i do like dogs ;-;)

If you want to say you liked something (like in the context of thanking someone for a present, or if you enjoyed an experience) it’s more common to use the simple past tense instead. That’s either:

{thing} अच्छा लगा {thing} accha laga.

or {thing} पसंद आया {thing} pasand aaya. (literally “liking came”)

Remember to change the a’s on the ends of accha, laga, and aaya according to the number and gender of the thing you’re talking about!

If you want to say you enjoyed doing something, you can say these, and you can also say “मज़ा आया maza aaya”, which is literally enjoyment came.