Lesson #28: The Present Tense

Today we’re going to carry on learning about verbs in Hindi; we’re going to learn all about our very first tense, The Present Tense. So what is the Present Tense? It’s simply sentences like ‘I eat’, 'He reads’, 'They drink’, they show a present action!

The Present Tense shows something is happening now - in the 'present’ and not in the Past or in the Future!

Can you think back to Lesson #25 and remember what the root of a verb is? That’s right, It’s the verbs infinitive without the ना naa that comes at the end! So for example we have that the root of the verb चलना calnaa (to walk) is चल cal. Easy! Before you carry on, be sure that you’ve read Lesson #22 first, that lesson is going to be very important today!

Now I want you to think about English for a second, in English we say 'I walk’, 'You walk’ but we say 'He walks’ and 'She walks’. Can you see that when we use He or She an ’s’ appears at the end of the verb? Hindi is very similar! But unfortunately for us learners Hindi is a little more complicated than English! But don’t worry, I’ll explain everything as we go through! Firstly though, I’m going to show you a few examples of the Present Tense in Hindi and then I’ll teach you the rules and we’ll see if you can make your own sentences! So are you ready to get straight into it?

मैं खाता हूँ main khaataa hoon
- I eat (said by a male)

This is one example of a Present Tense sentence in Hindi! So what have we done here? Well we have the word मैं main - I (as we saw in Lesson #15: Pronouns) then we have खाता khaataa, this is the singular masculine Present Tense version of the verb खाना khaanaa - To eat (Don’t worry about this bit for now, it will all be explained in a second!). Finally we have हूँ hoon - this means 'am’ as we learnt in Lesson #22. So we are literally saying 'I eat am’, and it means 'I eat’.

Pay special attention to the ता taa that we’ve added to the end of the verb root खा khaa of the verb खाना khaanaa - To eat, this is going to be very important in a minute!

हम पीते हैं ham peete hain
- We drink (Male group, or mixed gender)

This is another example of a Present Tense sentence in Hindi! So what have we got here? Well we use the word हम ham - which we know means 'we’, then we have the word पीते peete - this is in fact the Masculine Plural Present Tense form of the verb पीना peenaa - To Drink (Notice how this time we’ve added ते te to the verb root, can you guess why? Don’t worry if you have no idea, I’ll explain why in a minute!), finally then we have हैं hain - are. So we literally have 'We drink are’, and it means 'We drink’. Can you see a pattern yet? I’ll show you one more example then I’ll explain the rules! Ready?

वह पढ़ती है voh parhtee hai
- She reads

This time we’ve added ती tee to the verb root of पढ़ना parhnaa - To read! So all together we have 'she read is’ - and it means 'she reads’. Notice this time how we have a girl doing the action and we are using ती tee! Do you think you’ve got the pattern? Keep reading to find out!

So now you’ve seen a few examples do you think you’ve ready to learn the rules so you can make your own sentences? अच्छा acchaa - great! Firstly there’s one more thing I have to tell you, and that is the Subject of a sentence is simply the person (or the thing) doing the action. Easy! So for example, the subject in the sentence “He walks” is 'he’ - that’s the person doing the walking! And the subject in the sentence “They swim” is 'they’ that’s the people doing the swimming! Have you got it?

Now in Hindi the verb must agree with both the Gender of the subject (whether it’s a male or a female) and the Number (whether there’s just one person or many!). This can be a little confusing to understand because it’s not something we’re used to in English! So are you ready to learn the rules? Great!

When the Subject is Masculine Singular (that is when it’s just one person and it’s a male) then we add ता taa to the verb root. (See the first example above!)
When the Subject is Masculine Plural (that’s when it’s a group of males or a group of mixed gender) we add ते te to the verb root. (Just like our second example above!)
Finally when the Subject is Feminine Singular or Plural (that is when it’s just one female or a group) we add ती tee to the verb root! (See the last example!)

Read through those bullet points again, because that’s the most important part of today’s lesson. And again! Once more! Do you understand it?

Ok now we’re going to do another example together! If we wanted to say 'I sleep’ (When spoken by a female). So firstly I’ll tell you that the verb To Sleep is सोना sonaa. So what do we need to do now? That’s right, first we find the verb root - that’s easy, it’s just सो so. Now what Gender is the subject in the sentence 'I sleep’ (Said by a female)? Feminine, obviously! So what do we need to add to the verb root? That’s right, ती tee! So all together we have the sentence…

मैं सोती हूँ main sotee hoon
- I Sleep (Said by a Female)

Did you follow that? Fantastic! If not, read through the above paragraph again, and feel free to leave me a comment below if you have a question.

One more example and then we’ll see if you can do it yourself! This time we want to say 'They Speak’. (for a group of all males!) We know from Lesson #25 that the verb To Speak is बोलना bolnaa. So what is the subject of 'They speak’? And so what do we need to add to the verb root? Perfect! Altogether we have…

वे बोलते हैं ve bolte hain
- They speak

Phew, sorry that lesson was so long! Do you think you’ve understood everything? I want you to try and translate these five sentences for me, just to see how well you’ve understood! Leave a comment in the section below!