What have we learnt so far about the past tense in Hindi? All the way back in Lesson #69 we learnt the words था thaa, थे the, थी thee and थीं theen which are used for ‘was’ and 'were’. Then in Lesson #70 we learnt how to make sentences like 'I was eating’, 'We were reading’, which is known as the Past Continuous Tense. 

But how do we say 'I walked’ or 'He read’ or 'They studied’ in Hindi? This is what’s known as the Simple Past Tense. In English we usually just add ’-ed’ to the verb; walked, studied, jumped etc. But be aware, there’s loads of irregular verbs; read, slept, saw and so on. 

However there’s a small problem, this Simple Past Tense in Hindi is a little more complicated then English because the sentence structure depends on whether the verb is Transitive or Intransitive. So today we’re not actually going to learn any new Hindi we’re just going to learn about Transitivity. This lesson is still very important though because we’ll be using it a basis for the next few lessons!

Transitive and Intransitive probably sound like really confusing words, but don’t get yourself worked up, I’ll be explaining it in full using easy to understand language.

So what is Transitivity? 

Transitivity is all to do with verbs, which if you remember are 'doing words’. Every verb is either Transitive or not-transitive, which we usually call Intransitive. With me so far? Ready for the big definition?

A verb is Transitive if it can have an object as well as a subject. What on earth does this mean? Basically if we can put 'something’ after the verb in English and it still makes sense then it’s transitive. Let’s see some examples;

The verb To Read is transitive. Why? Because we can say 'read something’ like, I read a book, I read a newspaper, I read this website. 

The verb To Eat is transitive. Why? Again, because we can say 'eat something’, I eat cale, I eat a pizza, I eat chips. 

To Writeis also transitive because we can say 'I write a book’, 'I write an essay’ etc.

What is an Intransitive veb then? Well it’s just the opposite, a verb is intransitive if it can’t have an object as well as a subject. That is if you can’t put 'something’ after the verb. 

To Sleep is intransitive. Why? Because we can’t say 'sleep something’. The sentence 'I sleep a bed’ doesn’t make any sense. You might say to me now, oh but you can say 'I sleep in a bed’, indeed that’s true, but this doesn’t change anything, here 'in a bed’ describes where and is not an object of the verb 'sleep’.

The verb To Swim is intransitive. Why? Again, because you can’t say 'swim something’. 'I swim a pool’ doesn’t make any sense. 

Do you think you’ve understood the difference? This is going to be very important in future so it’s essential that you understand! Still confused? Read through everything above again, but as slowly as you can.

Now do you think you’ve understood? Test yourself by telling me in a comment below whether these verbs are Transitive or Intransitive and then for bonus points tell me why that is. 

1. To Drink 
2. To Go
3. To Clean
4. To Walk

I know that this lesson seems confusing, pointless and completely unrelated to Hindi but this is where you just have to trust me! Very soon we’re going to learn how to create Simple Past Tense sentences in Hindi and to do that you’ll need to understand transitivity! 

Back to Intermediate Grammar.