Spoken hindi through telugu material Part 12

Spoken hindi through telugu material

Before you move to the  past tense in Hindi , you must know the concept of  “transitivity of verbs”.

Lets master this concept through examples :

Consider the following 2 sentences

1) I ran

2) I ate

Now ask the question  “WHAT” to the above sentences

1) A :I ran.

B : What ?

It is meaningless. There is no answer to this stupid question. Hence, when a verb returns no answer to the question WHAT, it is called a intransitive verb.The verb ” RUN ” is an intransitive verb.

Now see the 2nd sentence

2)A :I ate.

B : What ?

A :A Pizza

There is an answer. So, when a verb returns an answer to the question WHAT, it is called a transitive verb.The verb “eat” is Transitive.

A :I saw.                 A: I wrote                       A : I made                      A : I took

B :What ?              B: What ?                           B : What ?                      B: What ?

A :A Cow              A : Numbers                     A : A tatto                    A : A Pen

All the verbs above are transitive.

Now the question is, why am I learning this ? Why do I have to bother about them?

The answer is, in Hindi and in the past tense, transitive verbs have to agree with the object and not the subject present in the sentence. Let us get this clear through some more examples.

In present tense:

Peter says, “मैं उठ-ता हूँ |”  (main uth-taa hoon) = I wake up.

Maria says, ” मैं उठ-ती हूँ |.”  (main uth-tee hoon) = I wake up.

“To wake” is an intransitive verb since asking “WHAT” to above sentences is meaningless.

Now see how these sentences look like in the Past tense:

Peter says, “मैं उ-ठा.”(main uthaa)  =I woke-up

Peter says, “मैं उ-ठी”. (main uthee) =I woke-up

similarly

मैं सो-ता हूँ (I sleep) -> मैं  सोया  (I slept) and मैं सो-ती हूँ-> मैं सोयी |

मैं चल-ता हूँ  (I walk) -> मैं  चला (I walked) and मैं  चल-ती हूँ -> मैं चली |

Now let’s repeat everything for transitive verbs

In present tense:

(M)Peter says, ” मैं खा-ता हूँ |” (eat)

(F) Maria says, ” मैं खा-ती हूँ |”

This was for present tense. Now see  what happens to verbs in past tense.

The transitive verb  ” EAT”  will depend on the object.

मैंने  पिझा  खा–या | (maine pizza khaayaa) ( I ate Pizza )

मैंने  चपाती खा–यी | (maine chapati khayee) ( I ate Chapati)

In these examples the objects are Pizza and Chapati.

Pizza being a masculine noun, verb had to take the sound of ( -आ (aa) ) at the end.

Chapati being a feminine noun, verb had to take the sound of ( – ई  (ee) at the end.

Lets take some more examples

पीटर ने पेपर पढ़ा |  (peeter ne paper padhaa) = Peter read a paper.

पीटर ने किताब पढी | (peeter ne kitaab padhee) = Peter read a book.

In these examples, Paper is a masculine noun while Book is a feminine noun. So verb has changed in accordance with the obejcts: Paper or Book.

Some more examples

तुमने पेपर लिखा| (tumne paper likhaa) =you wrote a paper.

तुमने किताब लिखी|(tumne kitaab lihee)= you wrote a book.