A Door Into Hindi: Lesson 2

2. The verb होना and auxiliary verbs

3. Verb infinitive and verb root

4. Present imperfect tense

5.Present Progressive Tense

6."To Want To V"

7. Postpositions (Prevew)

8. "To a place"

Culture Notes

Exercises

Quiz

Supplemental Materials

Devanagari Writing System

Digital Dictionaries

Other Resources

2.3

Verb infinitive and verb root

Infinitive = Root + ना

The infinitive form of the Verb is composed of the verb root plus the suffix ना

Thus to obtain the verb root, all we do is remove the ना ending, just as in English, to obtain the verb root from the infinitive, all we do is remove the "to". The root verb is used to form the conjugation of the verb, while the infinitive form is "frozen" and cannot change.

Here are some of the verbs you know, in their infinitive forms, and with their roots.

Verb infinitive	Verb Root
जाना (to go)	जा (go)
आना (to come)	आ (come)
खाना (to eat)	खा (eat)
चाहना (to want)	चाह (want)
ख़रीदना (to buy)	ख़रीद (buy)
बनाना (to make)	बना (make)
देखना (to see)	देख (see)

Note that if you know the infinitive of a Hindi verb, you can always derive the verb root by removing the ना suffix.

The root of the verb is important because it is used in the conjugation of the verb for all of the various tenses.

See Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi (2000)
Section 5.1 page 62