A Door Into Hindi: Lesson 14

View movie about the Perfect Form of the Verb = Simple Past Form of the Verb

The Perfect Form of the verb functions as the simple past tense in Hindi:

Examples:

I went.

I cried.

I lived.

I studied.

The perfect form of the verb is the Verb Root plus an ending which changes according to the number and gender as given in the table below:

Note: if the perfect form of the verb (the simple past of the verb) is not agreeing with anything, then it stays in the masculine singular (third person) form( ा).

Verbs change into their perfect forms according to one of the following three patterns:

A.              The verb root ends with a consonant:

Examples:

B.                The verb root ends with a vowel:

Examples:

Note:  in the chart above that there is only one spelling choice for the masculine singular, because we can’t put आ after “डण्डा”. Therefore we must put या.

          Other examples of these kind of verbs (Masc. Singular)

                                      गाना = गा+या = गाया (=sang)

                                      पाना = पा+या = पाया  (=found)

                                      लाना = ला+या = लाया (=brought)

                                      बनाना = बना+या = बनाया (=built)

C.               Irregular verbs:

Remember that we have encountered four irregular verbs: लेना, देना, करना, होना. With respect to the formation of the simple past form, these four are joined by a fifth irregular verb: जाना

लेना	देना	करना	होना	जाना	infinitive
लिया	दिया	किया	हुआ	गया	masc. sing.
लिये/लिए	दिये/दिए	किये/किए	हुये/हुए	गये/गए	masc. pl.
ली	दी	की	हुयी/हुई	गयी/गई	fem. sing.
लीं	दीं	कीं	हुयीं/हुईं	गयी/गईं	fem. pl.

 

See Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi (2000) Section 11.2 page 137