Transitivity of Hindi Verbs
Transitivity of Hindi Verbs lets learn more about it.
Before you move to the past tense in Hindi, you must know the concept of “transitivity of verbs”.
Lets master this concept through examples:
Consider the following 2 sentences
I ran
I ate
Now ask the question “WHAT” to the above sentences
1) A :I ran.
B : What ?
It is meaningless. There is no answer to this stupid question. Hence, when a verb returns no answer to the question WHAT, it is called a intransitive verb. The verb” RUN” is an intransitive verb.
Now see the 2nd sentence
2)A :I ate.
B : What ?
A :A Vada Pav
There is an answer. So, when a verb returns an answer to the question WHAT, it is called a transitive verb. The verb “eat” is Transitive.
A :I saw. A: I wrote A : I made A : I took
B :What ? B: What ? B : What ? B: What ?
A :A Cow A : Numbers A : A taatto A : A Pen
All the verbs above are transitive.
Transitivity of Hindi Verbs Examples
Now the question is, why am I learning this? Why do I have to bother about them?
The answer is, in Hindi and in the past tense, transitive verbs have to agree with the object and not the subject present in the sentence. Let us get this clear through some more examples.
In present tense:
Aaditya says, “मैं उठ-ता हूँ |” (main uth-taa hoon) = I wake up.
Alisha says, ” मैं उठ-ती हूँ |.” (main uth-tee hoon) = I wake up.
“To wake” is an intransitive verb since asking “WHAT” to above sentences is meaningless.
Now see how these sentences look like in the Past tense:
Aaditya says, “मैं उ-ठा.”(main uthaa) =I woke-up
Alisha says, “मैं उ-ठी”. (main uthee) =I woke-up
In the similar way we can see below sentences too!
What is a transitive verb in Hindi?
मैं सो-ता हूँ (I sleep) -> मैं सोया (I slept) and मैं सो-ती हूँ-> मैं सोयी |
मैं चल-ता हूँ (I walk) -> मैं चला (I walked) and मैं चल-ती हूँ -> मैं चली |
Now let’s repeat everything for transitive verbs
In present tense:
Aaditya says, ” मैं खा-ता हूँ |” (eat) It can be said by Male.
Alisha says, ” मैं खा-ती हूँ |” (eat) It can be said by Female.
This was for present tense. Now see what happens to verbs in past tense.
The transitive verb” EAT” will depend on the object.
मैंने वड़ा पाव खा–या | (maine vada pav khaayaa) (I ate Vada Pav)
मैंने पराठा खा–यी | (maine paratha khayee) (I ate Paratha)
In these examples the objects are Vada Pav and Paratha.
Vada Pav being a masculine noun, verb had to take the sound of ( -आ (aa) ) at the end.
Paratha being a feminine noun, verb had to take the sound of ( – ई (ee) at the end.
Lets take some more examples
Aaditya ने पेपर पढ़ा | (Aaditya ne paper padhaa) = Aaditya read a paper.
Aaditya ने किताब पढी | (Aaditya ne kitaab padhee) = Aaditya read a book.
In these examples, Paper is a masculine noun while Book is a feminine noun. So verb has changed in accordance with the obejcts: Paper or Book.
Some more examples
तुमने पेपर लिखा| (tumne paper likhaa) =you wrote a paper.
तुमने किताब लिखी|(tumne kitaab lihee)= you wrote a book.
Exercise the above lessons and explore more about all these important lessons so that it will be easy to understand all about Hindi Language!
Present Tense in Hindi and English