पसंद होना expresses liking by presenting the liked person, thing, or activity as pleasing to an experiencer. English says “I like this book,” with I as subject. Hindi says मुझे यह किताब पसंद है, where मुझे is the experiencer and किताब is the unmarked subject-like item that controls agreement. This is a central pattern in the wider dative-experiencer system, not a word-for-word replacement of English like.
The core experiencer pattern
The frame is experiencer-को + liked item + पसंद + होना. पसंद itself remains unchanged. The inflected form of होना agrees with the liked item, not with the experiencer.
मुझे यह शांत इलाक़ा बहुत पसंद है।
mujhe yah śānt ilāqā bahut pasand hai.
I like this quiet neighborhood very much.
मेरी बहन को पुराने हिंदी गाने पसंद हैं।
merī bahan ko purāne hindī gāne pasand haiṃ.
My sister likes old Hindi songs.
The second sentence has plural गाने, so the copula is हैं even though बहन refers to one person. The possessive मेरी belongs inside the experiencer phrase and does not control the predicate.
Agreement across time and modality
| Liked item | Present state | Past state | Future / inference | Subjunctive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | पसंद है | पसंद था | पसंद होगा | पसंद हो |
| feminine singular | पसंद है | पसंद थी | पसंद होगी | पसंद हो |
| masculine/mixed plural | पसंद हैं | पसंद थे | पसंद होंगे | पसंद हों |
| feminine plural | पसंद हैं | पसंद थीं | पसंद होंगी | पसंद हों |
बचपन में उसे मसालेदार खाना पसंद नहीं था।
bacpan meṃ use masāledār khānā pasand nahīṃ thā.
As a child, he/she did not like spicy food.
आपको खिड़की वाली सीटें शायद ज़्यादा पसंद होंगी।
āpko khiṛkī vālī sīṭeṃ śāyad zyādā pasand hoṅgī.
You will probably prefer the window seats.
In the future example, feminine plural सीटें triggers होंगी. Honorific आपको would require plural agreement if it were the grammatical controller, but it is not; the result happens to be plural because the liked item itself is plural.
Liking an activity or a clause
An infinitive can name the liked activity. It behaves as a masculine singular verbal noun, so the predicate normally has singular है/था/होगा.
हमें रविवार की सुबह देर तक सोना पसंद है।
hameṃ ravivār kī subah der tak sonā pasand hai.
We like sleeping late on Sunday mornings.
उसे सफ़र में अकेले बैठकर पढ़ना पसंद था।
use safar meṃ akele baiṭhkar paṛhnā pasand thā.
He/She liked sitting alone and reading while traveling.
A demonstrative plus कि clause can package a proposition as what pleases the experiencer: मुझे यह पसंद है कि.... This is more explicit and often more evaluative than a bare infinitive.
मुझे यह पसंद है कि यहाँ लोग समय पर जवाब देते हैं।
mujhe yah pasand hai ki yahā̃ log samay par javāb dete haiṃ.
I like the fact that people here reply on time.
State, habitual, progressive, and change
Simple पसंद है is the neutral state. Habitual पसंद होता है is useful for recurring types or context-dependent preferences. Progressive पसंद हो रहा है is possible when liking is developing, although everyday Hindi very often prefers पसंद आ रहा है.
| Viewpoint | Example shape | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| state | यह शहर पसंद है | the city is liked |
| habitual | मुझे काम करते समय हल्का संगीत पसंद होता है | the preference recurs in that setting |
| progressive | शहर पसंद हो रहा है | liking is developing |
| perfective change | शहर पसंद हो गया | the city came to be liked |
कुछ दिन रहने के बाद अब मुझे यह शहर पसंद हो रहा है।
kuch din rahne ke bād ab mujhe yah śahar pasand ho rahā hai.
After living here for a few days, I am starting to like this city.
दूसरी बार सुनने पर उसे वह गीत पसंद हो गया।
dūsrī bār sunne par use vah gīt pasand ho gayā.
After hearing it a second time, he/she came to like that song.
The compositional perfective forms are पसंद हुआ / हुई / हुए / हुईं, but for a reaction after experiencing something, पसंद आया / आई / आए / आईं is often the most idiomatic choice.
नई प्रदर्शनी में मुझे मिट्टी की मूर्तियाँ सबसे ज़्यादा पसंद आईं।
naī pradarśanī meṃ mujhe miṭṭī kī mūrtiyā̃ sabse zyādā pasand āīṃ.
At the new exhibition, I liked the clay sculptures best.
पसंद होना and पसंद करना
Both patterns are common, but they organize the event differently:
| Pattern | Alignment | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| मुझे किताब पसंद है | experiencer-को + liked item | state of preference |
| मैं किताब पसंद करता हूँ | nominative experiencer + object | active evaluation; sometimes selection |
| मैंने यह किताब पसंद की | ergative agent + object agreement | selected/approved this book |
इन तीन नमूनों में से ग्राहक ने नीला डिज़ाइन पसंद किया।
in tīn namūnoṃ meṃ se grāhak ne nīlā ḍizāin pasand kiyā.
Of these three samples, the customer selected the blue design.
English like does not reveal this difference. In a simple personal preference, the होना frame is extremely natural. In a selection task or an active statement of approval, पसंद करना becomes more likely.
Subjunctive, directives, and non-finite forms
Subjunctive पसंद हो / हों occurs in relative, conditional, and possibility contexts.
जो रंग आपको पसंद हो, वही चुनिए।
jo raṅg āpko pasand ho, vahī cunie.
Choose whichever color you like.
A mental preference cannot ordinarily be commanded with an imperative of होना. Hindi directs the resulting choice instead: चुनो, ले लो, or जो पसंद हो.... Useful non-finite forms include पसंद होना, पसंद होने पर, पसंद होता हुआ in a genuinely changing context, and पसंद होने वाला “likely to be liked.” More idiomatic attributive alternatives are often पसंद आने वाला and पसंद किया हुआ.
यह बच्चों को पसंद आने वाली हल्की-सी कहानी है।
yah baccoṃ ko pasand āne vālī halkī-sī kahānī hai.
This is a light story that children are likely to enjoy.
Related predicates and causation
पसंद आना profiles the liked item's favorable impact on someone; पसंद हो जाना profiles entry into a preference-state; पसंद करना supplies a transitive evaluator. पसंद होना is not an auxiliary or vector, and it does not combine freely after verb stems.
There is no neutral everyday single-word causative meaning “make someone like.” Hindi states the actual action: रुचि पैदा करना “create interest,” अच्छा अनुभव देना “give a good experience,” or किसी को अपनाने के लिए राज़ी करना “persuade someone to adopt.” पसंद करवाना is possible only in special arranged-selection contexts, not as a general psychological causative.
An idiomatic extension मनपसंद means personally favored or exactly to one's taste.
आख़िर हमें अपने मनपसंद समय पर ट्रेन मिल गई।
āxir hameṃ apne manpasand samay par ṭren mil gaī.
At last we found a train at our preferred time.
Common Mistakes
❌ मैं यह किताब पसंद हूँ।
Incorrect — पसंद होना marks the experiencer with को.
✅ मुझे यह किताब बहुत पसंद है।
mujhe yah kitāb bahut pasand hai.
I like this book very much.
❌ उसे ये नए जूते पसंद है।
Incorrect — plural जूते controls हैं.
✅ उसे ये नए जूते पसंद हैं।
use ye nae jūte pasand haiṃ.
He/She likes these new shoes.
❌ मैं सुबह तैरना पसंद हूँ।
Incorrect — an activity liked in the होना frame still requires a dative experiencer.
✅ मुझे सुबह तैरना पसंद है।
mujhe subah tairnā pasand hai.
I like swimming in the morning.
❌ मैंने वह फ़िल्म पसंद हुआ।
Incorrectly mixes the transitive and dative-experiencer frames.
✅ मुझे वह फ़िल्म उम्मीद से ज़्यादा पसंद आई।
mujhe vah film ummīd se zyādā pasand āī.
I liked that film more than I expected.
Key Takeaways
पसंद होना uses a को-marked experiencer and an unmarked liked item that controls agreement. Infinitival activities normally trigger singular होना. Dynamic liking favors पसंद आना or पसंद हो जाना, while पसंद करना presents an active evaluation or selection. The predicate has no ordinary psychological causative and no imperative that can command a genuine preference.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Dative experiencer subjectsB1 — Analyze Hindi experiencer clauses with को-marked participants, local agreement, lexical case frames, and clear scope across clause boundaries.
- होना honā: to be and happenA1 — Reference the irregular copula, existential, eventive, auxiliary, and change-of-state forms of होना across the major Hindi paradigms.
- Agreement in gender and numberA1 — Track masculine, feminine, singular, and plural agreement across Hindi participles, predicates, and auxiliaries.
- Noun plus होना predicatesB2 — Use noun plus होना to present states, experiences, and events as obtaining or occurring without profiling an external agent.
- Agreement in noun-verb predicatesB2 — Track Hindi agreement through conjunct predicates, from subject agreement in the imperfective to event-noun agreement in transitive perfectives.
- Intransitive perfective agreementA2 — Make ordinary intransitive perfectives agree with their unmarked subject while recognizing agentive exceptions and experiencer structures.