बताना means tell, inform, indicate, show verbally, or explain. Its core frame is speaker + recipient-को + content. The content may be a noun, a कि clause, an indirect question, or an infinitival procedure. This makes बताना more information-directed than कहना “say.”
Stem and principal forms
The stem is बता-.
| Category | Forms |
|---|---|
| infinitive | बताना |
| habitual | बताता / बताती / बताते |
| progressive | बता रहा / बता रही / बता रहे |
| perfective | बताया / बताई / बताए / बताईं |
| conjunctive | बताकर |
| simultaneous participle | बताते हुए |
| prospective | बताने वाला / बताने वाली / बताने वाले |
वह नए कर्मचारियों को हर प्रक्रिया ध्यान से बताती है।
vah nae karmacāriyoṃ ko har prakriyā dhyān se batātī hai.
She explains every procedure carefully to new employees.
मैं आपको अभी पूरी बात बता रहा हूँ।
maĩ āpko abhī pūrī bāt batā rahā hū̃.
I'm telling you the whole story now. (male speaker)
In nonperfective clauses, the informer controls agreement. Recipient आपको or कर्मचारियों को never controls it.
Recipient plus noun content
The recipient normally takes को or a dative pronoun: मुझे, तुम्हें, उसे, हमें, उन्हें. The information itself stays unmarked and can control perfective agreement.
राहुल ने मुझे सही तारीख़ बताई।
rāhul ne mujhe sahī tārīx batāī.
Rahul told me the correct date.
क्या आप हमें स्टेशन का रास्ता बता सकते हैं?
kyā āp hameṃ sṭeśan kā rāstā batā sakte haiṃ?
Could you tell us the way to the station?
English may use tell with a bare person. Hindi marks the informed person with को, while the thing told is structurally separate.
Clausal and question-word content
A कि clause reports a proposition. An indirect question uses its ordinary question word—कहाँ, कब, कैसे, क्यों, कौन—without English-style inversion.
उन्होंने बताया कि दुकान सोमवार को बंद रहेगी।
unhoṃne batāyā ki dukān somvār ko band rahegī.
They said that the shop would remain closed on Monday. (honorific)
कृपया बताइए कि आवेदन कहाँ जमा करना है।
kripyā batāie ki āvedan kahā̃ jamā karnā hai.
Please tell me where the application has to be submitted.
Hindi does not obligatorily backshift the embedded tense after a past reporting verb. The reported situation keeps the time reference intended by the original speaker. See reported statements.
बताना versus कहना and समझाना
कहना foregrounds the act or words of saying and introduces direct or reported speech. बताना transfers information, an answer, a route, a fact, or instructions. समझाना goes further: make someone understand or persuade.
उसने मेरा नाम कहा, लेकिन यह नहीं बताया कि मुझे क्यों बुलाया गया है।
usne merā nām kahā, lekin yah nahīṃ batāyā ki mujhe kyoṃ bulāyā gayā hai.
He said my name, but did not explain why I had been called.
The boundary is semantic, not merely formal. A speaker may बात बताना supply a fact, बात कहना utter it, or बात समझाना explain it until understood.
Perfective alignment
बताना is transitive. In the perfective, the informer takes ने. An unmarked noun content can control agreement: बात बताई, कारण बताया, तारीख़ें बताईं. Clausal content and omitted content usually yield default masculine singular बताया.
सचिव ने हमें बैठक की तीन संभावित तारीख़ें बताईं।
saciv ne hameṃ baiṭhak kī tīn sambhāvit tārīxeṃ batāīṃ.
The secretary told us three possible dates for the meeting.
Feminine plural तारीख़ें controls बताईं; recipient हमें does not block that agreement.
Future and subjunctive
| Person | Subjunctive | Future masculine | Future feminine |
|---|---|---|---|
| मैं | बताऊँ | बताऊँगा | बताऊँगी |
| तुम | बताओ | बताओगे | बताओगी |
| यह / वह | बताए | बताएगा | बताएगी |
| हम / आप / ये / वे | बताएँ | बताएँगे | बताएँगी |
रिपोर्ट पढ़कर मैं आपको अपना फ़ैसला बताऊँगी।
riporṭ paṛhkar maĩ āpko apnā faislā batāū̃gī.
After reading the report, I'll tell you my decision. (female speaker)
ज़रूरी है कि गवाह जो देखा वही बताए।
zarūrī hai ki gavāh jo dekhā vahī batāe.
It is essential that the witness report exactly what they saw.
Imperatives, participles, and compound verbs
The imperatives are intimate बता, familiar बताओ, and respectful बताइए. Participles include बताया हुआ, बताते हुए, बताकर, and बताने वाला.
पहले मुझे बताइए कि समस्या कब शुरू हुई।
pahle mujhe batāie ki samasyā kab śurū huī.
First tell me when the problem began.
बता देना presents information as fully supplied, disclosed, or readily passed on. बता पाना means manage to tell or explain; बताते रहना means keep someone informed.
पता बदल जाए तो मुझे तुरंत बता देना।
patā badal jāe to mujhe turant batā denā.
If the address changes, let me know immediately. (familiar)
डॉक्टर अभी कारण नहीं बता पाए हैं।
ḍokṭar abhī kāraṇ nahīṃ batā pāe haiṃ.
The doctor has not yet been able to identify the cause. (honorific)
Causation and idiom
बतवाना means have someone tell, disclose, or identify something, though analytic किसी से बताने को कहना is often clearer. When an intermediary is named, it takes से.
प्रबंधक ने सहायक से सभी मेहमानों के नाम बतवाए।
prabandhak ne sahāyak se sabhī mehmānoṃ ke nām batvāe.
The manager had the assistant provide all the guests' names.
The expression क्या बताऊँ! can introduce an emotional account: “What can I tell you!” or “You wouldn't believe it!” (informal). Its force is discourse-pragmatic, not a literal request for a content object.
Common Mistakes
❌ उसने मेरे से रास्ता बताया।
Incorrect — the recipient of information takes को, not से.
✅ उसने मुझे रास्ता बताया।
usne mujhe rāstā batāyā.
She told me the way.
❌ रीना ने दो तारीख़ें बताया।
Incorrect — unmarked feminine plural तारीख़ें requires बताईं.
✅ रीना ने दो तारीख़ें बताईं।
rīnā ne do tārīxeṃ batāīṃ.
Reena gave two dates.
❌ उसने कहा मुझे कि बैठक रद्द है।
Incorrect for a neutral inform-recipient frame and unnatural word order.
✅ उसने मुझे बताया कि बैठक रद्द है।
usne mujhe batāyā ki baiṭhak radd hai.
She told me that the meeting was canceled.
❌ आप मुझे बताओ।
Incorrect — आप requires the respectful imperative बताइए, not familiar बताओ.
✅ आप मुझे बताइए।
āp mujhe batāie.
Please tell me.
Key Takeaways
बताना uses recipient-को plus noun, clausal, or question-word content. Perfective informers take ने, and unmarked noun content may control agreement. Distinguish information-giving बताना from utterance-centered कहना and understanding-centered समझाना; use बता देना for completed disclosure and बतवाना for arranged telling.
Related Topics
- पूछना pūchnā: to askA2 — Reference पूछना with person-से and content objects, perfective agreement, questions, compound verbs, and causative पूछवाना.
- कहना kahnā: to sayA1 — Reference कहना across its speech-complement frames, perfective agreement, future and imperative forms, and causative extensions.
- Complement clauses with किB2 — Use कि to embed a finite proposition as the content of speech, thought, knowledge, perception, evaluation, or desire while preserving local syntax.
- Reported statementsA2 — Turn direct Hindi statements into indirect reports with कि while adjusting speaker reference, deixis, punctuation, and time only when meaning requires it.
- Perfective object agreementA2 — Make a transitive perfective agree with an eligible unmarked direct object after ने, including gender-number and auxiliary-bearing forms.
- देना as outward or other-directed vectorA2 — Use vector देना to present a result as released, made available, directed outward, or decisively brought about.