Verbs: Completed Action

01

Forming the Perfective Participle

To create this form, you take the verb stem (the verb minus the ना (nāna) ending) and add the following suffixes:

• Masculine Singular: Add -आ (-ā-a).
• Masculine Plural (or Formal): Add -ए (-e).
• Feminine (Singular & Plural): Add -ई (-ī-i).

For example, with the verb बोलना (bolnābolna):

• वह बोला।

  vah bolā.wah bola.

  He spoke.

• वे बोले।

  ve bole.we bole.

  They spoke.

• वह बोली।

  vah bolī.wah boli.

  She spoke.

If the verb stem ends in a vowel (like आ (āa), ओ (o), or ई (īi)), you generally insert a य (y) sound before the masculine endings to make pronunciation easier.

• उसने खाया।

  usne khāyā.usne khaya.

  He/She ate. (from खाना (khānākhana))

02

Irregular Verbs

A few very common verbs have irregular perfective forms. These must be memorized as they do not follow the standard rules.

• जाना (jānājana) becomes गया (gayāgaya).
• करना (karnākarna) becomes किया (kiyākiya).
• देना (denādena) becomes दिया (diyādiya).
• लेना (lenālena) becomes लिया (liyāliya).
• पीना (pīnāpina) becomes पिया (piyāpiya).

• वह बाज़ार गया।

  vah bāzār gayā.wah bazar gaya.

  He went to the market.

• उसने यह काम किया।

  usne yah kām kiyā.usne yah kam kiya.

  He/She did this work.

03

Usage 1: Simple Past (The Participle Alone)

When the perfective participle is used alone as the final verb in a sentence, it indicates the Simple Past tense. This describes an action that happened at a specific time in the past and is now over. It often corresponds to the English simple past (e.g., "I went," "She slept").

• मेरी माँ यहाँ आई।

  merī mā̃ yahā̃ āī.meri man yahan ai.

  My mother came here.

• बच्चे स्कूल गए।

  bacce skūl gae.bachche skul gae.

  The children went to school.

04

Usage 2: Present Perfect (Participle + 'To Be')

To express that an action has been completed but is still relevant to the present moment (similar to "I have gone" in English), you combine the perfective participle with the present tense of होना (honāhona).

In this structure, the participle describes what happened, and the auxiliary verb (है (hai), हैं (haiṃ), हूँ (hū̃hun), etc.) anchors it to the present time.

• वह बाज़ार गया है।

  vah bāzār gayā hai.wah bazar gaya hai.

  He has gone to the market.

• वे अभी आए हैं।

  ve abhī āe haiṃ.we abhi ae haiṃ.

  They have just come.

05

Agreement: Subject vs. Object

There is a crucial rule in Hindi regarding completed actions:

1. Intransitive Verbs (No Object)

If the verb does not involve doing something to an object (verbs like coming, going, sleeping, laughing), the verb agrees with the subject in gender and number.

• लड़का सोया।

  laṛkā soyā.larka soya.

  The boy slept.

• लड़की सोई।

  laṛkī soī.larki soi.

  The girl slept.

2. Transitive Verbs (With Object)

If the verb is transitive (like eating, reading, seeing, doing), the subject takes the particle ने (ne). In this case, the verb stops agreeing with the subject and instead agrees with the object of the sentence.

• राम ने किताब पढ़ी।

  rām ne kitāb paṛhī.ram ne kitab parhi.

  Ram read the book.

(Here, पढ़ी (paṛhīparhi) is feminine because किताब (kitābkitab) is feminine, even though Ram is masculine.)

• मैंने आम खाया।

  maiṃne ām khāyā.maiṃne am khaya.

  I ate a mango.

(Here, खाया (khāyākhaya) is masculine because आम (āmaama) is masculine, regardless of the speaker's gender.)