Past tenses

The simple past

Take the stem and add -ा / -ी / -े, agreeing with the subject:

मैं गया — I went (man). मैं गई — I went (woman). हम गए — we went.

The ने construction

With a transitive verb in the past, the subject takes ने — and the verb stops agreeing with the subject and agrees with the object instead.

• मैंने किताब पढ़ी — I read the book. (feminine, because किताब is)
• मैंने पत्र पढ़ा — I read the letter. (masculine, because पत्र is)
• मैं गया — I went. (intransitive: no ने, verb agrees with me)

If the object carries को, the verb agrees with nothing and defaults to masculine singular: मैंने लड़की को देखा.

This is split ergativity: Hindi behaves one way in the present and another in the past. Georgian does the same thing, and the two languages are not related.

The imperfect — used to

मैं जाता था — I used to go. The habitual participle plus the past of होना.

The continuous past

मैं जा रहा था — I was going.

The perfect

मैं गया हूँ — I have gone. Same participle, present auxiliary.

Compound verbs

Hindi adds a second verb to colour the first. It carries no separate meaning of its own.

• जाना after a verb: completion, irreversibility — वह मर गया "he died (and is gone)"
• लेना: done for oneself — मैंने खा लिया
• देना: done for someone else — मैंने दे दिया

Nothing in English corresponds, and Hindi uses them constantly.

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