The title of this blog, “Tension Mat Lo, Bas Past Tense Sikho” (“टेंशन मत लो, बस Past Tense/पास्ट टेंस सीखो”), means in “standard” Hinglish (a popular combination of Hindi and English used especially in North Indian cities today): “Don’t get tensed, just learn the past tense.” 

As we move from one year to another and continue our journey learning Hindi or maybe even begin it, it seems fitting to discuss the simple past tense in Hindi. After all, you must first learn from the past before moving into the future. Although the past tense is formed slightly differently in Hindi as compared to English, with time and practice you’ll master this tense. Luckily, unlike English, Hindi has fairly straightforward and consistent grammatical rules. And, once you know these rules, there are very few exceptions. So, don’t get tensed, let’s learn Hindi’s (simple) past tense (तो, टेंशन मत लो, हम हिंदी का पास्ट टेंस सीख लें/to, tension mat lo, hum Hindi ka past tense seekh le).

But, first, in true Bollywood fashion, let’s get some inspiration from a (educational) song and dance number (featuring the always lovely Nargis/नर्गिस in the 1955 film Shree 420/श्री ४२०):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXxR1Fj-BQ0

Simple Past Tense

What is known as “simple past tense” in the ever-enigmatic language known as “GrammarSpeak” is just a way of expressing an action that took place once and is over and done with. Some examples in English are as follows:

I did my homework. 

He cooked dinner.  

We swam in the stream.  

They went to the bazaar. 

In Hindi, those sentences would be translated as follows:

मैंने अपना होमवर्क* किया । Maine apnaa homework kiyaa. I did my homework.

*A rather formal word for “homework” that is from Sanskrit and not often used but that you might want to know anyway is “गृहकार्य/Grihkaarya” (masc. noun).

उसने रात का खाना पकाया । Usne raat ka khaanaa pakaayaa. He cooked dinner.

हम नदी में तैरे/तैरीं ।  Hum nadee me taire/tairin. We swam in the stream.

वे/वो* बाज़ार गए, गये (alt. spelling)/गईं, गयीं** (alt. spelling) । Ve/voh bazaar gaye/gayin. They went to the bazaar.

*While वे (Ve) is technically the correct way of saying “they,” it is increasingly replaced by “वो” (Voh) in both casual writing and speech.

**Jaanaa/जाना (to go) is irregular when conjugated in the simple past tense. A few other verbs in Hindi also have this irregularity. Fear not, I will go into this in my next blog.

Now, you may have noticed something very important in the beginnings and endings of the above sentences:

1. मैंने ……किया, Maine kiyaa. 

2. उसने……पकाया, Usne pakaayaa. 

3. हम……तैरे/तैरीं, Hum taire/tairin. 

4. वे/वो…..गए, गये/गईं, गयीं, Voh/ve gaye/gayin. 

In the first two sentences, you have what we call in “GrammarSpeak” “transitive verbs,” which are verbs that take an object. The objects in the first two sentences are “homework” (होमवर्क) and “dinner,” (रात का खाना/raat ka khaanaa), respectively. When conjugating transitive verbs in the past tense, you must place the particle “ने” (Ne) after the subject (or person/thing/animal doing the action of the sentence) and conjugate the verb to agree in number (plural vs. singular) and gender with the object of the verb. The “ने” (Ne) basically acts as a roadblock between the subject and the verb, making it impossible for the verb to agree with the subject, so it is forced to agree with the object of the sentence. If there is no explicit object of the sentence, the verb is just conjugated as masculine singular (or “default”). You may have also noticed that “ने” (Ne) tends to change the pronoun that goes before it. Here is an outline of how the pronouns change slightly when followed by ने (Ne):

मैं (I) + ने = मैंने (this is pretty straightforward) (Maine) 

तुम (you, informal) + ने= तुमने (again, straightforward) (Tumne)

आप (you, formal) + ने = आपने (I think you can see where this is going…) (Aapne)

हम (we) + ने = हमने (Humne)

वह/वो (He, she, it-far away) + ने = उसने (a little bit different, but nothing we can’t work with) (Usne)

यह (He, she, it-close by) + ने = इसने (Isne)

वे (They-far away) + ने = उन्होंने (Unhone)

ये (They-close by) + ने = इन्होंने (Inhone)

Transitive verbs stand in contrast with “intransitive verbs,” which do not take an object. If you ever have a hard time determining whether or not a verb is transitive in Hindi, just think of the verb + something = Can you “do” (करना/karnaa, किया/kiyaa=masc. singular past tense conjugation) something? Can you “cook” (पकाना/pakaanaa, पकाया/pakaayaa=masc. singular past tense conjugation) something? Can you “read” something (yes, the verb “to read/study” is transitive): पढ़ना/parhnaa, पढ़ा/parhaa=masc. singular past tense conjugation. Can you look at/see something? Yes, the verb for to see or to look at (देखना/dekhnaa, देखा/dekhaa=masc. singular past tense conjugation) is also transitive!

The verbs you just noticed in the above examples: करना/karnaa, पकाना/pakaanaa, पढ़ना/parhnaa, देखना/dekhnaa are all “infinitive verbs.” In English, these are expressed as “to” + “verb”=TO do, TO cook, TO read/study, TO see/look at. You can also think of them as “default verbs,” that have not yet been conjugated. In Hindi, as you may already know, every person and thing has a gender and, especially in the past tense, you conjugate verbs to agree with the NUMBER and GENDER of the person or thing described. For example, in the above sentences:

मैंने होमवर्क किया/Maine homework kiyaa । “Homework” is a masculine, singular noun, probably because the equivalent word in Hindi, गृहकार्य (Grihkaarya), is also masculine singular. So, the corresponding verb is conjugated to agree with the masculine, singular noun: किया/kiyaa. Remember, if there is no explicit object of the sentence, you simply conjugate the verb to the default, which is masculine singular, or किया/kiyaa. Here are conjugations for other genders and numbers:

किए (also spelled किये)=masculine plural (Kiye) 

की =feminine singular (Ki) 

कीं =feminine plural (Ki with nasalization)

Now, for the next sentence:

उसने रात का खाना (masculine singular) पकाया । (Usne raat ka khaanaa pakaayaa)

Masculine plural: उसने पकोड़े (masc. plural, refers to meat or vegetables fried in batter) पकाये/पकाए (alt. spelling) । (Usne pakore pakaaye) 

Feminine Singular: उसने रोटी (fem. sing, refers to a type of bread) पकायी/पकाई (alt. spelling) । (Usne roti pakaayi) 

Feminine Plural: उसने रोटियाँ (fem. plural) पकायीं/पकाईं (alt. spelling) । (Usne rotiyaan pakaayin)

Now, we come to the “Intransitive Verbs.” As I mentioned above, “intransitive verbs” are those that DO NOT take an object. Most often, they are “action” verbs, such as “to go,” “to come,” “to jump,” “to swim,”: जाना/jaanaa, आना/aanaa, कूदना/koodnaa, तैरना/tairnaa. This type of verb DOES NOT take “ने” (Ne); thus, because there’s no roadblock between the subject and the verb (in the form of ने/Ne), the verb conjugates according to the number and gender of the subject of the sentence. You’ll see what I mean with the examples below:

हम नदी में तैरे/तैरीं । Hum nadi me taire/tairin.

Because “हम/Hum” or “we” is always a plural pronoun, we conjugate it to agree with masculine or feminine plural pronouns. Because I haven’t specified here whether or not “we” refers to a group of all men or a group of all women, we have two options: तैरे/Taire (masc. plural) and तैरीं/Tairin (fem. plural). If you have a mixed group of men and women, the verb will conjugate to agree with a masc. plural pronoun: तैरे/Taire. Here are some other options:

Masculine singular: मैं नदी में तैरा । (Main nadee me tairaa) 

Feminine singular: वह/वो* नदी में तैरी । (Voh/vo nadee me tairi) 

*The latter option is the more common spelling. The first spelling is technically correct but not often used now.

Now for the other sentence:

वे/वो बाज़ार गए/गईं ।  Ve/voh bazaar gaye/gayin.

Again, here we have a pronoun that is always plural, so we have two options: masculine plural and feminine plural. Again, if you have a mixed group of men and women, the verb will agree with a masculine plural pronoun: गए/गये, Gaye (alt. spelling). Now let’s look at some other options:

Masculine singular: मोहन बाज़ार गया । (Mohan baazaar gayaa) 

Feminine singular: ऋचा बाज़ार गई/गयी । (Richaa baazaar gayi) 

I hope I’ve explained how to form the simple past tense in a way that is easy to understand. Read through this post a couple of times to make sure you understand all of the points, and then practice with these exercises (you’ll find an answer key at the bottom of the post):

Simple Past Tense with Transitive Verbs:

1. He read the story.
2. She wrote a novel.
3. They looked at clothes.
4. We sang songs.
5. The boys broke those windows.

Simple Past Tense with Intransitive Verbs:

1. He woke up early this morning.
2. They (group of women) returned last night.
3. We (group of men and women) arrived in the afternoon.
4. She cried many times.
5. I brought* the dessert.

*लाना/laanaa or “to bring” is an important exception to the rule of transitivity vs. intransitivity. You would think that since you can “bring” SOMETHING, लाना/laanaa would be transitive, but it is actually intransitive, meaning that, in the past tense, it agrees in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. This phenomenon can be partly explained by the fact that लाना is formed from a combination of two verbs: आना/aanaa (to come, intransitive) and लेना/lenaa (to take, transitive).

 

Answer Key-Transitive Verbs: 

1. उसने कहानी (fem. singular noun) पढ़ी । (Usne kahaani parhi)
2. उसने (एक: opt.) उपन्यास (masc. singular noun) लिखा । (Usne (ek) upanyaas likhaa)
3. उन्होंने कपड़े (masc. plural noun) देखे । (Unhone kapare dekhe)
4. हमने गाने (masc. plural noun) गाये/गाए । (Humne gaane gaaye)
5. लड़कों ने वे/वो खिड़कियाँ (fem. plural noun) तोड़ीं । (Larko ne ve/voh khirkiyaan torin)

Answer Key-Intransitive Verbs: 

1. वह (masc. singular) आज सुबह बहुत जल्दी उठा । (Voh aaj subah bahut jaldi uthaa)
2. वे/वो (fem. plural) कल रात लौटीं । (Voh/vo kal raat lautin)
3. हम (masc. plural) दोपहर में पहँचे । (Hum dopeher me pahuche)
4. वह/वो (fem. singular) बहुत बार रोयी । (Voh/vo bahut baar royi)
5. मैं* मिठाई लायी/लाया । (Main mithaai laayi/laaya)

*depending on what gender you would like “I” or “मैं/Main” to be