Even when आप āp addresses one person, it controls plural-honorific agreement: आप हैं, आप करते हैं, आप कर रहे हैं, आप करेंगे. Semantic singularity can still determine gender, but grammatical number remains plural.
This agreement package distinguishes respectful आप from familiar तुम and intimate तू. English you provides no comparable overt signal.
The same person–number machinery appears throughout Hindi gender and number agreement, but आप adds a crucial mismatch: its referent can be one person while its grammatical agreement is plural.
Agreement overview
| Construction | Familiar तुम | Respectful singular आप |
|---|---|---|
| copula | तुम तैयार हो | आप तैयार हैं |
| habitual, man | तुम करते हो | आप करते हैं |
| progressive, woman | तुम कर रही हो | आप कर रही हैं |
| future, man | तुम करोगे | आप करेंगे |
| imperative | करो | कीजिए/करिए |
Copula and predicates
क्या आप तैयार हैं?
kyā āp taiyār haiṃ?
Are you ready? (respectful singular or plural)
मैडम, आप बिल्कुल सही हैं।
maiḍam, āp bilkul sahī haiṃ.
Ma'am, you are absolutely right.
सर, आप आज बहुत व्यस्त लग रहे हैं।
sar, āp āj bahut vyast lag rahe haiṃ.
Sir, you seem very busy today.
Invariant adjectives such as तैयार, सही, व्यस्त do not reveal gender or number, so हैं and the progressive-like लग रहे हैं carry the honorific signal.
Habitual and progressive
आप रोज़ कितने बजे दफ़्तर आते हैं?
āp roz kitne baje daftar āte haiṃ?
What time do you come to the office every day? (respectful, to a man)
आप अभी किस परियोजना पर काम कर रही हैं?
āp abhī kis pariyojnā par kām kar rahī haiṃ?
Which project are you working on now? (respectful, to a woman)
Masculine singular-respectful uses plural आते/रहे. Feminine रही is formally identical in singular and plural at this point, while हैं confirms honorific plurality.
Future and subjunctive
आप अगले महीने कहाँ जाएँगे?
āp agle mahīne kahā̃ jāẽge?
Where will you go next month? (respectful, to a man)
अगर आप कल आएँ, तो पहले फ़ोन कर दीजिए।
agar āp kal āẽ, to pahle fon kar dījie.
If you come tomorrow, please call first. (respectful)
The future जाएँगे and subjunctive आएँ are plural. To one woman, future जाएँगी preserves feminine gender while remaining plural-honorific.
Perfective intransitives
सर, आप कब आए?
sar, āp kab āe?
Sir, when did you arrive?
मैडम, आप अकेली गई थीं?
maiḍam, āp akelī gaī thīṃ?
Ma'am, did you go alone?
Feminine respectful usage varies in how overtly plural morphology is realized across participle and auxiliary; गई थीं is a clear careful form. What cannot change is the honorific auxiliary pattern to singular थी.
Perfective transitives with ने
When आपने marks the agent, the verb does not agree with आप. Agreement follows the unmarked object or defaults.
आपने चिट्ठी लिखी।
āpne ciṭṭhī likhī.
You wrote the letter. (respectful)
आपने उन्हें बुलाया।
āpne unheṃ bulāyā.
You called them/him/her. (respectful agent; plural or honorific object)
Feminine लिखी agrees with unmarked चिट्ठी. उन्हें is को-marked, so बुलाया is default masculine singular. It would be wrong to force plural लिखे/बुलाए merely because the agent is आप.
Formal and informal minimal pair
तुम आज जल्दी आओ।
tum āj jaldī āo.
Come early today. (familiar)
आप आज जल्दी आइए।
āp āj jaldī āie.
Please come early today. (respectful)
The imperative itself carries the honorific contrast, so the pronoun may be omitted when context is clear.
One person and a group
डॉक्टर साहब, आप बैठिए; आप लोग बाहर इंतज़ार कीजिए।
ḍokṭar sāhab, āp baiṭhie; āp log bāhar intazār kījie.
Doctor, please sit; the rest of you, please wait outside.
The first आप is one respected person; आप लोग is an actual plural group. Agreement alone is plural in both.
An adjective can make the addressee's semantic gender visible even though the verb is plural. Compare आप अकेले आए हैं? to one man and आप अकेली आई हैं? to one woman. With a mixed or unidentified group, masculine plural normally supplies the default. This is not an exception to honorific agreement: gender and grammatical number contribute independently.
मैडम, क्या आप अकेली आई हैं?
maiḍam, kyā āp akelī āī haiṃ?
Ma'am, did you come alone?
क्या आप दोनों तैयार हैं?
kyā āp donoṃ taiyār haiṃ?
Are both of you ready?
The overt दोनों removes the ambiguity between respectful singular and true plural. In ordinary conversation, shared visual context often does the same work.
A natural dialogue
क्या आप पहले यहाँ आ चुकी हैं? — जी हाँ, मैं पिछले साल आई थी।
kyā āp pahle yahā̃ ā cukī haiṃ? — jī hā̃, maĩ pichle sāl āī thī.
Have you been here before? — Yes, I came last year. (respectful question to a woman)
The addressee is आप ... चुकी हैं, but she answers about herself with singular first-person मैं ... आई थी.
Reflexive ownership
कृपया अपना परिचय दीजिए।
kripyā apnā paricay dījie.
Please introduce yourself. (respectful)
अपना links the introduction to the आप subject. Emphatic “yourself” would use खुद/स्वयं, not singular agreement.
Common Mistakes
1. Singular copula
❌ आप तैयार है?
Incorrect: singular-respectful आप takes plural हैं.
✅ आप तैयार हैं?
āp taiyār haiṃ?
Are you ready? (respectful)
2. Singular future
❌ आप कब आएगा?
Incorrect: आप requires plural-honorific future agreement.
✅ आप कब आएँगे?
āp kab āẽge?
When will you come? (respectful, to a man)
3. Forcing agent agreement after आपने
❌ आपने चिट्ठी लिखे।
Incorrect: आपने cannot control agreement; feminine चिट्ठी controls लिखी.
✅ आपने चिट्ठी लिखी।
āpne ciṭṭhī likhī.
You wrote the letter. (respectful)
4. Using demonstrative वे for direct address
❌ वे तैयार हैं, सर?
Incorrect when speaking to the man: use second-person आप.
✅ आप तैयार हैं, सर?
āp taiyār haiṃ, sar?
Are you ready, sir?
Key Takeaways
- Singular-respectful आप takes plural agreement across the verbal system.
- Gender remains visible where forms distinguish it.
- आपने cannot control perfective agreement; object/default rules apply.
- Actual plural आप लोग and singular-respectful आप share agreement but differ in meaning.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- आप respectful youA1 — Use आप for respectful singular and ordinary plural address, with plural agreement, postpositional forms, and socially appropriate contrasts with तुम.
- Choosing तू तुम or आपA1 — Choose among intimate तू, familiar तुम, and respectful or plural आप while matching agreement, postpositional forms, and relationship-sensitive social meaning.
- Respectful third-person referenceB2 — Refer respectfully to one third person with plural ये or वे, plural oblique forms, and honorific agreement while preserving deixis and gender.
- Honorific plural for names and kin termsB2 — Use plural-honorific agreement with one respected person named by a proper name, title, जी-expression, or kin term, and continue with matching pronouns.
- Agreement in gender and numberA1 — Track masculine, feminine, singular, and plural agreement across Hindi participles, predicates, and auxiliaries.