Last lesson we began to learn about the Hindi verb लगना lagnaa. Can you remember what we learnt? We saw how to say some sentences like…

मुझे भूख लग रही थी
mujhe bhookh lag rahee thee
- I was (feeling) hungry

We covered quite a lot in that lesson so be sure to read back over it if you feel like you’ve forgot anything! Today we’re going to learn two other uses for the verb लगना lagnaa. Do you think you’re ready to get going?

If we put लगना lagnaa after the oblique infinitive of a verb then we create the meaning “to begin to…”. What does this mean? Well it’s much easier than it sounds; for example changing खाना khaanaa ‘to eat’ to खाने लगना khaane lagnaa changes the meaning to 'to begin to eat’, or the same with रोना ronaa 'to cry’ gives us रोने लगना rone lagnaa 'to begin to cry’. Got it? Let’s look at some example sentences…

वह हँसने लगा
voh hansne lagaa
- He began to laugh

Can you see what we’ve done here? We’re using the verb हँसने लगना hansne langaa - to begin to laugh. Got it?

हम गाने लगे ham gaane lage
- We began to sing

अध्यापिका बकवास करने लगी
adhyaapikaa bakvaas karne lagee
- The (female) teacher began to speak nonsense

One thing to note is that we never use ने ne in a sentence of this form, even if the verb usually takes ने ne. For example…

मैं बरतन माँजने लगी
main bartan maanjne lagee
- I started to wash the dishes (said by a female)

Do you think you’ve got it now? Excellent! Be sure to ask in the comments section just below if you have any questions.

Another use for लगना lagnaa is when we want to talk about time, when we want to say how long it takes to do something. In this case लगना lagnaa translates as something like 'to be taken’ or 'to be expended’. Let me show you an example first…

समझने में मुझे दस मिनट लगे
samajhne men mujhe das minat lage
- It took me ten minutes to understand

So what’s going on here then? Well let’s look at the sentence literally, we’re saying “in understanding to me ten minutes were taken”. This seems like a very strange thing to say but that’s how we say it in Hindi! Notice we’re using the masculine plural verb here; it is agreeing with the masculine plural दस मिनट das minat - ten minutes!

हिन्दी सीखने में बहुत साल लगते हैं
hindee seekhne men bahut saal lagte hain
- It takes many years to learn Hindi

Can you see what’s happening with this second example? Literally we’re saying “in learning Hindi many years (it) takes”. Ready to see some more examples?

तस्वीर बनाने में उसे घंटा लगा
tasveer banaane men use gantaa lagaa
- It took him an hour to draw a picture

तुम्हें देर नहीं लगेगी
tumhen der naheen lagegee
- It wont take you long

Notice in this last example we’re using the feminine future form to agree with the feminine word देर der - 'a while’.

So there we go, there’s two more uses for लगना lagnaa! There are many more uses for this verb so we will cover them soon. Do you think you’ve understood everything in this lesson? If not then please feel free to ask anything in the comments below! If you think you have understood then try translating these sentences below…

1. He began to cry.
2. Tomorrow I will begin to learn English. (said by a female)
3. We began to dance. (For an extra challenge try translating “After hearing the song we began to dance” using Lesson #133.)
4. It took us two hours to arrive home.
5. It takes me the whole day to clean my room.
6. It will take her five minutes to make chai.

(Hint for 5: all day in Hindi is दिन भर din bhar).

So go on, give it a go! Leave your answers in a comment and I’ll get back to you!

Back to Intermediate Grammar.