When a Hindi subject has no postposition, it normally controls the predicate's gender and number. This is the basic agreement pattern in habituals, progressives, futures, intransitive perfectives, and many copular clauses. It is also the first step in the broader agreement hierarchy.
English speakers must watch more than the final auxiliary. Hindi often distributes agreement across a participle, an adjective, and a copula: लड़कियाँ थकी हुई थीं “the girls were tired.” Each overt agreeing element must fit the same controller and construction.
The four basic combinations
With an ordinary unmarked subject, variable -आ-class participles show four common gender-number patterns:
| Subject | Habitual predicate | Features |
|---|---|---|
| लड़का | आता है | masculine singular |
| लड़के | आते हैं | masculine plural |
| लड़की | आती है | feminine singular |
| लड़कियाँ | आती हैं | feminine plural |
लड़का रोज़ समय पर आता है।
laṛkā roz samay par ātā hai.
The boy comes on time every day.
लड़कियाँ रोज़ समय पर आती हैं।
laṛkiyā̃ roz samay par ātī haiṃ.
The girls come on time every day.
Feminine habitual आती has the same visible form in singular and plural; the auxiliary distinguishes है from हैं. Masculine habitual morphology distinguishes आता and आते as well. Agreement is therefore spread across the predicate, not concentrated in one universal suffix.
Habitual, progressive, and future predicates
Habitual participles agree with the unmarked subject, while present है/हैं contributes number and honorificity but not gender:
मीरा हर रविवार अपनी माँ को फ़ोन करती है।
mīrā har ravivār apnī mā̃ ko fon kartī hai.
Mira calls her mother every Sunday.
In the progressive, रहा/रही/रहे is the agreement-bearing element:
रवि किताब पढ़ रहा है, और सीमा चाय बना रही है।
ravi kitāb paṛh rahā hai, aur sīmā cāy banā rahī hai.
Ravi is reading a book, and Seema is making tea.
The objects किताब and चाय do not control these nonperfective predicates. Local unmarked subjects रवि and सीमा do.
Future forms also reflect gender and number alongside person:
हम शाम तक लौट आएँगे।
ham śām tak lauṭ āẽge.
We'll return by evening. (male or mixed group)
An all-female group says हम शाम तक लौट आएँगी. First-person plural हम does not itself reveal the group's gender, so the future ending supplies information that English “we will” lacks.
Intransitive perfectives keep the subject unmarked
The familiar ने pattern is tied to perfective transitive clauses, not to every past event. With a simple intransitive verb such as आना, the subject remains unmarked and controls perfective agreement:
सीमा कल देर से आई।
sīmā kal der se āī.
Seema arrived late yesterday.
रवि और मोहन कल देर से आए।
ravi aur mohan kal der se āe.
Ravi and Mohan arrived late yesterday.
Adding ने merely because English uses past tense is wrong. Aspect, transitivity, and the verb's case frame determine whether ergative marking appears. Some intransitives and complex predicates have lexical or dialectal complications, but the productive beginner contrast is सीमा आई versus transitive सीमा ने किताब पढ़ी.
Predicative adjectives and copulas
Variable predicative adjectives agree with the unmarked subject. The copula agrees in number and, in the past, also visibly distinguishes gender:
कमरा ठंडा है, लेकिन रसोई गरम है।
kamrā ṭhaṇḍā hai, lekin rasoī garam hai.
The room is cold, but the kitchen is warm.
ठंडा changes for masculine कमरा; invariant adjective गरम has no matching -आ/-ई alternation. An invariant adjective is not evidence that agreement has disappeared—its lexical form simply does not expose gender morphology.
कुर्सियाँ खाली थीं।
kursiyā̃ khālī thīṃ.
The chairs were empty.
Here invariant खाली has one gender form, while feminine plural past copula थीं visibly agrees with कुर्सियाँ.
लड़के तैयार थे।
laṛke taiyār the.
The boys were ready.
In this example तैयार is invariant and masculine plural थे carries the overt agreement. Agreement must be assessed across the whole predicate rather than inferred from whether one adjective happens to change.
Transitive nonperfectives still follow the subject
An unmarked object does not automatically control agreement. In an imperfective transitive clause, the unmarked subject normally remains the controller:
मीरा नई किताब पढ़ रही है।
mīrā naī kitāb paṛh rahī hai.
Mira is reading a new book.
Feminine रही is compatible with both nouns here, so substitute a masculine object to expose the relation:
मीरा लंबा उपन्यास पढ़ रही है।
mīrā lambā upanyās paṛh rahī hai.
Mira is reading a long novel.
The predicate remains feminine because unmarked subject मीरा, not masculine उपन्यास, controls the progressive. Object control becomes relevant under the special perfective transitive conditions created by ने.
Honorific singulars trigger plural agreement
Respectful आप takes plural/honorific agreement whether it refers to one person or several:
आप बहुत थके हुए लग रहे हैं।
āp bahut thake hue lag rahe haiṃ.
You look very tired. (respectful, addressed to a man)
To a woman, say आप बहुत थकी हुई लग रही हैं: feminine singular-looking participial material combines with honorific plural हैं. Hindi honorific agreement is not always equivalent to ordinary semantic plural, so learn the entire respectful predicate rather than replacing तुम with आप alone.
Third-person honorific reference may likewise trigger plural agreement for one respected person:
डॉक्टर साहिबा अभी व्यस्त हैं; थोड़ी देर में आएँगी।
ḍokṭar sāhibā abhī vyast haiṃ; thoṛī der meṃ āẽgī.
The doctor is busy right now; she'll come in a little while. (respectful)
Feminine future आएँगी combines feminine gender with honorific plural morphology. This is contemporary polite usage, not ordinary numerical plural.
Coordination creates a plural controller
Two coordinated singular subjects normally produce plural agreement. With two feminine referents, use feminine plural where the predicate distinguishes it:
रीना और सीमा तैयार हैं; दोनों साथ जाएँगी।
rīnā aur sīmā taiyār haiṃ; donoṃ sāth jāẽgī.
Rina and Seema are ready; both will go together.
With a mixed-gender coordination, standard Hindi ordinarily uses masculine plural agreement:
मेरा भाई और मेरी बहन घर पहुँच गए हैं।
merā bhāī aur merī bahan ghar pahũc gae haiṃ.
My brother and sister have reached home.
The masculine plural गए is the conventional mixed-group resolution. This grammatical default should not be confused with the individual gender of either referent.
Collective nouns and polite titles can create less transparent choices because grammatical number, intended reference, and honorificity interact. Use the noun's established agreement pattern and the discourse's respect level rather than counting meanings mechanically.
Position does not determine control
An unmarked subject can occur after the predicate in marked presentational or focus structures and still control agreement:
आ गई बस!
ā gaī bas!
The bus is here! (informal, presentational)
Feminine गई identifies बस as its controller even though the noun follows. This is not the neutral order taught first; it is useful evidence that agreement depends on grammatical relation, not “the first noun.”
Likewise, negation does not interrupt control:
बस अभी नहीं आई है।
bas abhī nahīṃ āī hai.
The bus hasn't arrived yet.
The unmarked feminine subject continues to control आई. Focus and polarity can change scope and information structure, but they do not by themselves assign a new controller.
Common Mistakes
1. Matching a progressive predicate to the object
❌ मीरा उपन्यास पढ़ रहा है।
Incorrect — masculine उपन्यास does not control this nonperfective predicate; feminine मीरा does.
✅ मीरा उपन्यास पढ़ रही है।
mīrā upanyās paṛh rahī hai.
Mira is reading a novel.
2. Mixing plural subject agreement with a singular auxiliary
❌ लड़कियाँ रोज़ आती है।
Incorrect — feminine plural लड़कियाँ requires हैं.
✅ लड़कियाँ रोज़ आती हैं।
laṛkiyā̃ roz ātī haiṃ.
The girls come every day.
3. Adding ने to every past-tense subject
❌ सीमा ने कल देर से आई।
Incorrect in Standard Hindi — intransitive आना does not take this ordinary ergative ने pattern.
✅ सीमा कल देर से आई।
sīmā kal der se āī.
Seema arrived late yesterday.
4. Giving singular agreement to respectful आप
❌ आप कब आएगा?
Incorrect — respectful आप requires honorific plural agreement.
✅ आप कब आएँगे?
āp kab āẽge?
When will you come? (respectful; addressed to a man or unspecified addressee)
Key Takeaways
- An eligible unmarked subject is the ordinary first-choice agreement controller.
- Participles, variable adjectives, futures, and auxiliaries expose different parts of gender-number agreement.
- Intransitive perfectives normally keep the subject unmarked; ने is not a general past-tense marker.
- Honorific singular reference takes plural/honorific morphology, with feminine distinctions retained where the form shows them.
- Coordination, negation, and marked position do not replace the structural subject with the nearest noun.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Agreement hierarchy overviewA2 — Choose the Hindi predicate's agreement controller from case marking and clause structure rather than word order or meaning.
- Noun gender: masculine and feminineA1 — Learn Hindi's two grammatical genders and how they control adjective, possessive, participle, number, and case forms.
- Direct singular and plural formsA2 — Recognize Hindi's default noun forms and build direct plurals across the major masculine and feminine declension classes.
- 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.
- Habitual participle formationA2 — Form the Hindi habitual participle from a verb stem plus -ता, -ती, or -ते and apply gender-number agreement before adding a finite auxiliary.
- Progressive रहा constructionA2 — Build progressive predicates from a verb stem, agreeing रहा material, and a tense or mood auxiliary.