Hindustani grammar

Hindustani, the lingua franca of Northern India and Pakistan, has two standardised registers: Hindi and Urdu. Grammatical differences between the two standards are minor but each uses its own script: Hindi uses Devanagari while Urdu uses an extended form of the Perso-Arabic script, typically in the Nastaʿlīq style.

On this grammar page Hindustani is written in "standard orientalist" transcription as outlined in Masica (1991:xv). Being "primarily a system of transliteration from the Indian scripts, [and] based in turn upon Sanskrit" (cf. IAST), these are its salient features: subscript dots for retroflex consonants; macrons for etymologically, contrastively long vowels; h for aspirated plosives; and tildes for nasalised vowels.

Phonology

Main articles: Hindustani phonology and Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu

The sounds presented in paranthesis in the tables below signify they are only found in loanwords from either Persian or Sanskrit. More information about phonology of Hindustani can be read on Hindustani phonology and IPA/Hindi and Urdu.

Vowels

Hindustani natively possesses a symmetrical ten-vowel system. The vowels [ə], [ɪ], [ʊ] are always short in length, while the vowels [ɑː], [iː], [uː], [eː], [oː], [ɛː], [ɔː] are always considered long, in addition to an eleventh vowel /æː/ which is found in English loanwords.

Vowels in Hindustani

	Front		Central	Back
	long	short		short	long
Close	iː	ɪ		ʊ	uː
Close mid	eː				oː
Open mid	ɛː	ɛ	ə		ɔː
Open	(æː)				ɑː

Vowels [ɛ], [ɛː]

[ɛ] occurs as a conditioned allophone of /ə/ (schwa) in proximity to /ɦ/, if and only if the /ɦ/ is surrounded on both sides by two schwas.[1] and is realised as separate vowel. For example, in kahanā /kəɦ(ə)naː/ (कहना – کَہنا 'to say'), the /ɦ/ is surrounded on both sides by schwa, hence both the schwas will become fronted to short [ɛ], giving the pronunciation [kɛɦɛnaː]. Syncopation of phonemic middle schwa can further occur to give [kɛɦ.naː].

Consonants

Hindustani has a core set of 28 consonants inherited from earlier Indo-Aryan. Supplementing these are two consonants that are internal developments in specific word-medial contexts,[2] and seven consonants originally found in loan words, whose expression is dependent on factors such as status (class, education, etc.) and cultural register (Modern Standard Hindi vs Urdu).

Allophony of [v] and [w]

[v] and [w] are allophones in Hindustani. These are distinct phonemes in English, but both are allophones of the phoneme /ʋ/ in Hindustani (written ⟨व⟩ in Hindi or ⟨و⟩ in Urdu), including loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin. More specifically, they are conditional allophones, i.e. rules apply on whether ⟨व⟩ is pronounced as [v] or [w] depending on context. Native Hindi speakers pronounce ⟨व⟩ as [v] in vrat (व्रत – ورت, 'vow') and [w] in pakwān (पकवान – پکوان 'food dish'), treating them as a single phoneme and without being aware of the allophonic distinctions, though these are apparent to native English speakers. The rule is that the consonant is pronounced as semivowel [w] in onglide position, i.e. between an onset consonant and a following vowel.[3]

Consonants and vowels are outlined in the table below.[4][5][6] Hovering the mouse cursor over them will reveal the appropriate IPA information, while in the rest of the article hovering the mouse cursor over underlined forms will reveal the appropriate English translation.

Consonants in Hindustani Labial Dental/ Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal Nasal m n̪ ɳ (ɲ) ŋ Plosive/ Affricate voiceless p t̪ ʈ tʃ k (q) voiceless aspirated pʰ t̪ʰ ʈʰ tʃʰ kʰ voiced b d̪ ɖ dʒ ɡ voiced aspirated bʱ d̪ʱ ɖʱ dʒʱ ɡʱ Flap and trill voiced trill r ɽ voiced trill aspirated ɽʱ voiced trap[7] ɾ Fricative voiceless f s (ʂ) ʃ (x) ɦ voiced ʋ~w z (ʒ) (ɣ) Approximant l j

Morphology

Nouns

Hindustani distinguishes two genders (masculine and feminine), two noun types (count and non-count), two numbers (singular and plural), and three cases (direct, oblique, and vocative).[8]^:43 Nouns may be further divided into two classes based on declension, called type-I (marked) and type-II (unmarked). The basic difference between the two categories is that the former has characteristic terminations in the direct singular while the latter does not.[9]

The table below displays the suffix paradigms. A hyphen symbol (for the marked type-I) denotes change from the original termination to another (for example laṛkā to laṛke in the masculine singular oblique), whereas a plus sign (for the unmarked type-II) denotes an ending which should be added (seb to sebõ in the masculine plural oblique). -Ø denotes that no suffix is added to the noun stem.

		Singular			Plural
		Direct	Oblique	Vocative	Direct	Oblique	Vocative
Masculine	I	-ā	-e			-õ	-o
	II	-Ø				+õ +yõ (if the stem ends in a vowel) [10]	+o +yo (if the stem ends in a vowel) [10]
Feminine	I	-ī -i -iyā			-iyā̃	-iyõ	-iyo
	II	-Ø			+ẽ	+õ	+o

The next table of noun declensions, mostly adapted from Shapiro (2003:263), shows the above suffix paradigms in action. Words: laṛkā ('boy'), kū̃ā ('well'), seb ('apple'), vālid ('father'), cāqū ('penknife'), ādmī ('man'), mitr ('friend'), laṛkī ('girl'), ciṛiyā ('finch'), kitāb ('book'), bhāṣā ('language'), and aurat ('woman').

		Singular			Plural
		Direct	Oblique	Vocative	Direct	Oblique	Vocative
Masculine	I	laṛkā kuā̃	laṛke kuẽ			laṛkõ kūõ	laṛko kūo
	II	seb vālid cāqū ādmī				sebõ vālidõ cāquõ ādmiyõ	sebo vālido cāquo ādmiyo
Feminine	I	laṛkī ciṛiyā			laṛkiyā̃ ciṛiyā̃	laṛkiyõ ciṛiyõ	laṛkiyo ciṛiyo
	II	kitāb bhāṣā aurat			kitābẽ bhāṣāẽ auratẽ	kitābõ bhāṣāõ auratõ	kitābo bhāṣāo aurato

Notes for noun declension:

• ^1 This is also the ending used for the vocative masculine singular.
• ^2 A small number of marked masculines like kuā̃ display nasalization of all terminations.[11]
• ^3 Some masculines ending in ā don't change in the direct plural and fall in the unmarked category. i.e. vālid "father", cācā "uncle", rājā "king".[12]
• ^4 Unmarked nouns ending in ū and ī generally shorten this to u and i before the oblique (and vocative) plural termination(s), with the latter also inserting the semivowel y.[12][13][14]
• ^5 Many feminine Sanskrit loanwords such as bhāṣā ('language') and mātā (mother) end in ā, therefore the ā is not a reliable indicator of noun gender.[12]
• The iyā ending is also not a reliable indicator of gender or noun type. Some words such as pahiyā ('wheel') and Persian takiyā ('pillow') are masculine type-I: pahiye ('wheels'), takiye ('pillows'). Feminine loanwords such as Arabic duniyā ('world') and Sanskrit kriyā ('action') use feminine type-II endings: duniyāẽ ('worlds'), kriyāẽ ('actions').
• In Urdu, many Arabic words retain their Arabic plurals.
• Perso-Arabic loans ending in final unpronounced h are handled as masculine marked nouns.[15] Hence bacca(h) → baccā. The former is the Urdu spelling, the latter the Hindi.
• Some Arabic loans may use their original dual and plural markings. i.e. vālid "father" → vālidain "parents".

Adjectives

Adjectives may be divided into declinable, and indeclinable categories.[16][17] Declinables are marked, through termination, for the gender, number, case of the nouns they qualify. The set of declinable adjective terminations is similar but greatly simplified in comparison to that of noun terminations —

			Singular			Plural
			Direct	Oblique	Vocative	Direct	Obique	Vocative
Declinable	I	Masc.	-ā	-e
		Fem.	-ī
	II	Masc.	-yā	-ye
		Fem.	-yā
	III	Masc.	-yā̃	-yẽ
		Fem.	-yī̃
Indeclinable			-Ø

Indeclinable adjectives are completely invariable, and can end in either consonants or vowels (including ā and ī ). A number of declinables display nasalisation of all terminations.[16] Dir. masc. sg. (-ā) is the citation form.

• Examples of declinable (type-1) adjectives: baṛā "big", choṭā "small", moṭā "fat", acchā "good", burā "bad", kālā "black", ṭhaṇḍā "cold".
• Examples of declinable (type-2) adjectives: baṛhiyā "great/awesome", ghatiyā "of bad quality or nature", cūtiyā "idiot"/ "asshole".
• Examples of declinable (type-3) adjectives: dāyā̃ "right (direction)", bāyā̃ "left (direction)"
• Examples of indeclinable adjectives: xarāb "bad", sāf "clean", bhārī "heavy", murdā "dead", sundar "beautiful", pāgal "crazy/mad", lāl "red".

Declinable adjectives

Declinable adjective (type-1) baṛā "big" in attributive use

		Singular			Plural			Translation
		Direct	Oblique	Vocative	Direct	Oblique	Vocative
M	I	baṛā laṛkā baṛā kuā̃	baṛe laṛke baṛe kuẽ			baṛe laṛkõ baṛe kuõ	baṛe laṛko baṛe kuo	big boy(s) big well(s)
	II	baṛā seb baṛā pitā baṛā cākū baṛā ādmī baṛā mitra	baṛe seb baṛe pitā baṛe cākū baṛe ādmī baṛe mitra			baṛe sebõ baṛe pitāõ baṛe cākuõ baṛe ādmiyõ baṛe mitrõ	baṛe sebo baṛe pitāo baṛe cākuo baṛe ādmiyo baṛe mitro	big apple(s) big father(s) big knife(s) big man/men big friend(s)
F	I	baṛī laṛkī baṛī śakti baṛī ciṛiyā			baṛī̃ laṛkiyā̃ baṛī̃ śaktiyā̃ baṛī̃ ciṛiyā̃	baṛī̃ laṛkiyõ baṛī̃ śaktiyõ baṛī̃ ciṛiyõ	baṛī̃ laṛkiyo baṛī̃ śaktiyo baṛī̃ ciṛiyo	big girl(s) big power(s) big bird(s)
	II	baṛī kitāb baṛī bhāṣā baṛī aurat			baṛī̃ kitābẽ baṛī̃ bhāṣāẽ baṛī̃ aurtẽ	baṛī̃ kitābõ baṛī̃ bhāṣāõ baṛī̃ aurtõ	baṛī̃ kitābo baṛī̃ bhāṣāo baṛī̃ aurto	big book(s) big language(s) big woman/women

Declinable adjective (type-2) baṛhiyā "great" in attributive use

		Singular			Plural			Translation
		Direct	Oblique	Vocative	Direct	Oblique	Vocative
M	I	baṛhiyā laṛkā baṛhiyā kuā̃	baṛhiye laṛke baṛhiye kuẽ			baṛhiye laṛkõ baṛhiye kuõ	baṛhiye laṛko baṛhiye kuo	great boy(s) great well(s)
	II	baṛhiyā seb baṛhiyā pitā baṛhiyā cākū baṛhiyā ādmī baṛhiyā mitr	baṛhiyā seb baṛhiyā pitā baṛhiyā cākū baṛhiyā ādmī baṛhiyā mitr			baṛhiye sebõ baṛhiye pitāõ baṛhiye cākuõ baṛhiye ādmiyõ baṛhiye mitrõ	baṛhiye sebo baṛhiye pitāo baṛhiye cākuo baṛhiye ādmiyo baṛhiye mitro	great apple(s) great father(s) great knife(s) great man/men great friend(s)
F	I	baṛhiyā laṛkī baṛhiyā śakti baṛhiyā ciṛiyā			baṛhiyā laṛkiyā̃ baṛhiyā śaktiyā̃ baṛhiyā ciṛiyā̃	baṛhiyā laṛkiyõ baṛhiyā śaktiyõ baṛhiyā ciṛiyõ	baṛhiyā laṛkiyo baṛhiyā śaktiyo baṛhiyā ciṛiyo	great girl(s) great power(s) great bird(s)
	II	baṛhiyā kitāb baṛhiyā bhāṣā baṛhiyā aurat			baṛhiyā kitābẽ baṛhiyā bhāṣāẽ baṛhiyā auratẽ	baṛhiyā kitābõ baṛhiyā bhāṣāõ baṛhiyā auratõ	baṛhiyā kitābo baṛhiyā bhāṣāo baṛhiyā aurato	great book(s) great language(s) great woman/women

Declinable adjective (type-3) dāyā̃ "on-the-right-side" in attributive use

		Singular			Plural			Translation
		Direct	Oblique	Vocative	Direct	Oblique	Vocative
M	I	dāyā̃ laṛkā dāyā̃ kuā̃	dāyẽ laṛke dāyẽ kuẽ			dāyẽ laṛkõ dāyẽ kuõ	dāyẽ laṛko dāyẽ kuo	the on-the-right-side boy(s) the on-the-right-side well(s)
	II	dāyā̃ seb dāyā̃ pitā dāyā̃ cākū dāyā̃ ādmī dāyā̃ mitr	dāyā̃ seb dāyā̃ pitā dāyā̃ cākū dāyā̃ ādmī dāyā̃ mitr			dāyẽ sebõ dāyẽ pitāõ dāyẽ cākuõ dāyẽ ādmiyõ dāyẽ mitrõ	dāyẽ sebo dāyẽ pitāo dāyẽ cākuo dāyẽ ādmiyo dāyẽ mitro	the on-the-right-side apple(s) the on-the-right-side father(s) the on-the-right-side knife(s) the on-the-right-side man/men the on-the-right-side friend(s)
F	I	dāyī̃ laṛkī dāyī̃ ciṛiyā			dāyī̃ laṛkiyā̃ dāyī̃ ciṛiyā̃	dāyī̃ laṛkiyõ dāyī̃ ciṛiyõ	dāyī̃ laṛkiyo dāyī̃ ciṛiyo	the on-the-right-side girl(s) the on-the-right-side bird(s)
	II	dāyī̃ kitāb dāyī̃ aurat			dāyī̃ kitābẽ dāyī̃ auratẽ	dāyī̃ kitābõ dāyī̃ auratõ	dāyī̃ kitābo dāyī̃ aurato	the on-the-right-side book(s) the on-the-right-side woman/women

Indeclinable adjectives

Indeclinable adjective xarāb "bad" in attributive use

		Singular			Plural			Translation
		Direct	Oblique	Vocative	Direct	Oblique	Vocative
M	I	xarāb laṛkā xarāb kuā̃	xarāb laṛke xarāb kuẽ			xarāb laṛkõ xarāb kuõ	xarāb laṛko xarāb kuo	bad boy(s) bad well(s)
	II	xarāb seb xarāb pitā xarāb cākū xarāb ādmī xarāb mitra				xarāb sebõ xarāb pitāõ xarāb cākuõ xarāb ādmiyõ xarāb mitrõ	xarāb sebo xarāb pitāo xarāb cākuo xarāb ādmiyo xarāb mitro	bad apple(s) bad father(s) bad knife(s) bad man/men bad friend(s)
F	I	xarāb laṛkī xarāb śakti xarāb ciṛiyā			xarāb laṛkiyā̃ xarāb śaktiyā̃ xarāb ciṛiyā̃	xarāb laṛkiyõ xarāb śaktiyõ xarāb ciṛiyõ	xarāb laṛkiyo xarāb śaktiyo xarāb ciṛiyo	bad girl(s) bad power(s) bad bird(s)
	II	xarāb kitāb xarāb bhāṣā xarāb aurat			xarāb kitābẽ xarāb bhāṣāẽ xarāb auratẽ	xarāb kitābõ xarāb bhāṣāõ xarāb auratõ	xarāb kitābo xarāb bhāṣāo xarāb aurato	bad book(s) bad language(s) bad woman/women

All adjectives can be used either attributively, predicatively, or substantively. Substantively they are declined as nouns rather than adjectives.

sā (~ se ~ sī) is a suffix for adjectives, modifying or lightening their meaning; giving them an "-ish" or "quite" sense. e.g. nīlā "blue" → nīlā-sā "bluish". Its emphasis is rather ambiguous, sometimes enhancing, sometimes toning down, the sense of the adjective.[18]

Comparatives and superlatives

Comparisons are made by using "than" (the postposition se; see below), "more" (aur, zyādā), and "less" (kam). The word for "more" is optional, while "less" is required, so that in the absence of either "more" will be inferred.

Hindustani	Word order	Meaning
Gītā Gautam se lambī hai	[gita] [gautam] [than] [tall] [is]	Gita is taller than Gautam.
Gītā Gautam se zyādā lambī hai	[gita] [gautam] [than] [more] [tall] [is]	Gita is taller than Gautam. (emphasised)
Gītā Gautam se aur lambī hai
Gītā Gautam jitnī lambī hai	[gita] [gautam] [as much] [tall] [is]	Gita is as tall as Gautam.
Gītā Gautam se kam lambī hai	[gita] [gautam] [than] [less] [tall] [is]	Gita is less tall than Gautam.

In the absence of an object of comparison ("more" of course is now no longer optional):

Hindustani	Word order	Meaning
baccā zyādā baṛā hai	[kid] [more] [big] [is]	The kid is bigger.
baccā utnā hi lambā hai	[kid] [just as much] [tall/long] [is]	The kid is just as tall (as someone else).
baccā kam baṛā hai	[kid] [less] [big] [is]	The kid is less big.

Hindustani	Word order	Meaning
zyādā baṛā baccā	[more] [big] [kid]	The bigger kid.
utnā hī baṛā baccā	[just as much] [big] [kid]	The just as big kid.
kam baṛā baccā	[less] [big] [kid]	The shorter kid.

Superlatives are made through comparisons with "all" (sab). Comparisons using "least" are rare; it is more common to use an antonym.

Hindustani	Word order	Meaning
kamrā sabse sāf hai	[room] [than all] [clean] [is]	The room is the cleanest
kamrā sabse kam sāf hai	[room] [than all] [less] [clean] [is]	The room is the least clean
kamrā sabse gandā hai	[room] [than all] [dirty] [is]	The room is the dirtiest

Hindustani	Word order	Meaning
sabse sāf kamrā	[than all] [clean] [room]	The cleanest room.
sabse kam sāf kamrā	[than all] [less] [clean] [room]	The least clean room
sabse gandā kamrā	[than all] [dirty] [room]	The dirtiest room.

In Sanskritised and Persianised registers of Hindustani, comparative and superlative adjectival forms using suffixes derived from those languages can be found.[19]

	Sanskrit	Persian
Comp. ("-er")	-tar
Sup. ("-est")	-tam	-tarīn

Numerals

Main article: Hindustani numerals

The numeral systems of several of the Indo-Aryan languages, including Hindustani and Nepali, are typical decimal systems, but contracted to the extent that nearly every number 1–99 is irregular. The first four ordinal numbers are also irregular. The suffix -vā̃ marks ordinals beginning at the number five. The ordinals decline in the same way as the declinable adjectives.

Hindustani Numbers

English	Hindustani Cardinals	Hindustani Ordinals
zero	śūnya, sifar	śūnyavā̃
one	ek	pehlā, avval
two	do	dūsrā, dom
three	tīn	tīsrā
four	cār	cauthā
five	pā̃c	pā̃cvā̃
six	chah/cheh	chaṭhā
seven	sāt	sātvā̃
eight	āṭh	āṭhvā̃
nine	nau	nauvā̃
ten	das	dasvā̃
hundred	sau	sauvā̃
thousand	hazār	hazārvā̃

Postpositions

The aforementioned inflectional case system only goes so far on its own, and rather serves as that upon which is built a system of agglutinative suffixes or particles known as postpositions, which parallel English's prepositions. It is their use with a noun or verb that necessitates the noun or verb taking the oblique case (though the bare oblique is also sometimes used adverbially[20]), and it is with them that the locus of grammatical function or "case-marking" then lies. There are seven such one-word primary postpositions.

Primary Postpositions

Primary Postpositions	Explanation
kā	genitive marker; variably declinable in the manner of an adjective. X kā/ke/kī Y has the sense "X's Y", with kā/ke/kī agreeing with Y.[16]
ko	dative and the accusative marker; ko has dual function and can mark both the indirect object or the direct object.[21][22]
ne	ergative marker; applied to subjects of transitive perfective verbs.
se	ablative, elative, perlative and instrumental marker; has other very wide range of uses and meanings: "from"; dillī se "from Delhi". "from, of"; tumse ḍarnā "to fear you". "since"; itvār se "since Sunday". "by, with, using"; instrumental marker. "by, with, -ly"; adverbial marker. "than"; for comparatives. a minority of verbs also use se along with ko to mark their patients.
mẽ	locative marker; "in", "inside".
par/pe	superessive marker; "on", "at".
tak	terminative marker "until, up to".

• Some verbs like bolnā (to speak/say) when used, the patient in the sentence can use both the instrumental and the accusative marker. For example, rāhul se bolo and rāhul ko bolo translate to the same "Say (it) to Rahul".

• Beyond these above there are a large range of compound postpositions, constructed majoritarily from the genitive primary postposition kā in the oblique form (ke, kī) plus an adverb. When using with pronouns, these all the compound postpositions can only be used with the Genitive Oblique case pronouns and the genitive kī/ke must be omitted before attaching them with the genitive oblique case.

Secondary Postpositions

Compound Postpositions = Primary Postposition + Secondary Postposition

Compound Postpositions	Explanation	Compound Postpositions	Explanation
kī taraf	orientative marker; "towards",	ke bāre	"concerning (something)"
ke andar	inessive marker; "inside",	ke bād	antessive marker; "after"
ke bāhar	elative marker "outside"	ke pās	adessive marker; "near"
ke bagal	adessive marker "adjacent"	ke jaisā/jaise/jaisi	semblative marker, "like"
ke āge	apudessive marker; "in front of, ahead of",	ke liye	benefactive marker; "for"
ke ūpar	superessive marker; "on top of, above"	ke sāmne	postessive case "facing, opposite, infront", etc.[23]
ke nīce	subessive marker; "beneath, below"	ke pīche	pertingent marker; "behind"
ke binā/baġair	abessive marker; "without"	ke dvārā/zariye	perlative marker; "via, through"

Some compound postpositions do not have the genitive marker as their primary postposition, such as:

Compound Postpositions	Explanation
tak mẽ	limitative marker "within"

Tertiary Postpositions

Some other compound postpositions with two secondary postpositions (called tertiary postposition) can be constructed by adding primary postpositions to some of the compound postpositions shown above.

Compound Postpositions	Marker	Explanation
ke bāre mẽ	"about"	"regarding/concerning/about something"
ke bād mẽ	antessive marker; "after (emphatic)"	"(in a sequence) something is after something"
ke sāth mẽ	sociative marker; "with (emphatic)"	"something is along/together with something else"
ke nīce mẽ	subessive marker; "beneath, below (emphatic)"	"location of something is below something else"
kī vajah se	causal marker, "because of"	"something happens/ed because of (fault of) something else"
ke pīche se	postelative marker; "from behind"	"motion/movement from behind something"
ke andar se	inessive marker; "inside",	"motion/movement from inside something"
ke āge se	"from infront"	"motion/movement from infront of something"
ke pās se	adelative marker; "from near (something)"	"motion/movement near something"
ke nīce se	subessive marker; "beneath, below"	"motion/movement from below something"
ke ūpar se	delative marker; "from above"	"motion/movement from above something"
ke ūpar ko	sublative marker;	"motion/movement onto a surface"
kī taraf ko	"towards [a direction] (emphatic)"	"motion/movement towards a direction"

Postpositions from English Prepositions

Some compound postpositions in Hindustani are formed by borrowing prepositions of English and using them as secondary postpositions of the compound postpositions. The meaning expressed by the compound postpositions formed using the English prepositions stay the same as their original meaning in English.

Compound Postposition = Primary Postposition (genitive) + English Preposition

Compound Postpositions	Explanation
ke infront'	"infront" (equivalent to "ke sāmne" or "ke sāmne mẽ")
ke behind	"behind" (equivalent to "ke ūpar" or "ke ūpar mẽ")
ke above	"above" (equivalent to "ke ūpar" or "ke ūpar mẽ")
ke below	"below" (equivalent to "ke nīce")
ke through	"through" (in certain contexts, equivalent to "ke andar se" or "zariye se")
ke against	"against" (equivalent to "ke k͟hilāf" in certain contexts)
ke about	"above" (usually used as "about a reference location" and as not equivalent to "ke bāre mẽ")
ke around	"around" (equivalent to "ki carõ taraf" in certain contexts)
ke regarding	"regarding" (equivalent to "ke mutalliq" in certain contexts)
ke according	"according" (equivalent to "ke hisāb se" or "ke mutabiq" in certain contexts)

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Hindustani has personal pronouns for the first and second persons, while for the third person demonstratives are used, which can be categorised deictically as proximate and non-proximate.[24] Pronouns distinguish cases of direct, oblique, and dative/accusative. The latter-most, often called a set of "contracted" forms, is in free variation with the oblique case plus dative postposition. Pronouns do not distinguish gender.

Also displayed in the below table are the genitive pronominal forms to show that the 1st and 2nd pronouns have their own distinctive forms of merā, hamārā, terā, tumhārā apart from the regular formula of OBL. + kā; as well as the ergative pronominal forms to show that the postposition ne does not straightforwardly suffix the oblique bases: rather than *mujh-ne and *tujh-ne, direct bases are used giving mãĩ-ne and tū-ne, and for the 3rd person, along with in-ne and un-ne (dialectal) special ergative oblique forms inhõ-ne and unhõ-ne (standard forms) are used. Compound postpositions must be used with the genitive oblique cases. So, *mujh-ke andar and mujh andar are wrong and instead it should be mere andar. The compound postpositions that have the primary postposition -kī in place of -kā must have the genitive oblique case declined to the feminine gender. So, when using the postposition kī taraf – "towards", it should be merī taraf and not merā taraf or mere taraf.

tū, tum, and āp are the three second person pronouns ("you"), constituting a threefold scale of sociolinguistic formality: respectively "intimate", "familiar", and "polite". The "intimate" conjugations are grammatically singular while the "familiar" and "polite" conjugations are grammatically plural.[19] When being referred to in the third person however, only those of the "polite" level of formality are grammatically plural.[25] The following table is partly adapted from Shapiro (2003:265).

Base Pronouns of Hindustani distinguished by case

Case		Personal					Demonstrative				Relative		Interrogative
		1st person		2nd person			3rd person
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural		Proximal		Non-proximal		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
				Intimate	Familiar	Polite	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Direct		'mãĩ'	'ham'	'tū'	'tum'	'āp'	yah	ye	vah	ve	'jo'		'kaun, kyā'
							'ye'		'vo'
Oblique	Regular	'mujh'		'tujh'			'is'	'in'	'us'	un	'jis'	'jin'	'kis'	'kin'
	Ergative	'mãĩ'		'tū'				'inhõ'		'unhõ'		'jinhõ'		'kinhõ'
	Genitive	mere	hamāre	tere	tumhāre	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Dative		'mujhe'	'hamẽ'	'tujhe'	'tumhẽ'	—	'ise'	'inhẽ'	'use'	'unhẽ'	'jise'	'jinhẽ'	'kise'	'kinhẽ'
Accusative
Genitive	Masc. Sing.	'merā'	'hamārā'	'tērā'	'tumhārā'	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Masc. Plu.	'mērē'	'hamārē'	'tērē'	'tumhārē'	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Fem. Sing.	'merī'	'hamārī'	'tērī'	'tumhārī'	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Fem. Plu.

To form pronouns which are not part of the base pronouns list, primary and secodary postpositions are added after the oblique case regular, genitive and genitive pronouns. The pronoun cases formed using the primary postpositions are shown in the table below:

Pronouns formed using Primary Postpositions

Case		Personal					Demonstrative				Relative		Interrogative
		1st person		2nd person			3rd person
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural		Proximal		Non-proximal		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
				Intimate	Familiar	Polite	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Ergative		'mãĩ-ne'	'ham-ne'	'tū-ne'	'tum-ne'	'āp-ne'	'is-ne'	'inhõ-ne' 'in-ne'	'us-ne'	'unhõ-ne' 'un-ne'	'jis-ne'	'jinhõ-ne' 'jin-ne'	'kis-ne'	'kinhõ-ne' 'kin-ne'
Dative & Accusative	Oblique	mujh-ko	ham-ko	tujh-ko	tum-ko	āp-ko	is-ko	in-ko	us-ko	un-ko	jis-ko	jin-ko	kis-ko	kin-ko
	Genitive	mere-ko	hamāre-ko	tere-ko	tumhāre-ko	āpke-ko	iske-ko	inke-ko	uske-ko	unke-ko	jiske-ko	jinke-ko	kiske-ko	kinke-ko
Genitive	Masc. Sing.	—	—	—	—	'āp-kā'	'is-kā'	'in-kā'	'us-kā'	'un-kā'	'jis-kā'	'jin-kā'	'kis-kā'	'kin-kā'
	Masc. Plu.	—	—	—	—	'āp-kē'	'is-kē'	'in-kē'	'us-kē'	'un-kē'	'jis-kē'	'jin-kē'	'kis-kē'	'kin-ke'
	Fem. Sing.	—	—	—	—	'āp-kī'	'is-kī'	'in-kī'	'us-kī'	'un-kī'	'jis-kī'	'jin-kī'	'kis-kī'	'kin-kī'
	Fem. Plu.
Ablative & Instrumental	Regular	mujh-se	ham-se	tujh-se	tum-se	āp-se	is-se	in-se	us-se	un-se	jis-se	jis-se	kis-se	kin-se
	Genitive	mere-se	hamāre-se	tere-se	tumhāre-se	āpke-se	iske-se	inke-se	uske-se	unke-se	jiske-se	jinke-se	kiske-se	kinke-se
Limitative	Regular	mujh-tak	ham-tak	tujh-tak	tum-tak	āp-tak	is-tak	in-tak	us-tak	un-tak	jis-tak	jis-tak	kis-tak	kin-tak
	Genitive	mere-tak	hamāre-tak	tere-tak	tumhāre-tak	āpke-tak	iske-tak	inke-tak	uske-tak	unke-tak	jiske-tak	jinke-tak	kiske-tak	kinke-tak
Locative 1	Oblique	mujh-pe	ham-pe	tujh-pe	tum-pe	āp-pe	is-pe	in-pe	us-pe	un-pe	jis-pe	jis-pe	kis-pe	kin-pe
	Genitive	mere-pe	hamāre-pe	tere-pe	tumhāre-pe	āpke-pe	iske-pe	inke-pe	uske-pe	unke-pe	jiske-pe	jinke-pe	kiske-pe	kinke-pe
Locative 2	Oblique	mujh-mẽ	ham-mẽ	tujh-mẽ	tum-mẽ	āp-mẽ	is-mẽ	in-mẽ	us-mẽ	un-mẽ	jis-mẽ	jis-mẽ	kis-mẽ	kin-mẽ
	Genitive	mere-mẽ	hamāre-mẽ	tere-mẽ	tumhāre-mẽ	āpke-mẽ	iske-mẽ	inke-mẽ	uske-mẽ	unke-mẽ	jiske-mẽ	jinke-mẽ	kiske-mẽ	kinke-mẽ

Notes for pronouns:

• Postpositions are treated as bound morphemes after pronouns in Hindi, but as separate words in Urdu.[26]
• The varying forms for the 3rd person. dir. constitute one of the small number of grammatical differences between Hindi and Urdu. yah "this" / ye "these" / vah "that" / ve "those" is the literary set for Hindi while ye "this, these" / vo "that, those" is the set for Urdu and spoken and colloquially written Hindi.
• The above section on postpositions noted that ko (the dative/accusative case) marks direct objects if definite. As "the most specific thing of all is an individual", persons (or their pronouns) nearly always take the dative case or postposition.[27]
• It is very common practice to use plural pronouns (and their accompanying conjugation) in polite situations, thus tum can be used in the second person when referring to one person. Similarly, some speakers prefer plural ham over singular mãĩ. This is usually not quite the same as the "royal we"; it is rather colloquial.[28]

Emphatic Pronouns

Emphatic pronouns of Hindustani are formed by combining the exclusive emphatic particle hī or the inclusive emphatic particle bhī (with the interrogatory and relative pronouns) and the pronoun in their regular oblique and direct case. Combining the emphatic particles and the pronouns with end with the consonant -h form a new set of emphatic direct case and emphatic oblique case pronouns. The rest of the pronouns can also be combined with the exclusive emphatic particle but they do not form true pronouns, but simply add the emphatic particle as an adposition after them. The Relative and Interrogatory pronouns can only take the inclusive emphatic particle bhī as an adposition and never the exclusive emphatic particle hī.

		Personal					Demonstrative
		1st person		2nd person			3rd person
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural		Proximal		Non-proximal
				Intimate	Familiar	Polite	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Direct		-	'hamī̃'	-	'tumhī̃'	-	yahī	-	vahī	-
Oblique	Regular	'mujhī'		'tujhī'			'isī'	'inhī̃'	'usī'	unhī̃

• Some pronouns are not mentioned above but that doesn't mean that those pronouns cannot be turned emphatic but only that since those pronouns do not end in the consonant -h and hence they cannot cannot assimilate the h of the emphatic pronoun hī to form a true pronoun. For the unlisted pronouns, just add the hī or bhī particle after the pronoun. However, the pronoun ham is an exception to the rule just mentioned.

Reflexive Pronouns

apnā is a (genitive) reflexive pronoun: "my/your/etc. (own)".[29] Using non-reflexive and reflexive together gives emphasis; e.g. merā apnā "my (very) own".[30] xud, āp, and svayam are some (direct; non-genitive) others: "my/your/etc.-self".[31] Bases for oblique usage are usually apne (self) or apne āp (automatically). The latter alone can also mean "of one's own accord"; āpas mẽ means "among/between oneselves".[32]

Reflexive Pronouns Direct Oblique Direct Oblique Masculine Feminine "self / (by) oneself" xud svayam "own / one's own" Singular apnā apne apnī Plural apne "one's own people/things" apnõ "automatically" / "(by) oneself" apne āp "among oneselves" āpas mẽ Note: when in direct case, "apne āp" translates as "automatically" or "by oneself" but when in the oblique case it translates as "oneself"

Indefinite Pronouns or Quantifiers

koī and kuch are indefinite pronouns/quantifiers. As pronouns, koī is used for animate singular ("someone") and kuch for animate plural and inanimates ("something").[33] As quantifiers/adjectives koī is used for singular count nouns and kuch for mass nouns and plural count nouns. koī takes the form kisī in the oblique. The form kaī "several" is partially a plural equivalent to koī.[34] kuch can also act as an adverb, qualifying an adjective, meaning "rather". koī preceding a number takes the meaning of "about, approximately". In this usage it does not oblique to kisī.[35]

Indefinite Pronouns/Quantifiers	animate	inanimate	animate	inanimate
	direct		oblique
singular	koi	kuch	kisī
plural (some)	kuch		kuchõ
plural (several)	kaī		kaiyõ

Adverbial Pronouns

		Interrogative	Relative	Demonstrative
				Proximal	Non-proximal
Time		kab	jab	ab	tab
Place	Direct	kidhar	jidhar	idhar	udhar
	Oblique	kahā̃	jahā̃	yahā̃	vahā̃
Quantity	Masc. Sing.	kitnā	jitnā	itnā	utnā
	Masc. Sing.	kitne	jitne	itne	utne
	Fem. Sing.	kitnī	jitnī	itnī	utnī
	Fem. Plu.
Quality	Masc. Sing.	kaisā	jaisā	aisā	vaisā
	Masc. Sing.	kaise	jaise	aise	vaise
	Fem. Sing.	kaisī	jaisī	aisī	vaisī
	Fem. Plu.
Manner		kaise	jaise	aise	vaise

Note: The feminine plural forms are commonly used as singular respect forms and the feminine singular forms often are used interchangeably with the feminine plural forms.

Adverbs

Hindustani has few underived forms.[36] Adverbs may be derived in ways such as the following —

• Simply obliquing some nouns and adjectives: nīcā "low" → nīce "down", sīdhā "straight" → sīdhe "straight", dhīrā "slow" → dhīre "slowly", saverā "morning" → savere "in the morning", ye taraf "this direction" → is taraf "in this direction", kalkattā "Calcutta" → kalkatte "to Calcutta".
• Nouns using a postposition such as se "by, with, -ly": zor "force" → zor se "forcefully" (lit. "with force"), dhyān "attention" → dhyān se "attentively" (lit. "with attention").
• Adjectives using post-positional phrases involving "way, manner": acchā "good" → acchī tarah se "well" (lit. "by/in a good way"), xās "special" → xās taur par "especially" (lit. "on a special way").
• Verbs in conjunctive form: hãs "laugh" → hãs kar "laughingly" (lit. "having laughed"), meherbānī kar "do kindness" → meherbānī kar ke "kindly, please" (lit. "having done kindness").[37]
• Formative suffixes from Sanskrit or Perso-Arabic in higher registers of Hindi or Urdu. Skt. sambhava "possible" + -taḥ → sambhavataḥ "possibly; Ar. ittifāq "chance" + -an → ittifāqan "by chance".[20]

Verbs

Overview

The Hindustani verbal system is largely structured around a combination of aspect and tense/mood. Like the nominal system, the Hindustani verb involves successive layers of (inflectional) elements to the right of the lexical base.[38]

Hindustani has 3 aspects: perfective, habitual, and continuous, each having overt morphological correlates.[20] These are participle forms, inflecting for gender and number by way of a vowel termination, like adjectives.[39] The perfective, though displaying a "number of irregularities and morphophonemic adjustments", is the simplest, being just the verb stem followed by the agreement vowel. The habitual forms from the imperfective participle; verb stem, plus -t-, then vowel. The continuous forms periphrastically through compounding (see below) with the perfective of rahnā "to stay".

Derived from honā "to be" are five copula forms: present, past, subjunctive, presumptive, contrafactual (aka "past conditional"). Used both in basic predicative/existential sentences and as verbal auxiliaries to aspectual forms, these constitute the basis of tense and mood.

Non-aspectual forms include the infinitive, the imperative, and the conjunctive. Mentioned morphological conditions such the subjunctive, "presumptive", etc. are applicable to both copula roots for auxiliary usage with aspectual forms and to non-copula roots directly for often unspecified (non-aspectual) finite forms.

Finite verbal agreement is with the nominative subject, except in the transitive perfective, where it is with the direct object, with the erstwhile subject taking the ergative construction -ne (see postpositions above). The perfective aspect thus displays split ergativity.

Tabled below on the left are the paradigms for adjectival concord (^A), here only slightly different from that introduced previously: the f. pl. can nasalise under certain conditions. To the right are the paradigms for personal concord (^P), used by the subjunctive.

(A) Sg. Pl. Masc. -ā -e Fem. -ī -ī / ī̃

(P) 1st. Person 2nd. Person 3rd. Person Intimate Familiar Formal Proximal Distal Proximal Formal Distal Formal Singular -ū̃ -e -o -ẽ -e -ẽ Plural -ẽ doesn't exist -ẽ

Verb Inflection

The inflection of standard Hindustani verbs includes:

• three persons: first, second and third.
• two numbers: singular and plural.
• five moods: indicative, contrafactual (the past subjunctive & the conditional), presumptive, subjunctive (in addition to infinitive) and imperative.
• two voices: active and passive. The passive voice uses the compound postposition ke dvārā or by converting the verb into a compund verb using the auxiliary verb jānā.
• two tenses without auxiliary verbs (future and simple past).

Copula in Hindustani

Modern Hindustani has the present indicative forms of the verb honā and it is the only verb in Hindi to have the simple indicative forms in the present tense.

• The Imperfect Past forms also do not exist for any other verb except honā. Hindustani uses Present Habitual forms which roughly compensates for the loss of Present Simple Indicative forms, in the contexts where the habitual aspect cannot compensate for the present simple tense, the future simple is used. For example, "the train leaves at 11 am" will be translated as "tren gyārah baje niklegī". The present simple tense of English when it doesn't refer to a habitual action translates to the future tense of Hindustani.

• For all the verbs except honā, there are no separate forms for the present and the future subjunctive and all the other verbs have a common future/present subjunctive form.

The verb honā can be translated as «to be», «to exist», «to happen» and «to have». The verbs in Hindi are gendered and numbered in general they agree with either the object or the subject of the sentence depending on the whether the sentence uses dative construction (quirky subject) or not.

Notes

• All conjugations in the indicative mood except the future tense can be used as a copula.
• The conditional mood also duals as the habitual participle.
• There are two types of imperatives in Hindustani, the present imperative and the future imperative (also called the deferred imperative)[40]. The present imperative is used to give immediate commands and the deferred imperative is used to give deferred commands.

Compound Tenses

Periphrastic Hindustani verb forms consist of two elements. The first of these two elements is the aspect marker. The second element (the copula) is the common tense-mood marker.[10]

Mood & Aspects

Hindustani has three aspects, Habitual aspect, Perfective Aspect and the Progressive Aspect.[10] To construct the progressive aspect and forms, Hindustani makes use of the progressive participle rahā which is derived from the verb rehnā ("to stay" or "to remain"). Unike English and many other Indo-European languages, Hindustani does differentiate between Continuous and the Progressive aspects. So, for e.g. the sentence "mãĩ shirt pehen rahā hū̃" will always translate as "I am (in the process) of wearing a shirt." and it can never be used to mean "I am (already) wearing a shirt.". In English, however, "I am wearing a shirt." can be used to mean both the idea of progressive action and a continuous action. To convey the continuous state of an action the adjectival partciple is used in HIndustani which is constructed by adding the preterite partciple of verb being followed by the preterite partciple of the copula. So, "I am (already) wearing a shirt." translates in to Hindustani as "mãĩ shirt pehnā huā hū̃." All the personal forms of the copula of Hindustani in all the aspect and moods are given in the table below:

Personal forms of the Copula of Hindustani
Mood	Aspect	Tense	Gender	Number and person								English Equivalent (only sg. 3rd) [he/she/it]
				1st		2nd			3rd			[note: when the "it" pronoun is to be meant in place of "he/she" the meaning of the copula changes to "to happen" or "to exist" from "to be".]
						intimate	neutral	formal	neutral		formal
				Singular	Plural	Singular	Singular & Plural		Singular	Plural	Singular & Plural
Indicative	Simple	present	m	hū̃	hãĩ	hai	ho	hãĩ	hai	hãĩ		[he is] / [it is] / [it exists] / [there is]
			f									[she is] / [it is] / [it exists] / [there is]
		perfect	m	huā	huē	huā	huē	huē	huā	huē		[he became] / [it happened]
			f	huī	huī̃	huī	huī	huī̃	huī	huī̃		[she became] / [it happened]
		imperfect	m	thā	thē	thā	thē	thē	thā	thē		[he was] / [he used to be] / [it was]
			f	thī	thī̃	thī	thī	thī̃	thī	thī̃		[she was] / [she used to be] / [it was]
		future	m	hoūŋgā	hoēŋgē	hoēgā	ho'ogē	hoēŋgē	hoēgā	hoēŋgē		[he will become] / [it will happen]
			f	hoūŋgī	hoēŋgī	hoēgī	ho'ogī	hoēŋgī	hoēgī	hoēŋgī		[she will become] / [it will happen]
	Habitual	present	m	hotā hū̃	hotē hãĩ	hotā hai	hotē ho	hotē hãĩ	hotā hai	hotē hãĩ		[he becomes] / [it happens]
			f	hotī hū̃	hotī hãĩ	hotī hai	hotī ho	hotī hãĩ	hotī hai	hotī hãĩ		[she becomes] / [it happens]
		past	m	hotā thā	hotē thē	hotā thā	hotē thē	hotē thē	hotā thā	hotē thē		[he used to become] / [it used to happen]
			f	hotī thī	hotī thī̃	hotī thī	hotī thī	hotī thī̃	hotī thī	hotī thī̃		[she used to become] / [it used to happen]
	Perfective	present	m	huā hū̃	huē hãĩ	huā hai	huē ho	huē hãĩ	huā hai	huē hãĩ		[he has become] / [it has happened]
			f	huī hū̃	huī hãĩ	huī hai	huī ho	huī hãĩ	huī hai	huī hãĩ		[she has become] / [it has happened]
		past	m	huā thā	huē thē	huā thā	huē thē	huē thē	huā thā	huē thē		[he had become] / [it had happened]
			f	huī thī	huī thī̃	huī thī	huē thī	huī thī̃	huī thī	huī thī̃		[she had become] / [it had happened]
		future	m	huā hoūŋgā	huē hoŋgē	huā hogā	huē hoŋgē	huē hoŋgē	huā hogā	huē hoŋgē		[he will have become] / [it will have happened]
			f	huī hoūŋgī	huī hoŋgī	huī hogī	huī hoŋgī	huī hoŋgī	huī hogī	huī hoŋgī		[she will have become] / [it will have happened]
	Progressive	present	m	ho rahā hū̃	ho rahē hãĩ	ho rahā hai	ho rahē ho	ho rahē hãĩ	ho rahā hai	ho rahē hãĩ		[he is becoming] / [it is happening]
			f	ho rahī hū̃	ho rahī hãĩ	ho rahī hai	ho rahī ho	ho rahī hãĩ	ho rahī hai	ho rahī hãĩ		[she is becoming] / [it is happening]
		past	m	ho rahā thā	ho rahē thē	ho rahā thā	ho rahē thē	ho rahē thē	ho rahā thā	ho rahē thē		[he was becoming] / [it was happening]
			f	ho rahī thī	ho rahī thī̃	ho rahī thī	ho rahī thī	ho rahī thī̃	ho rahī thī	ho rahī thī̃		[she was becoming] / [it was happening]
		future	m	ho rahā hūŋgā	ho rahē hoŋgē	ho rahā hogā	ho rahē hogē	ho rahē hoŋgē	ho rahā hogā	ho rahē hoŋgē		[he will be becoming] / [it will be happening]
			f	ho rahī hūŋgī	ho rahī hoŋgī	ho rahī hogī	ho rahī hogī	ho rahī hoŋgī	ho rahī hogī	ho rahī hoŋgī		[she will be becoming] / [it will be happening]
Subjunctive	Simple	present	m	hū̃	hõ	ho	ho	hõ	ho	hõ		(wish) that he is
			f									(wish) that she is
		future	m	hoū̃	hoē̃	hoē	ho'o	hoē̃	hoē	hoē̃		(wish) that he become
			f									(wish) that she become
	Habitual	present	m	hotā hū̃	hotē hõ	hotā ho	hotē ho	hotē hõ	hotā ho	hotē hõ		(wish) that he be (habitually)
			f	hotī hū̃	hotī hõ	hotī ho	hotī ho	hotī hõ	hotī ho	hotī hõ		(wish) that she be (habitually)
	Perfective	present	m	huā hū̃	huē hõ	huā ho	huē ho	huē hõ	huā ho	huē hõ		(wish) that he has become
			f	huī hū̃	huī hõ	huī ho	huī ho	huī hõ	huī ho	huī hõ		(wish) that she has become
		future	m	huā hoū̃	huē hoē̃	huā hoē	huē ho'o	huē hoē̃	huā hoē	huē hoē̃		(wish) that he would become
			f	huī hoū̃	huī hoē̃	huī hoē	huī ho'o	huī hoē̃	huī hoē	huī hoē̃		(wish) that she would become
	Progressive	present	m	ho rahā hū̃	ho rahē hõ	ho rahā ho	ho rahē ho	ho rahē hõ	ho rahā ho	ho rahē hõ		(wish) that he be becomming
			f	ho rahī hū̃	ho rahī hõ	ho rahī ho	ho rahī ho	ho rahī hõ	ho rahī ho	ho rahī hõ		(wish) that she be becomming
		future	m	ho rahā hoū̃	ho rahē hoē̃	ho rahā hoē	ho rahē ho'o	ho rahē hoē̃	ho rahā hoē	ho rahē hoē̃		(wish) that he will be becoming
			f	ho rahī hoū̃	ho rahī hoē̃	ho rahī hoē	ho rahī ho'o	ho rahī hoē̃	ho rahī hoē	ho rahī hoē̃		(wish) that she will be becoming
Contrafactual	Simple	present & past	m	hotā	hotē	hotā	hotē	hotē	hotā	hotē		[if (condition), then] it would have been (wish) that it were
			f	hotī	hotī̃	hotī	hotī	hotī̃	hotī	hotī̃
	Habitual	past	m	hotā hotā	hotē hotē	hotā hotā	hotē hotē	hotē hotē	hotā hotā	hotē hotē		[if (condition), then] he would have been being. (wish) that it used to happen
			f	hotī hotī	hotī hotī̃	hotī hotī	hotī hotī	hotī hotī̃	hotī hotī	hotī hotī̃
	Perfective	present & past	m	huā hotā	huē hotē	huā hotā	huē hotē	huē hotē	huā hotā	huē hotē		[if (condition) then)] it would have become (wish) that it had happened
			f	huī hotī	huī hotī̃	huī hotī	huī hotī	huī hotī̃	huī hotī	huī hotī̃
	Progressive	present & past	m	ho rahā hotā	ho rahē hotē	ho rahā hotā	ho rahē hotē	ho rahē hotē	ho rahā hotā	ho rahē hotē		[if (condition) then] it would have been becoming. (wish) that it were happening.
			f	ho rahī hotī	ho rahī hotī̃	ho rahī hotī	ho rahī hotī	ho rahī hotī̃	ho rahī hotī	ho rahī hotī̃
Presumptive	Simple	present & past & future	m	hūŋgā	hoŋgē	hogā	hogē	hoŋgē	hogā	hoŋgē		he presumably might be
												he presumably was
												he presumably will be
			f	hūŋgī	hoŋgī	hogī	hogī	hoŋgī	hogī	hoŋgī		she presumably might be
												she presumably was
												she presumably will be
	Habitual	present & past	m	hotā hūŋgā	hotē hoŋgē	hotā hogā	hotē hogē	hotē hoŋgē	hotā hogā	hotē hoŋgē		he presumably becomes (habitually)
												he presumably used to become (habitually)
			f	hotī hūŋgī	hotī hoŋgī	hotī hogī	hotī hogī	hotī hoŋgī	hotī hogī	hotī hoŋgī		she presumably becomes (habitually)
												she presumably used to be (habitually)
	Perfective	present & past & future	m	huā hūŋgā	huē hoŋgē	huā hogā	huē hogē	huē hoŋgē	huā hogā	huē hoŋgē		he presumably might have become (now)
												he presumably might had become (now)
												he presumably might will become
			f	huī hūŋgī	huī hoŋgī	huī hogī	huī hogī	huī hoŋgī	huī hogī	huī hoŋgī		she presumably might have become (now)
												she presumably might had become (now)
												she presumably might will become
	Progressive	present & past & future	m	ho rahā hūŋgā	ho rahē hoŋgē	ho rahā hogā	ho rahē hogē	ho rahē hoŋgē	ho rahā hogā	ho rahē hoŋgē		he presumably might be becoming
												he presumably might had been becoming
												he presumably will be becoming
			f	ho rahī hūŋgī	ho rahī hoŋgī	ho rahī hogī	ho rahī hogī	ho rahī hoŋgī	ho rahī hogī	ho rahī hoŋgī		she presumably might be becoming
												she presumably might had been becoming
												she presumably will be becoming
Imperative	Simple	present	m	–	–	ho	ho'o	hoiyē	hoē	hoē̃		be! (now)
			f
		future	m			hoiyo	honā	hoiyēgā				be! (in the future)
			f

Notes

• Habitual Aspect in Hindustani cannot be put into any future moods. However, imperfect progressive forms can be used to form the future forms for habitual aspect do exist as they refer to the future with reference to the present as a progressing state.
• The progressive aspect refers to an action that is in progress at the moment. For example, "vo ye kitāb paṛh rahā hai (abhī)" "He is reading a book (right now)." and "vo ye kitāb paṛh rahā hai (āj-kal)" "He is reading a book (these days)". However, there is also a continuous aspect in Hindustani which unlike the progressive aspect, conveys only a continuous action instead of a progressive action. For e.g. "vo shirt pehen rahā hai" and "vo shirt pehnā huā hai." both translate to "he is wearing a shirt" in English. However, the first refers to the action of "in the process of wearing a shirt" while the second refers to the continued state of "already wearing a shirt".
  

Imperfective Aspect Compound Forms

Along with the progressive aspect, the imperfect aspect can also have progressive forms, namely, the habitual progressive, habitual continuous and the perfective progressive.[41] Such a form is equivalent to

Imperfective sub-aspects
Mood	Aspect	Tense	Gender	Number and person								English Equivalent (only sg. 3rd) [he/she/it]
				1st		2nd			3rd			[note: when the "it" pronoun is to be meant in place of "he/she" the meaning of the copula changes to "to happen" or "to exist" from "to be".]
						intimate	neutral	formal	neutral		formal
				Singular	Plural	Singular	Singular & Plural		Singular	Plural	Singular & Plural
Indicative	Habitual	present	m	hotā rehtā hū̃	hote rehte hãĩ	hotā rehtā hai	hote rehte ho	hote rehte hãĩ	hotā rehtā hai	hote rehte hãĩ		it keeps happening
			f	hotī rehtī hū̃	hotī rehtī hãĩ	hotī rehtī hai	hotī rehtī ho	hotī rehtī hãĩ	hotī rehtī hai	hotī rehtī hãĩ
		past	m	hotā rehtā thā	hote rehte the	hotā rehtā thā	hote rehte the	hote rehte the	hotā rehtā thā	hote rehte the		it used to keep happening
			f	hotī rehtī thī	hotī rehtī thī̃	hotī rehtī thī	hotī rehtī thī	hotī rehtī thī̃	hotī rehtī thī	hotī rehtī thī̃
	Perfective	present	m	huā rahā hū̃	hue rahe hãĩ	huā rahā hai	hue rahe ho	hue rahe hãĩ	huā rahā hai	hue rahe hãĩ		it has happened
			f	huī rahī hū̃	huī rahī hãĩ	huī rahī hai	huī rahī ho	huī rahī hãĩ	huī rahī hai	huī rahī hãĩ
		past	m	huā rahā thā	hue rahe the	huā rahā thā	hue rahe the	hue rahe the	huā rahā thā	hue rahe the		it had happened
			f	huī rahī thī	huī rahī thī̃	huī rahī thī	hue rahe thī	huī rahī thī̃	huī rahī thī	huī rahī thī̃
		future	m	huā rahā hūŋgā	hue rahe hoŋgē	huā rahā hogā	hue rahe hoge	hue rahe hoŋgē	huā rahā hogā	hue rahe hoŋgē		it will have happened
			f	huī rahī hūŋgī	huī rahī hoŋgī	huī rahī hogī	huī rahī hogī	huī rahī hoŋgī	huī rahī hogī	huī rahī hoŋgī
	Progressive	present	m	hotā rahā hū̃	hote rahe hãĩ	hotā rahā hai	hote rahe ho	hote rahe hãĩ	hotā rahā hai	hote rahe hãĩ		it has kept happening
			f	hotī rahī hū̃	hotī rahī hãĩ	hotī rahī hai	hotī rahī ho	hotī rahī hãĩ	hotī rahī hai	hotī rahī hãĩ
		past	m	hotā rahā thā	hote rahe the	hotā rahā thā	hote rahe the	hote rahe the	hotā rahā thā	hote rahe the		it had kept happening
			f	hotī rahī thī	hotī rahī thī̃	hotī rahī thī	hotī rahī thī	hotī rahī thī̃	hotī rahī thī	hotī rahī thī̃
		future	m	hotā rahūŋgā	hote raheŋge	hotā rahegā	hote rahoge	hote raheŋge	hotā rahegā	hote raheŋge		it will keep happening
			f	hotī rahūŋgī	hotī raheŋgī	hotī rahegī	hotī rahogī	hotī raheŋgī	hotī rahegī	hotī raheŋgī
Subjunctive	Habitual	present	m	hotā rehtā hū̃	hote rehte hõ	hotā rahā ho	hote rehte ho	hote rehte hõ	hotā rahā ho	hote rehte hõ		(wish) that it keeps happening
			f	hotī rehtī hū̃	hotī rehtī hõ	hotī rahī ho	hotī rehtī ho	hotī rehtī hõ	hotī rahī ho	hotī rehtī hõ
	Perfective	present	m	huā rahā hū̃	hue rahe hõ	huā rahā ho	hue rahe ho	hue rahe hõ	huā rahā ho	hue rahe hõ		(wish) that it had already happened
			f	huī rahī hū̃	huī rahī hõ	huī rahī ho	huī rahī ho	huī rahī hõ	huī rahī ho	huī rahī hõ
		future	m	huā rahū̃	hue rahẽ	huā rahe	hue raho	hue rahẽ	huā rahe	hue rahẽ		(wish) that it would happen
			f	huī rahū̃	huī rahẽ	huī rahe	huī raho	huī rahẽ	huī rahe	huī rahẽ
	Progressive	present	m	hotā rahā hū̃	hote rahe hõ	hotā rahā ho	hote rahe ho	hote rahe hõ	hotā rahā ho	hote rahe hõ		(wish) that it has kept happening
			f	hotī rahī hū̃	hotī rahī hõ	hotī rahī ho	hotī rahī ho	hotī rahī hõ	hotī rahī ho	hotī rahī hõ
Contrafactual	Habitual	present & past	m	hotā rehtā hotā	hote rehte hote	hotā rehtā hotā	hote rehte hote	hote rehte hote	hotā rehtā hotā	hote rehte hote		[if (condition), then] it would have kept happening (wish) that it kept happening (habitually)
			f	hotī rehtī hotī	hotī rehtī hotī̃	hotī rehtī hotī	hotī rehtī hotī	hotī rehtī hotī̃	hotī rehtī hotī	hotī rehtī hotī̃
	Perfective	present & past	m	huā rahā hotā	hue rahe hote	huā rahā hotā	hue rahe hote	hue rahe hote	huā rahā hotā	hue rahe hote		[if (condition) then)] it would have already happened (wish) it had already happened
			f	huī rahī hotī	huī rahī hotī̃	huī rahī hotī	huī rahī hotī	huī rahī hotī̃	huī rahī hotī	huī rahī hotī̃
	Progressive	present & past	m	hotā rahā hotā	hote rahe hote	hotā rahā hotā	hote rahe hote	hote rahe hote	hotā rahā hotā	hote rahe hote		[if (condition) then] it would have already kept happening (wish) that it had kept happening
			f	hotī rahī hotī	hotī rahī hotī̃	hotī rahī hotī	hotī rahī hotī	hotī rahī hotī̃	hotī rahī hotī	hotī rahī hotī̃
Presumptive	Habitual	present & past	m	hotā rehtā hūŋgā	hote rehte hoŋgē	hotā rehtā hogā	hote rehte hoge	hote rehte hoge	hotā rehtā hogā	hote rehte hoŋgē		it presumably keeps happening (present) it presumably used to keep happening (past)
			f	hotī rehtī hūŋgī	hotī rehtī hoŋgī	hotī rehtī hogī	hotī rehtī hogī	hotī rehtī hoŋgī	hotī rehtī hogī	hotī rehtī hoŋgī
	Perfective	present & past	m	huā rehtā hūŋgā	hue rehte hoŋgē	huā rehtā hogā	hue rehte hoge	hue rehte hoŋgē	huā rehtā hogā	hue rehte hoŋgē		it presumably already stays happened
			f	huī rehtĩ hūŋgī	huī rehtī hoŋgī	huī rehtī hogī	huī rehtī hogī	huī rehtī hoŋgī	huī rehtī hogī	huī rehtī hoŋgī
	Progressive	present & past	m	hotā rahā hūŋgā	hote rahe hoŋgē	hotā rahā hogā	hote rahe hoge	hote rahe hoŋgē	hotā rahā hogā	hote rahe hoŋgē		it presumably had stayed happening
			f	hotā rahā hūŋgā	hote rahe hoŋgī	hotī rahā hogī	hotī rahī hogī	hote rahe hoŋgī	hotī rahā hogī	hote rahe hoŋgī
Imperative	Habitual	present	m	–	–	hotā reh	hotē raho	hotē rahiyē	hotā rahē	hotē rahē̃		keep being! (now)
			f			hotī reh	hotī raho	hotī rahiyē	hotī rahē	hotī rahē̃
		future	m	–	–	hotā rahiyo	hotē rehnā	hotē rahiyēga	hotā rahē	hotē rahē̃		keep being! (in the future also.)
			f			hotī rahiyo	hotī rehnā	hotī rahiyēga	hotī rahē	hotī rahē̃
	Perfective	present	m	–	–	huā reh	huē raho	huē rahiyē	huā rahē	huē rahē̃		stay happened! [english has no proper translation]
			f			huī reh	huī raho	huī rahiyē	huī rahē	huī rahē̃
		future	m	–	–	huē rahiyo	huē rehnā	huē rahiyēga	huā rahē	huē rahē̃		be happened! [english has no proper translation]
			f			huī rahiyo	huī rehnā	huī rahiyēga	huī rahē	huī rahē̃

Note:

• The perfective progressive refers to an already ongoing continued action. For example, "khaṛā huā rahā hai" (he has stayed standing) [lit. he has stayed stood (up)], "baiṭhā rahā hai" (he has stayed sitting) [lit. he has stayed sat (down)]. Not all verbs can be put into a preterite continuous aspect.
• The progressive habitual refers to a state that has started some time in the past and continues to some point at the past, the present or some point in the future (definite or indefinite). "bādal garajte rahe the us din" (the clouds had kept thundering that day.)
• The habitual continuous refers to an action that happens habitually and continuously. "vo girtā rehtā hai" (he keeps on falling. (regularly, habitually))

Adjectival Participle

Although there is no continuous aspect in Hindustani, however such forms which convey solely continuity (and not progressivity) of an action or a state can be constructed by converting the verbs (which are not already compound verbs) into compound verbs which express continued state.[8][10] The process is shown below:

1. baiṭhnā (to sit) → baiṭhā honā (to be sitting) → baiṭhā huā (adjectival form) → baiṭhā huā honā (to be sitting) [continuous action form of verb]
2. khaṛā honā (to be standing) → khaṛā huā (adjectival form) → khaṛā huā honā (to be standing) [continuous action form of verb]
3. marnā (to die) → marā honā (to be dead) → marā huā (adjectival form) → marā huā honā (to be dead) [continuous action form of verb]
4. honā (to happen) → huā honā (to have happened) → huā huā (adjectival form) → huā huā honā (to have happened) [continuous action form of verb]
5. karnā (to do) → kiyā honā (to have done) → kiyā huā (adjectival form) → kiyā huā honā (to have done) [continuous action form of verb]

The adjectival forms, for example, "kiyā huā" means "done", "chalā huā" means "walked", "marā huā" means "dead". Using them with nouns such as "kiyā huā kām" translates as "the done work" (lit. the work which is done), "chalā huā baccā" translates as "the walked boy" (lit. the boy who has walked), "marā huā phūl" translates as "the dead flower" (lit. the flower which is dead). Adding the copula after the adjectival forms would convert the adjectival to its continued action form verb.

When this adjective construction is used used with the copula following it, the whole structure together conveys the continuity of the adjectival state. For example, "marā huā hai" would convey that "he is dead", "khaṛā huā hai" translates as "he is standing", "(shirt) pehnā huā hai" would convey "he is wearing (a shirt)" ("wearing" here is used as in not putting on but has already worn it and the action of being worn is continued.), "ṭãgā huā hai" would translate as "it is hanging."

Notes:

• The verbs above which translate to English using the copula "to be" shows that the state of action is continued to the present while when the verbs which translate with the copula "to have" in English convey that the action is done and the continued state of having being done the action is conveyed.
• The verbs above which translate to English using the copula "to be" in their non-continued action form, convey the same meaning as their continued action form of verbs, however, the verbs which translate with the copula "to have" in English do not convey a continued action in their non-continued action form. So, khaṛā hai and khaṛā huā hai both translate to "he/it is standing" and baiṭhā hai and baiṭhā huā hai both translate to "he/it is sitting". And, huā hai translates to "it has happened" but the closest translation to huā huā hai is "it has already happened" (which conveys the state of being happened continues.)

Adjectival participle conjugations
Mood	Aspect	Tense	Gender	Number and person								English Equivalent (only sg. 3rd) [he/she/it]
				1st		2nd			3rd			[note: when the "it" pronoun is to be meant in place of "he/she" the meaning of the copula changes to "to happen" or "to exist" from "to be".]
						intimate	neutral	formal	neutral		formal
				Singular	Plural	Singular	Singular & Plural		Singular	Plural	Singular & Plural
Indicative	Simple	present	m	kiyā huā hū̃	kiye hue hãĩ	kiyā huā hai	kiye hue ho	kiye hue hãĩ	kiyā huā hai	kiye hue hãĩ		it is already done
			f	kī huī hū̃	kī huī hãĩ	kī huī hai	kī huī ho	kī huī hãĩ	kī huī hai	kī huī hãĩ
		past	m	kiyā huā thā	kiye hue the	kiyā huā thā	kiye hue the	kiye hue the	kiyā huā thā	kiye hue the		it was already done
			f	kī huī thī	kī huī thī̃	kī huī thī	kī huī thī	kī huī thī̃	kī huī thī	kī huī thī̃
		future	m	kiyā huā hoūŋgā/rahūŋgā	kiyē huē hoēŋgē/rahēŋgē	kiyā huā hoēgā/rahēgā	kiyā huā ho'ogē/rahogē	kiyē huē hoēŋgē/rahēŋgē	kiyā huā hoēgā/rahēgā	kiyē huē hoēŋgē/rahēŋgē		it will be done (before a fixed time)
			f	kī huī hoūŋgī/rahūŋgī	kī huī hoēŋgī/rahēŋgī	kī huī hoēgī/rahēgī	kī huī ho'ogī/rahogī	kī huī hoēŋgī/rahēŋgī	kī huī hoēgī/rahēgī	kī huī hoēŋgī/rahēŋgī
	Habitual	present	m	kiyā huā rehtā hū̃	kiye hue rehte hãĩ	kiyā huā rehtā hai	kiye hue rehte ho	kiye hue rehte hãĩ	kiyā huā rehtā hai	kiye hue rehte hãĩ		it is habitually always done (before a fixed time)
			f	kī huī rehtī hū̃	kī huī rehtī hãĩ	kī huī rehtī hai	kī huī rehtī ho	kī huī rehtī hãĩ	kī huī rehtī hai	kī huī rehtī hãĩ
		past	m	kiyā huā rehtā thā	kiye hue rehte the	kiyā huā rehtā thā	kiye hue rehte the	kiye hue rehte the	kiyā huā rehtā thā	kiye hue rehte the		it was habitually always done (before a fixed time)
			f	kī huī rehtī thī	kī huī rehtī thī̃	kī huī rehtī thī	kī huī rehtī thī	kī huī rehtī thī̃	kī huī rehtī thī	kī huī rehtī thī̃
Subjunctive	Simple	present	m	kiyā huā hū̃	kiye hue hõ	kiyā huā ho	kiye hue ho	kiye hue hõ	kiyā huā ho	kiye hue hõ		(wish) that it be done (before a fixed time)
			f	kī huī hū̃	kī huī hõ	kī huī ho	kī huī ho	kī huī hõ	kī huī ho	kī huī hõ
		future	m	kiyā huā hoū̃/rahū̃	kiye hue hoẽ/rahẽ	kiyā huā hoe/rahe	kiye hue ho'o/raho	kiye hue hoẽ/rahẽ	kiyā huā hoe/rahe	kiye hue hoẽ/rahẽ		(wish) that it become done (before a fixed time)
			f	kī huī hoū̃/rahū̃	kī huī hoẽ/rahẽ	kī huī hoe/rahe	kī huī ho'o/raho	kī huī hoẽ/rahẽ	kī huī hoe/rahe	kī huī hoẽ/rahẽ
	Habitual	present	m	kiyā huā rehtā hū̃	kiye hue rehte hõ	kiyā huā rehtā ho	kiye hue rehte ho	kiye hue rehte hõ	kiyā huā rehtā ho	kiye hue rehte hõ		(wish) that it keeps being done (before a fixed time) habitually
			f	kī huī rehtī hū̃	kī huī rehtī hõ	kī huī rehtī ho	kī huī rehtī ho	kī huī rehtī hõ	kī huī rehtī ho	kī huī rehtī hõ
Contrafactual	Simple	present & past	m	kiyā huā hotā/rehtā	kiye hue hote/rehte	kiyā huā hotā/rehtā	kiye hue hote/rehte	kiye hue hote/rehte	kiyā huā hotā/rehtā	kiye hue hote/rehte		[if (condition), then] it would have been done (before a fixed time) (wish) that it were done (before a fixed time)
			f	kī huī hotī/rehtī	kī huī hotī̃/rehtī̃	kī huī hotī/rehtī	kī huī hotī/rehtī	kī huī hotī̃/rehtī̃	kī huī hotī/rehtī	kī huī hotī̃/rehtī̃
Presumptive	Simple	present & past	m	kiyā huā hūŋgā	kiyā huā hoŋgē	kiyā huā hogā	kiyā huā hogē	kiyā huā hoŋgē	kiyā huā hogā	kiyā huā hoŋgē		it presumably might be have already been done
			f	kī huī hūŋgī	kī huī hoŋgī	kī huī hogī	kī huī hogī	kī huī hoŋgī	kī huī hogī	kī huī hoŋgī
Imperative	Simple	present	m	–	–	kiyā huā reh	kiye huē raho	kiye huē rahiyē	kiye huā rahē	kiye huē rahē̃		stay done! [english has no proper translation]
			f			kī huī reh	kī huī raho	kī huī rahiyē	kī huī rahē	kī huī rahē̃
		future	m	–	–	kiyā huā rahiyo	kiyē huē rehnā	kiyē huē rahiyēga	kiyā huā rahē	kiyē huē rahē̃		be done! [english has no proper translation]
			f			kī huī rahiyo	kī huī rehnā	kī huī rahiyēga	kī huī rahē	kī huī rahē̃

Verb Forms

A summary of all verb forms is given in the tables below. The sample verb is intransitive dauṛnā "to run", and the sample inflection is 3rd. masc. sg. (^P = e, ^A = ā) where applicable.

	Non-aspectual	Aspectual
Non-finite	Root * dauṛ Infinitive/ Gerund/ Obligatory *-nā, *-ne, *-nī, *-nī̃ dauṛnā, dauṛne, dauṛnī, dauṛnī̃ Oblique Infinitive *-ne dauṛne Conjunctive *-kar, *-ke dauṛkar, dauṛke Progressive Participle *-te-*-te dauṛte-dauṛte Agentive *-ne vāl-^A, *-nevāl-^A dauṛne vālā, dauṛnevālā Prospective Participle	Adjectival. Perfective *-^A (hu-^A) dauṛā (huā) Imperfective *-t-^A (hu-^A) dauṛtā (huā) Adverbial. Obl. of adjectival. Imperfective *-t-e (hu-e) dauṛte hue
Finite	Contingent Future *-^P dauṛe Definite Future *-^P-g-^A dauṛegā Imperatives[42] Intimate * dauṛ Familiar *-o dauṛo Polite *-iye dauṛiye Initimate Deferred *-iyo dauṛiyo Familiar Deferred *-nā dauṛnā Polite Deferred *-iyegā dauṛiyegā	Aspectuals plotted against copulas. Perfective Habitual Continuous *-^A *-t-^A * rah-^A Present Perfect h-? dauṛā hai dauṛtā hai dauṛ rahā hai Past Perfect th-^A dauṛā thā dauṛtā thā dauṛ rahā thā Subjunctive ho-^P dauṛā ho dauṛtā ho dauṛ rahā ho Presumptive ho-^P g-^A dauṛā hogā dauṛtā hogā dauṛ rahā hogā Contrafactual ho-t-^A dauṛā hotā dauṛtā hotā dauṛ rahā hotā Unspecified dauṛā dauṛtā

Notes

• Much of the above chart information derives from Masica (1991:292–294, 323–325).
• The future tense is formed by adding the suffix gā (~ ge ~ gī) to the subjunctive, which is a contraction of gaā (= gayā, perfective participle of jānā "to go").[39] The future suffix, conjunctive participle, and suffix vālā are treated as bound morphemes in written Hindi, but as separate words in written Urdu.[26]
• ^ The present copula (h-?) seems not to follow along the lines of the regular ^P system of terminations; while the subjunctive copula (ho-^P) is thoroughly irregular. So here are all of their forms.

Indicative and Subjunctive moods for the verb honā [43]

		Singular			Plural
		1st.	2nd.	3rd.	1st.	2nd.		3rd.
Pronoun		mãĩ	tū	ye/vo	ham	tum	āp	ye/vo
Indicative Mood		hū̃	hai		hãĩ	ho	hãĩ
Subjunctive Mood	Present	hū̃	ho		hõ	ho	hõ
	Future	hoū̃	hoe		hoẽ	ho'o	hoẽ

• For the 1. subj. sg. copula Schmidt (2003:324) and Snell & Weightman (1989:113, 125) list hū̃ while Shapiro (2003:267) lists hoū̃.
• Shapiro (2003:268) lists the polite imperative ending as -iye, while Schmidt (2003:330) lists it as -ie but -iye after ā, o, ū.
• The euphonic glide y is inserted in perfective participles between prohibited vowel clusters. It is historically the remnant of the old perfective marker.[44] The clusters are a + ā, ā + ā, o + ā, and ī + ā, resulting in āyā, ayā, oyā, iyā.[45] e.g. khāyā/khāye/khāī/khāī̃ (khā- "eat").
• In addition, the combinations ī + ī and i + ī give ī.[45] e.g. piyā/piye/pī/pī̃ (pī- "drink").
• As stated, agreement in the transitive perfective is with the direct object, with the erstwhile subject taking the ergative postposition ne. If however the direct object takes the postposition ko (marking definiteness), or if no direct object is expressed, then agreement neutralises to default m. sg. -ā.[46]
• Is this regard, there are a small number of verbs that while perhaps logically transitive still do not take ne and continue to agree with the subject, in the perfective. e.g. lānā "to bring", bhūlnā "to forget", milnā "to meet", etc.
• Besides supplying the copulas, honā "to be" can be used aspectually: huā "happened, became"; hotā "happens, becomes, is"; ho rahā "happening, being".
• -ke can be used as a colloquial alternative to -kar for the conjunctive participle of any verb.
• Hindustani displays a very small number of irregular forms, spelled out in the cells below.

Verb	Root	Perfective Stem [45]	Perfective Forms				Imperative[47]		Subjunctive. Stem [48]		Subjunctive Forms
							Familar	Polite
			Masculine Singular	Masculine Plural	Feminine Singular	Feminine Plural					Singular			Plural
											1st	2nd	3rd	2nd		3rd	1st
											mãĩ	tū	ye/vo	tum	āp	ye/vo	ham
honā "to happen"	ho-	hu-	huā	hue	huī̃	huī̃	ho		present subjunctive	h-	hū̃	ho		ho	hõ
									future subjunctive	ho-	hoū̃	hoe		ho'o	hoẽ
jānā "to go"	jā-	ga-	gayā	gaye	gayī	gayī̃	jā		jā		jāū̃	jāe		jāo	jāē̃
karnā "to do"	kar-	ki-	kiyā	kiye	kī	kī̃	kar	kījie	kar		karū̃	kare		karo	karē̃
denā "to give"	de-	di-	diyā	diye	dī	dī̃	do	dījie	d-		dū̃	de		do	dē̃
lenā "to take"	le-	li-	liyā	liye	lī	lī̃	lo	lījie	l-		lū̃	le		lo	lē̃
pīnā "to drink"	pī-	pi-	piyā	piye	pī	pī̃	piyo	pījie	pi-		piyū̃	piye		piyo	piyē̃

• The irregular forms are underlined. in the above table.

• There are two subjunctive stems for the verb honā, one being regular and the other being irregular. The regular set is the future subjunctive forms and the regular ones are the as the present subjunctive forms. honā is the only verb in Hindi to have distinct forms for the future and the present subjunctive, for all other forms there is one common subjunctive form which is used as both the present and the future subjunctive.

• ^ However, it is jā- that is used as the perfective stem in the rare instance of an intransitive verb like jānā being expressed passively, such as in a passivized imperative/subjunctive construction: ghar jāyā jāe? "Shall [we] go home?" (lit. "Shall home be gone to [by us]?").[49]

Set of Related Verbs

Transitives are morphologically contrastive in Hindustani, leading to the existence of related verb sets divisible along such lines. While the derivation of such forms shows patterns, they do reach a level of variegation so as to make it somewhat difficult to outline all-encompassing rules. Furthermore, some sets may have as many as four to five distinct members; also, the meaning of certain members of given sets may be idiosyncratic.[50] There are five verb forms that a verb in Hindustani can have —

1. Self Action Form - conveys that the action by the verb was unintentional or happened automatically. It is always intransitive.
2. Direct Action Form - conveys that the action of the verb was done by the subject of the sentence.
3. Indirect Action Form - conveys that the subject of the verb made the direct object of the sentence do the action of the verb.
4. Reflexive Action Form - conveys that the subject of the sentence was the receiver of the action of the verb done by the direct object of the sentence.
5. Causative Form - conveys that the subject of the sentence is the cause for the end result of the action of the verb.

The Indirect Action form and the Reflexive Action Form are always the same. Also, for many verbs the Direct Transitive is same as the Indirect & Reflexive Action form. Hence, there are either three or four unique verb action forms forms in total depending on the verb.

Starting from self-action or the direct transitive verb stems further transitive/causative stems are produced according to these following assorted rules —

1	Root Vowel Change: a → ā u / ū → o i / ī → e. Sometimes accompanied by root final consonant change: k → c ṭ → ṛ l → Ø.
2	Suffixation of -ā. Often accompanied by: Root vowel change: ū/o → u, e/ai/ā/ī → i. Insertion of semivowel l between such vowel-terminating stems.
3	Suffixation of -vā (in place of -ā if and where it would occur) for a "causative".

The majority of the following are sets culled from Shapiro (2003:270) and Snell & Weightman (1989:243–244). The lack of self action forms for the verb sets for khānā and kehnā implies that there is no such single-word form for such verbs, however, the equivalent self action forms can be constructed making use of double stemmed compound verbs. Self Action form for khānā (to eat) is xā liyā jānā, and for kehnā (to speak/talk) is either keh liyā jānā or keh diyā jānā, for sīkhnā (to learn) is sīkh liyā jānā. The word liyā (from the verb lenā "to take") means the action was done for the benefit of the subject of the sentence, while the word diyā (from the verb denā "to give") signifies that the action was done for the benefit of the object of the sentence.

• In the causative model of "to cause to be Xed", the agent takes the postposition se. Thus Y se Z banvānā "to cause Z to be made by Y" = "to cause Y to make Z" = "to have Z made by Y" = "to have Y make Z", etc.

Verb Forms for Different Transitivities

	Self Action Form	Translation	Direct Action Form	Translation	Indirect Action & Reflexive Form	Translation	Causative Form	Translation
0.	honā	to happen	karnā	to do	karānā	1. to get oneself (be) done 2. to make someone/thing do (something)	karvānā	to cause to be done
1.	girnā	to fall	girānā	to make someone fall	girānā	1. to make oneself (be) fallen 2. to make someone make (someone/something) fall	girvānā	to cause to be fallen
2.	bannā	to be prepared to become	banānā	to prepare (something)	banānā	1. to get oneself (be) made something 2. to make someone make (something)	banvānā	to cause to be made
3.	khulnā	to be opened	kholnā	to open (something)	khulanā	1. to get oneself (be) opened 2. to make someone open (something)	khulvānā	to cause to be opened
4.	-	-	sīkhnā	to learn (something)	sikhānā	1. to get oneself (be) taught 2. to make someone learn (something)	sikhvānā	to cause to be taught
5.	-	-	khānā	to eat (something)	khilānā	1. to get oneself (be) eaten 2. to make someone eat (something) / to feed	khilvānā	to cause to be eaten
6.	biknā	to be sold	becnā/beknā	to sell (something)	becānā/bekānā	1. to get oneself (be) sold 2. to make someone sell (something)	bikvānā/bekvānā	to cause to be sold
7.	dikhnā	to be seen	dekhnā	to see (something)	dikhānā	1. to show oneself 2. to show someone (something)	dikhvānā	to cause to be shown
8.	-	-	kehnā	to say/tell (something)	kahānā/kehlānā	1. to be called (some name) 2. to make someone tell (something)	kehvānā/kehelvānā	to cause to be told/called (a name)
15.	-	-	bolnā	to speak (something)	bulānā	1. to get oneself called (for your presence by somenone) 2. to call for someone's presence	bulvānā	to cause to be called for someone's presence
9.	ghumnā	to be spun around	ghūmnā	to spin around	ghumānā	1. to get oneself (be) spun around 2. to make something (be) spin (something)	ghumvānā	to cause to be spun around
10.	liṭnā	to be laid down	leṭnā	to lie (down)	leṭānā	1. to get oneself (be) laid down 2. to make someone lie (something) down	leṭvānā	to cause to be laid down
11.	biṭhnā	to be sitten down	baiṭhānā	to make someone sit	baiṭhānā	1. to get onself sat down 2. to make someone sit down	baiṭhvānā	to cause to be made to sit
12.	sulnā	to be made slept	sonā	to sleep	sulānā	1. to get oneself (be) slept 2. to make someone sleep	sulvānā	to cause to be made to sleep
13.	dhulnā	to be washed	dhonā	to wash (something)	dhulānā	1. to get oneself (be) washed 2. to make someone wash (something)	dhulvānā	to cause to be washed
14.	ṭūṭnā	to be broken	ṭornā	to break (something)	ṭurānā	1. to get oneself (be) broken 2. to make someone break (something)	ṭurvānā	to cause to be made broken

Compound Verbs and Verbal Aspects

Compound verbs, a highly visible feature of Hindi–Urdu grammar, consist of a verbal stem plus an auxiliary verb. The auxiliary (also called "subsidiary", "explicator verb", and "vector"[51]) loses its own independent meaning and instead "lends a certain shade of meaning"[52] to the main or stem verb, which "comprises the lexical core of the compound".[51] While almost any verb can act as a main verb, there is a limited set of productive auxiliaries.[53] Shown below are prominent such auxiliaries, with their independent meaning first outlined, followed by their semantic contribution as auxiliaries. Finally, having to do with the manner of an occurrence, compounds verbs are mostly used with completed actions and imperatives, and much less with negatives, conjunctives, and contexts continuous or speculative. This is because non-occurrences cannot be described to have occurred in a particular manner.[54] The auxiliaries when combined with the main verb changes the aspect of the main verb it modifies. Auxiliary verbs such as jānā "to go", ānā "to come", cuknā when combined with the main verb give the formed compound verb a perfective aspect, while retaining the original meaning of the main verb.

Perfective Aspect Compound Verbs

Auxiliary Verb	Explanation	Main Verb	Compound Verbs
jānā "to go"	Shows perfective aspect of the main verb which means gives a sense of completeness of the action, finality, or change of state.[55]	1. ānā "to come" 2. khānā "to eat" 3. marnā "to die" 4. pīnā "to drink" 5. baiṭhnā "to sit" 6. honā "to happen"	1. ā jānā "to arrive" " to have come" 2. khā jānā "to eat up (all/everything/completely)" 3. mar jānā "to be dead" 4. pī jānā "to drink up (all/everything/completely)" "to gulp" 5. baiṭh jānā "to sit down" "to have sit down" 6. honā jānā "to have happened (completely)" "to have finished happening"
lenā "to take"	suggests that the action is completed and the benefit of the action flows towards the doer.[54] This auxiliary verb can also to used to soften down the tone of imperatives (commands) and usually is used to give sugesstions.	1. paṛhnā 2. karnā 3. calnā 4. mārnā	1. paṛh lenā "to read (for oneself/for own's desire)" 2. kar lenā "to do (something fully for oneself)" "to have finished doing something" 3. cal lenā "to have walked" 4. mār lenā "to (try to) kill (oneself)"
denā "to give"	suggests that the action was completde and the benefit of the action flows away from the doer.[54]	1. paṛhnā 2. mārnā 3. karnā	1. paṛh denā "to read (for someone)" "to read out" 2. mār denā "to kill", "to kill off", "to murder" 3. kār denā "to do (something completely for someone else and not oneself)"
ānā "to come"	Shows perfective aspect of the main verb which means gives a sense of completeness of the action, finality, or change of state. The meaning conveyed is the doer went somewhere to do something and came back after completing the action.	1. karnā	1. kar ānā "to finish (and come back)", "to do (and return)";
cuknā "to have completed somthing"	Shows sense of completness of an action in the past, that the action was already done/finished/completed by the doer sometime in the past. Note: this verb cuknā doesn't have any translatable meaning when used by itself. It just adds meaning to other verbs.	1. marnā 2. jītnā	1. mar cuknā "to have already died" 2. jīt cuknā "to have already won"

The first three auxiliaries in the above table are the most common of auxiliaries, and the "least marked", or "lexically nearly colourless".[56] The nuance conveyed by an auxiliary can often be very subtle, and need not always be expressed with different words in English translation. lenā and denā, transitive verbs, occur with transitives, while intransitive jānā occurs mostly with intransitives; a compound of a transitive and jānā will be grammatically intransitive as jānā is.

	Explanation
ḍālnā "to throw, pour"	Indicates an action done vigorously, decisively, violently or recklessly;[57] it is an intensifier, showing intensity, urgency, completeness, or violence.[58]	1. mārnā "to hit/ kill" → mār ḍālnā "to kill (violently)" 2. pīnā "to drink" → pī ḍālnā "to drink (hastily)".
baiṭhnā "to sit"	Implies an action done foolishly or stubbornly;[59] shows speaker disapproval or an impulsive or involuntary action.[58]	1. kehnā "to say" → keh baiṭhnā "to say something (involuntarily or by mistake)" 2. karnā "to do" → kar baiṭhnā "to do (something as a blunder)" 3. laṛnā "to fight" → laṛ baiṭhnā "to quarrel (foolishly, or without giving it second thought)".
paṛnā "to sudenly fall" "to lie flat"	Connotes involuntary, sudden, or unavoidable occurrence;[56]	1. uṭhnā "to get up" → uṭh paṛnā "to suddenly get up"
uṭhnā "to rise"	Functions like an intensifier;[60] suggests inception of action or feeling, with its independent/literal meaning sometimes showing through in a sense of upward movement.	1. jalnā "to burn" → jal uṭhnā "to burst into flames" 2. nacnā "to dance" → nac uṭhnā "to break into dance".[59]
saknā "to be able to"	A modal verb that indicates the capability of performing an action.	1. karnā "to do" → kar saknā "to be able to do" 2. dekhnā "to see" → dekh sakhnā "to be able to see"
rakhnā "to keep, maintain"	Implies a firmness of action, or one with possibly long-lasting results or implications;[61] occurs with lenā and denā, meaning "to give/take (as a loan)", and with other appropriate verbs, showing an action performed beforehand.[58] It usually works almost the same as cuknā the main difference being the nuance conveyed by rakhnā is that the action has either "continued effect till the present time" or "is more recent than the same action conveyed using the cuknā.". cuknā signifies distant past.	1. dekhnā "to see" → dekh rakhnā "to have already seen."
rahnā "to remain/stay"	The continuous aspect marker rahā apparently originated as a compound verb with rahnā ("remain"): thus mãĩ bol rahā hū̃ = "I have remained speaking" → "I have continued speaking" → "I am speaking". However, it has lost the ability to take any form other than the imperfective, and is thus considered to have become grammaticalized.[62]

Finally, having to do with the manner of an occurrence, compounds verbs are mostly used with completed actions and imperatives, and much less with negatives, conjunctives, and contexts continuous or speculative. This is because non-occurrences cannot be described to have occurred in a particular manner.[54]

Conjuncts

Another notable aspect of Hindi–Urdu grammar is that of "conjunct verbs", composed of a noun or adjective paired up with a general verbaliser, most commonly transitive karnā "to do" or intransitive honā "to be", "to happen", functioning in the place of what in English would be single unified verb. All conjunct verbs formed using karnā are transitive verbs and all conjunct verbs formed using the verb honā are intransitive verbs.

In the case of an adjective as the non-verbal element, it is often helps to think of karnā "to do" as supplementarily having the senses of "to cause to be", "to make", "to render", etc.

Adjective	Conjunct	Literal	Meaning
sāf "clean"	sāf karnā	to do clean	to clean
niyukt/muqarrar "appointed"	niyukt/muqarrar karnā	to do appointed	to appoint
band "closed"	band honā	to be closed	to close (intransitive)
xatam "finished"	xatam honā	to be finished	to finish (intransitive)

In the case of a noun as the non-verbal element, it is treated syntactically as the verb's (direct) object (never taking the ko marker; governing agreement in perfective and infinitival constructions), and the semantic patient (or agent: see gālī khānā below) of the conjunct verbal expression is often expressed/marked syntactically as a genitive adjunct (-kā ~ ke ~ kī) of the noun.[63]

Noun	Conjunct	Conjunct + patient	Literal	Meaning
intezār "wait"	intezār karnā	kisī kā intezār karnā	to do somebody's wait	to wait for somebody
istemāl "use"	istemāl karnā	fon kā istemāl karnā	to do a phone's use	to use a phone
bāt "talk"	bāt karnā	samīr kī bāt karnā	to do Sameer's talk	to talk about Sameer
gālī "cuss/bad word"	gālī khānā	sanam kī gālī khānā	to eat a lover's curse	to be cursed out by one's lover
tasvīr "picture"	tasvīr khīñcnā/khicvānā	Ibrāhīm kī tasvīr khīñcnā/khicvānā	to pull Ibrahim's picture	to take Ibrahim's picture

With English it is the verb stems themselves that are used. All English loan words are used by forming compound verbs in Hindi by using either honā (intransitive) or karnā (transitive).

English Verb	Hindi Verb Stem	Conjuncts	Meaning
check	cêk	cêk honā	to be/get checked
		cêk karnā	to check (someone/something)
bore	bor	bor honā	to be/get bored
		bor karnā	to bore (someone)
apply	aplāi	aplāi honā	to be/get applied
		aplāi karnā	to apply (for something)

Passive

The passive construction is periphrastic. It is formed from the perfective participle by addition of the auxiliary jānā "to go"; i.e. likhnā "to write" → likhā jānā "to be written". The agent is marked by the postposition se. Furthermore, both intransitive and transitive verbs may be grammatically passivized to show physical/psychological incapacity, usually in negative sentences. Lastly, intransitives often have a passive sense, or convey unintentional action.[64]

Syntax

Word Order

Default word order of Hindustani is SOV. However, it is neither purely left-branching nor right-branching, and phenomena of both types can be found. The order of constituents in sentences as a whole lacks governing "hard and fast rules", and frequent deviations can be found from normative word position, describable in terms of a small number of rules, accounting for facts beyond the pale of the label of "SOV".[65]

• Subject precedes the direct object of the sentence if both the dative and the accusative case marks the objects of a sentence. Prescriptively, the relative position is fixed in order to make it unambiguous which is the direct object and which is the in-direct object in the sentence as both the dative case and the accusative case is the same in Hindustani and are marked by the same postposition -ko.
• Attributive adjectives precede the noun they qualify by default, but can also be placed after the noun, doing that usually makes the sentence sound either more poetic or gives as stronger emphasises on the attribute that the adjective describes.
• Adverbs precede the adjectives they qualify.
• Negative markers (nahī̃, na, mat) and interrogatives precede the verb by default but can also appear after it, however the position for negation can be more flexible and the negation can occur before or after the auxiliary verbs too if the sentence has an auxiliary verb. Whenever the negation comes after the verbs instead of before the verb, it always emphasises the negation. The negation can never come before a noun.
• kyā ("what?") as the yes-no question marker occurs at the beginning or the end of a clause as its default position but it usually can be put anywhere in the sentence where it cannot be interpreted as the its original meaning "what".

Hindustani is a free word order language, in the sense that word order does not usually signal grammatical functions in the language.[66] In the example below, it is shown that all word orders make sense for simple sentences, which do not have adjectives, negations and adverbs. As a general rule, whatever information comes first in the sentence gets emphasised and the information which appears at the end of a sentence gets emphasised the least. [67][68]

mãĩ = I [1P.NOM] baccā = kid [ACC] hū̃ = is [be.1P.SG]					mujhe [1P.DAT] karnā [do.INF] hai [be.3P.SG]
	Sentence	Literal	Translation		Sentence	Literal	Translation
1.	mãĩ baccā hū̃	[I] [kid] [am]	I am a kid.	2.	mujhe karnā hai	[to me] [to do] [is]	I have/want to do [it].
	mãĩ hū̃ baccā	[I] [am] [kid]			mujhe hai karnā	[to me] [is] [to do]
	baccā mãĩ hū̃	[kid] [I] [am]			karnā mujhe hai	[to do] [to me] [is]
	baccā hū̃ mãĩ	[kid] [am] [I]			karnā hai mujhe	[to do] [is] [to do]
	hū̃ mãĩ baccā	[am] [I] [kid]			hai mujhe karnā	[is] [to me] [to do]
	hū̃ baccā mãĩ	[am] [kid] [I]			hai karnā mujhe	[is] [to do] [to me]

As long as both dative and the accusative case are not used in the sentence, the word order flexibility remains. For example, in the table below the locative and the accusative case is used in the same sentence, the word order is flexible because the markers for the locative and the accusative cases are different but in Hindustani, the marker for the accusative and the dative case are the same, which is ko for nouns and the oblique case pronouns or they have their own unique pronoun forms which are the same for dative and the accusative case. [68]

Translation: He/She wants/have to go [up] on that.

use = he/she/it [3P.DAT] | uspe = on that [3P.LOC] | jān̄ā = to go [INF] | hai = is [be.3P.SG]
use uspe jānā hai	uspe use jān̄ā hai	jān̄ā use uspe hai	hai use uspe jān̄ā
use uspe hai jānā	uspe use hai jān̄ā	jān̄ā use hai uspe	hai use jān̄ā uspe
use jānā hai uspe	uspe hai use jān̄ā	jān̄ā hai use uspe	hai jān̄ā use uspe
use jānā uspe hai	uspe hai jān̄ā use	jān̄ā hai uspe use	hai jān̄ā uspe use
use hai uspe jān̄ā	uspe jān̄ā hai use	jān̄ā uspe use hai	hai uspe use jān̄ā
use hai jān̄ā uspe	uspe jān̄ā use hai	jān̄ā uspe hai use	hai uspe jān̄ā use
Note: All word orders make sense but each one has its own nuance and specific context of usage.

Usage of Dative/Accusative Noun + Accusative/Dative Pronoun

When noun and pronoun are used together in a sentence and one is in accusative case while the other is in the dative case, there is no way to differentiate which one is which just by looking at the sentence. Usually in such cases, owing to the default word order of Hindi (which is SOV) which noun/pronoun comes earlier in the sentence becomes the subject of the sentence and what comes later becomes the object of the sentence.

1. use[3P.ACC] kutte-ko[dog.DAT] do[give.IMP.2P]
2. use[3P.DAT] kutte-ko[dog.ACC] do[give.IMP.2P]
use kutte-ko do	Either "Give it/him/her to the dog." or "Give the dog to it/him/her." (Prescriptively, what comes first becomes the subject of the sentence)
use do kutte-ko
kutte-ko use do
kutte-ko do use
do kutte-ko use
do use kutte-ko

Usage of Dative Noun + Accusative Noun [69][66]

Nouns in Hindi are put in the dative or accusative case first having the noun in the oblique case and then by adding the postposition ko after it. However, when two nouns are used in a sentence in which one of them is in the accusative case and the other in the dative case, the sentence becomes ambiguous and stops making sense, so, to make sense of the sentence, one of the noun (which is assumed to be in the accusative case) is put into the nominative case and the other one is left as it is (in the dative case). The noun which is put into the nominative case becomes the direct object of the sentence and the other one (which is now in the Accusative case) becomes the indirect object of the sentence.

When both the nouns use the ko marker, generally, all permutations in which the nouns with the same case marker are adjacent to one another become ambiguous and convey no sense [69].

Sentence	Note	Translation
**sā̃p-ko sapere-ko do	with proper intonation it makes sense [67]	give the snake to the snake-charmer.
sā̃p-ko do sapere-ko		give the snake to the snake-charmer.
*sãpere-ko sā̃p-ko do	doesn't make sense	-
sãpere-ko do sā̃p-ko		give the snake-charmer to the snake.
**do sãpere-ko sā̃p-ko	doesn't make sense	-
**do sā̃p-ko sapere-ko	with proper intonation it makes sense	give the snake to the snake-charmer

The ko marker in front of the word sā̃p has been removed, leaving it in the nominative case. Now, it acts as the indirect object of the sentence and sãpera becomes the direct object of the sentence. The English translation becomes "Give the snake-charmer a snake." and when the opposite is done, the English translation of the sentence becomes "Give the snake a snake-charmer."

Sentence	Translation	Sentence	Translation
sā̃p sãpere-ko do	Give the snake-charmer a snake	sā̃p-ko sãpere do	Give the snake a snake-charmer
sā̃p do sãpere-ko		sā̃p-ko do sãpere
sãpere-ko sā̃p do		sãpere sā̃p-ko do
sãpere-ko do sā̃p		sãpere do sā̃p-ko
do sãpere-ko sā̃p		do sãpere sā̃p-ko
do sā̃p sãpere-ko		do sā̃p-ko sãpere

Usage of Dative Pronoun + Accusative Pronoun

When two pronouns are used in a sentence, all the sentences remain grammatically valid but the ambiguity of precisely telling the subject and the object of the sentence remains. [69] However, just as we did above, converting one the pronoun into nominative case does not work for all pronouns but only for the 3rd person pronouns and doing that for any other pronoun will leave the sentence ungrammatical and without sense. The reason that this works only for the 3rd person pronoun because these are not really the "regular" 3rd person pronouns but are instead the demonstrative pronouns. Hindustani lacks the regular 3rd person pronouns and hence compensates for them by using the demonstrative pronouns.

So, the ambiguity cannot completely be removed in this case here, unless of course it is interpreted that what comes first becomes the subject of the sentence. The English translation becomes either "Give me to that/him/her/it." or "Give me that/him/her/it." depending on which pronoun appears first in the sentence.

Sentence	Translation	Sentence	Translation
mujhe use do	Give me to that/him/her/it. or Give me that/him/her/it.	mujhe vo do	Give me that.
mujhe do use		mujhe do vo
do mujhe use		do mujhe vo
do use mujhe		do vo mujhe
use mujhe do		vo mujhe do
use do mujhe		vo do mujhe

Possession

Unlike English and many other Indo-European languages, Hindustani doesn't have a verb which directly transate to "to have" of English. Possession is reflected in Hindustani by the genitive marker kā (inflected appropriately) or the postposition ke pās ("near") and the verb honā. Possible objects of possession fall into the following three main categories in Hindustani,

1. Fundamental possessions: These are possessions that are of permanent nature, which one has not obtained but got naturally and cannot be owned. These include, family relations, body parts, etc.
2. Non-Fundamental possessions: These are possessions that one has obtained or can be owned. These include possession of any object, living beings (including humans), etc.
3. Proximal possessions: These are possessions that show that someone or something has something near themselves.

• For indicating fundamental possessions, kā appears after the subject of the possession. With personal pronouns, this requires the use of the possessive pronoun (inflected appropriately).
• For indicating non-fundamental possessions, the compound postposition ke pās (literally, "of near") is used. However, this postposition cannot ever be translated as "near", showing proximity.
• For indicating proximity of the object to the subject, the double compound postposition ke pās mẽ (literally, "of near in") is used. It translates as "nearby".

Fundamental Possessions

	Sentence	Literal	Translation	Explanation
1	merī mā̃ hai	[my] [mother] [exists]	I have a mother.	means that your mother is still alive, and hence in a fundamental way you still possess her, as in, the relationship "she is your mother" is true.
2	uskī do ā̃khẽ haĩ	[his] [two] [eyes] [exist]	He/She has two eyes.	means that a person fundamentally/naturally has two eyes. The person was born like that.
3	mere do bacce haĩ	[mine] [two] [children] [exist]	I have two children.	means you are the parent of two kids. The relationship is permenant.
4	merī nazar acchī nahī̃ hai	[mine] [vision] [good] [not] [is]	My vision is not good.	as vision is a fundamental property of a person and hence it cannot be owned and so the fundamental possesion is used.

Note: The verb honā can be translated as "to be", "to have/possess", "to exist" or "to happen" depending on the context. The third person singular and plural conjugations can be translated as "there is" and "there are" respectively.

Non-Fundamental Possessions

	Sentence	Literal	Translation	Explanation
1.	mere pās mā̃ hai	[mine] [near] [mother] [there is]	I have a mother.	means the same as the non-fundamental possesion, but with the nuance that you and your mother are physically together or close.
2.	uske pās do ā̃khẽ haĩ	[his] [near] [two] [eyes] [there are]	He/She has two eyes.	means the same as the non-fundamental possesion, but also has an additional meaning of possession of someone else's eye. [yes, creepy.]
3.	mere pās do bacce haĩ	[mine] [near] [two] [kids] [there are]	I have two kids.	means that you have kids of some other person, usually used in situations of school (teacher-student), kidnapping, etc.
4.	mere pās ek idea hai	[mine] [near] [one] [idea] [there is]	I have an idea.	means that you possess an idea. An idea occurred to you.

Note: Sometimes when talking about physical objects (including animals) both the fundamental and non-fundamental possessions are used interchangeably when the meaning conveyed in both cases doesn't lead to confusion. For example, mere do kutte haĩ and mere pās do kutte haĩ (both translating as, "I have two dogs.") are often used interchangeably when referring to pet dogs, with the sentence with the fundamental possession showing or having more emotional attachment. The reason these both are used interchangeably because it is a priori understood that the dogs in the context must be pet dogs. Same happens with the second example above on both the tables conveying the possession of eyes; it is understood that the eyes in the context are one's own. In the contexts where such a priori information is not immediately understood, these two types of possessions cannot be used interchangeably.

Proximal Possessions

	Sentence	Literal	Translation
1.	mere pās mẽ mā̃ hai	[mine] [nearby] [mother] [there is]	"Mother is near me." or, "I have mother near me."
2.	uske pās mẽ do kutte haĩ	[his] [nearby] [two] [dogs] [there are]	"There are two dogs near him/her." or, "He/She/It has two dogs near him/her/it."
3.	mere pās mẽ do bacce haĩ	[mine] [nearby] [two] [kids] [there are]	"I have two kids near me."
4.	mere pās mẽ ek ghar hai	[mine] [nearby] [one] [idea] [there is]	"I have a house near me."

Relativisation

Rather than using relative clauses after nouns, as in English, Hindustani uses correlative clauses. In Hindustani, a correlative clause can go before or after the entire clause, the adjective, the noun, the pronoun or the verb it relativises.[70]

Relative Pronouns

	Sentence	Sentence Structure	Translation	Note
1.	jo laṛkī khaṛī hai vo lambī hai.	[who].REL [girl].F.SG [stand].PTCP.F.SG [be].PRS.3P.SG. [that/she].DEM [tall].F.SG [be].PRS.3P.SG.	The girl who is standing, she is tall.	pre-noun relative clause [71]
2.	bacca jo cillātā hai bura hai.	[kid].MASC.SG. [who].REL [shout].PTCP.M.SG [be].PRS.3P.SG [bad].ADJ.MASC.SING [be].PRS.3P.SG	[The] kid who shouts is bad.	post-noun relative clause [72]
3.	vo khātā hai jo vo khātā hai.	[he].DEM [eat].PTCP.M.SG [be].PRS.3P.SG [what].REL [he].DEM [eat].PTCP.M.SG [be].PRS.3P.SG	He eats what he eats.	post-verb relative clause [70]
4.	[tum] karo jo karnā hai [tumko].	[you].DIR [do].IMP.2P.SG [what].REL [do].INF [be].PRS.3P.SG [you].DAT	Do what [you] want/have to do.	pre-verb relative clause [73]
5.	jo karo sahī karo.	[what].REL [do].IMP.2P.SG [correct].ADJ [do].IMP.2P.SG	Do correctly what(ever) you do.	pre-verb relative clause [70]
6.	acchī̃ nahī̃ haī̃ vo jo gātī̃ haī̃.	[good].ADJ.FEM.PLU [not].IND [be].PRS.3P.PLU [they].DIR.FEM. [who].REL [sing].PTCP.FEM.PLU [be].PRS.3P.PLU	Those [females] who sing are not good.	post-pronoun relative clause [74]
7.	jo tum karoge sahī karoge.	[what].REL [you].DIR [do].FUT.MASC.SG [correct].ADJ [do].FUT.MASC.SG	What(ever) you'll do, you'll do correct(ly).	pre-pronoun relative clause [73]
8.	acchī jo haī vo vo laṛkī haī.	[good].ADJ.FEM.SG [who].REL [be].PRS.3P.SG [that].REL [that].DEM [girl].DIR.SG. [be].PRS.3P.SG.	[The] girl who is good is her.	post-adjective relative clause [70]
9.	jo acchī haī vo vo laṛkī haī.	[who].REL [good].ADJ.FEM.SG [be].PRS.3P.SG [that].REL [that].DEM [girl].DIR.SG. [be].PRS.3P.SG.		pre-adjective relative clause [75]

Note:

1. The relative pronoun jo can be used as both relative "what" and relative "who".

Pre-adjective relative clauses often have two relative pronouns whenever the adjective is used relative to a noun, the first relative pronoun is the actual relative pronoun jo and the second is the demonstrative pronoun vo which doubles as the secondary relative pronoun. The sentence jo acchī haī vo laṛkī haī. also is grammatically correct but means "[the (girl)] who is good is (a) girl." (which is a redundant sentence in Hindustani) [74] and "jo acchī haī vo vo laṛkī haī." means "the girl who is good is that girl."

Case-marking and verb agreement

Hindustani has tripartite case-marking, which means that the subject in intransitive clauses, and the agent and the object in transitive clauses each can be marked by a distinct case form. The full set of case distinctions is however only realized in certain clause types.[76][77]

In intransitive clauses, the subject is in direct case. The verb displays agreement with the subject: depending on aspect and mood, the verb agrees in gender and number, and/or person and number.[76]

laṛkā

boy:DIR

kal

yesterday

āyā

come:PRF:MASC:SG

laṛkā kal āyā

boy:DIR yesterday come:PRF:MASC:SG

'The boy came yesterday.'

In transitive clauses, there are three patterns:[78]

1. Perfective clauses with animate/definite object

Fully distinctive case marking is found in perfective clauses with animate and/or definite objects. Here, the agent takes the ergative case marker ne, while the object takes the accusative case marker ko. The verb does not agree with either of the core arguments (agent and object), but is marked per default as third person masculine singular (calāyā hai).[lower-alpha 1]

laṛke=ne

boy:OBL=ERG

gāṛī=ko

car=ACC

calāyā

drive:PRF:MASC:SG

hai

be:PRES:3.SG

laṛke=ne gāṛī=ko calāyā hai

boy:OBL=ERG car=ACC drive:PRF:MASC:SG be:PRES:3.SG

'The boy has driven the car.'

2. Perfective clauses with inanimate/indefinite object

In perfective clauses with an indefinite object, the agent keeps the ergative case marker, but the object is in direct case. The verb agrees with the object: the perfective form calāyī hai is marked for feminine gender, agreeing with the gender of the object gāṛī.

laṛke=ne

boy:OBL=ERG

gāṛī

car

calāyī

drive:PRF:FEM:SG

hai

be:PRES:3.SG

laṛke=ne gāṛī calāyī hai

boy:OBL=ERG car drive:PRF:FEM:SG be:PRES:3.SG

'The boy has driven the car.'

3. Non-perfective clauses

In all other clause types, the agent is in direct case and triggers agreement on the verb. The object is either in direct case or accusative case, depending on animacy/definiteness

laṛkā

boy:DIR

gāṛī

car:DIR

calātā

drive:IMPF:MASC:SG

hai

be:PRES:3.SG

laṛkā gāṛī calātā hai

boy:DIR car:DIR drive:IMPF:MASC:SG be:PRES:3.SG

'The boy drives a car.'

The following table summarises the three case-marking and agreement types.

		Case marking			Verb agreement
		S*	A	O	intransitive	transitive
Perfective clauses	definite object	direct	ergative	accusative	with S	none
	indefinite object	direct	ergative	direct	with S	with O
Non-perfective clauses		direct	direct	direct/accusative	with S	with A
*S is the subject in intransitive clauses. A and O are the agent and the object in transitive clauses, respectively.

Notes

1. In the sample clause, the agent happens to be masculine singular, but the verb would not change even if the agent were plural or feminine.

See Also

• Urdu Language
• Hindi Language
• Hindi Verbs
• Urdu alphabet
• Devanagari
• Devanagari transliteration
• Hindustani Phonology

References

1. Shapiro (2003:258)
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Bibliography

• Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.
• Schmidt, Ruth Laila (2003), "Urdu", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 286–350, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
• McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1995), Outline of Hindi Grammar (third ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 0-19-870008-3.
• Shapiro, Michael C. (2003), "Hindi", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 250–285, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
• Snell, Rupert; Weightman, Simon (1989), Teach Yourself Hindi (2003 ed.), McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-142012-9.

Further reading

• Shakespear, John, (1775-1858). An introduction to the Hindustani language comprising a grammar, and a vocabulary, English and Hindustani : also short stories and dialogues, short stories in Persian and Nagari characters ... and military words of command, Nagari and English. London : W.H. Allen.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Dowson, John (1820-1881). A grammar of the Urdu or Hindustani language. London : K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., ltd. 1908. (public domain e-book) Contributed by University of California libraries