याद करना is the agentive member of the memory family. It can mean deliberately recall, memorize, think of, miss, or commemorate. Its grammatical subject is the person doing the mental act, whereas याद होना places the experiencer in a को phrase and presents information as already available in memory. That alignment contrast determines aspect, perfective ने, and agreement.
Principal forms
याद is a fixed nominal element; करना carries all verbal morphology. Its irregular perfective is किया, not a form built regularly from कर-.
| Category | Forms |
|---|---|
| infinitive | याद करना |
| habitual | याद करता / करती / करते |
| progressive | याद कर रहा / रही / रहे |
| perfective | याद किया / की / किए / कीं |
| conjunctive | याद करके |
| prospective | याद करने वाला / वाली / वाले |
वह रोज़ दस नए शब्द याद करती है।
vah roz das nae śabd yād kartī hai.
She memorizes ten new words every day.
बच्चे मंच के पीछे अपनी पंक्तियाँ याद कर रहे हैं।
bacce mañc ke pīche apnī paṅktiyā̃ yād kar rahe haiṃ.
The children are memorizing their lines backstage.
The habitual can describe a repeated practice; the progressive depicts active memorization or an effortful search through memory. Neither is a mere tense substitute for मुझे याद है.
Deliberate recall and memorization
A learner can कविता याद करना “memorize a poem,” or a witness can घटना याद करना “recall an incident.” The object is usually unmarked unless animacy, specificity, or another lexical consideration favors को.
ज़रा याद करो कि चाबी आख़िरी बार कहाँ देखी थी।
zarā yād karo ki cābī āxirī bār kahā̃ dekhī thī.
Try to remember where you last saw the key. (familiar)
मैंने प्रस्तुति के मुख्य बिंदु पहले ही याद कर लिए हैं।
maĩne prastuti ke mukhya bindu pahle hī yād kar lie haiṃ.
I have already memorized the main points of the presentation.
The कि clause in the first example is the content being searched for. In neutral descriptions of stored knowledge, Hindi instead chooses the state frame.
Remembering or missing a person
With an animate object, किसी को याद करना commonly means think of or miss that person. The emotional reading comes from context, not from a separate conjugation.
विदेश में रहते हुए वह अपने पुराने दोस्तों को बहुत याद करती थी।
videś meṃ rahte hue vah apne purāne dostoṃ ko bahut yād kartī thī.
While living abroad, she missed her old friends a lot.
आज दादा जी की बरसी पर पूरे परिवार ने उन्हें याद किया।
āj dādā jī kī barsī par pūre parivār ne unheṃ yād kiyā.
Today, on Grandfather's death anniversary, the whole family remembered him.
Because उन्हें is marked, it cannot control perfective agreement; किया remains masculine singular. Commemorative याद करना is neutral across spoken and written registers. Formal public language also uses the passive याद किया जाना.
समारोह में शहर के पुराने कलाकारों को याद किया गया।
samāroh meṃ śahar ke purāne kalākāroṃ ko yād kiyā gayā.
The city's veteran artists were commemorated at the ceremony.
Perfective transitivity and object agreement
याद करना is transitive. A perfective agent normally takes ने. An unmarked object can control the perfective of करना: feminine कविता gives याद की, masculine plural नियम gives याद किए, and a को-marked object gives default याद किया.
प्रतियोगिता से पहले उसने पूरी कविता याद की।
pratiyogitā se pahle usne pūrī kavitā yād kī.
Before the competition, she memorized the whole poem.
परीक्षा के लिए हमने सभी ज़रूरी सूत्र याद किए।
parīkṣā ke lie hamne sabhī zarūrī sūtra yād kie.
We memorized all the necessary formulas for the exam.
This agreement belongs to करना, not to invariant याद. Compare मुझे कविता याद थी, where होना agrees with कविता and there is no agent or ने.
Future and subjunctive
| Person | Subjunctive | Future masculine | Future feminine |
|---|---|---|---|
| मैं | याद करूँ | याद करूँगा | याद करूँगी |
| तुम | याद करो | याद करोगे | याद करोगी |
| यह / वह | याद करे | याद करेगा | याद करेगी |
| हम / आप / ये / वे | याद करें | याद करेंगे | याद करेंगी |
मैं होटल पहुँचकर आपको ज़रूर याद करूँगी।
maĩ hoṭal pahũckar āpko zarūr yād karū̃gī.
I will certainly think of you when I reach the hotel. (female speaker)
बेहतर होगा कि छात्र परिभाषा के साथ उदाहरण भी याद करें।
behtar hogā ki chātr paribhāṣā ke sāth udāharaṇ bhī yād kareṃ.
It would be better for the students to memorize examples along with the definition.
Imperatives and participles
The intimate, familiar, and respectful imperatives are याद कर, याद करो, and याद कीजिए. Respectful याद करिए also occurs, while याद कीजिए is the widely taught standard form. With retention rather than active recall, याद रखिए is often more natural.
कल निकलने से पहले मुझे फ़ोन करना याद रखना।
kal nikalne se pahle mujhe fon karnā yād rakhnā.
Remember to phone me before leaving tomorrow. (familiar)
Participles include याद करते हुए, याद करके, याद किया हुआ, and याद करने वाला. The form याद की हुई कविता describes a poem already memorized.
याद की हुई पंक्तियाँ बोलते समय भी वह घबरा गया।
yād kī huī paṅktiyā̃ bolte samay bhī vah ghabrā gayā.
Even while reciting the memorized lines, he became nervous.
Compounds and causatives
याद कर लेना presents recall or memorization as completed for the subject's purposes. याद कर पाना emphasizes successful retrieval despite difficulty. याद करके रखना means memorize and keep ready, often for a later need. करना is the light verb inside the noun–verb predicate; याद करना itself is not a vector added freely to other verbs.
नंबर लिखने का समय नहीं था, इसलिए मैंने उसे याद कर लिया।
nambar likhne kā samay nahīṃ thā, islie maĩne use yād kar liyā.
There was no time to write the number down, so I memorized it.
याद कराना can cause or prompt recall and can mean make someone memorize. याद करवाना adds an intermediary or arranged causation: have someone make a learner memorize. For the everyday meaning “remind,” याद दिलाना is generally the least ambiguous choice.
शिक्षिका ने सहायक से बच्चों को संवाद याद करवाए।
śikṣikā ne sahāyak se baccoṃ ko saṃvād yād karvāe.
The teacher had the assistant make the children memorize the dialogues.
The idiomatic मुसीबत में भगवान को याद करना means invoke or turn to God in trouble, often with an implication that the person did not do so earlier.
Common Mistakes
❌ मैं उसका नंबर याद करता हूँ।
Incorrect for the intended state of already remembering the number.
✅ मुझे उसका नंबर याद है।
mujhe uskā nambar yād hai.
I remember his/her number.
❌ उसने पूरी कविता याद किया।
Incorrect — unmarked feminine कविता controls की.
✅ उसने मंच पर जाने से पहले पूरी कविता याद की।
usne mañc par jāne se pahle pūrī kavitā yād kī.
She memorized the whole poem before going onstage.
❌ मुझे अपने दोस्त याद कर रहा हूँ।
Incorrect — agentive याद करना requires a nominative subject.
✅ मैं अपने दोस्तों को याद कर रहा हूँ।
maĩ apne dostoṃ ko yād kar rahā hū̃.
I am thinking of / missing my friends. (male speaker)
❌ मैंने उसे याद की।
Incorrect — को-marked उसे blocks object agreement, so the perfective is किया.
✅ मैंने सफ़र के दौरान उसे कई बार याद किया।
maĩne safar ke daurān use kaī bār yād kiyā.
I thought of him/her several times during the journey.
Key Takeaways
याद करना is a transitive noun-plus-करना predicate for active recall, memorization, thinking of, missing, and commemoration. Its perfective uses ने and may agree with an unmarked object. Contrast it with dative याद होना, learn याद कर लेना as completed memorization, and use याद दिलाना when the intended causative meaning is simply “remind.”
Related Topics
- याद होना yād honā: to rememberA2 — Reference याद होना as a dative-experiencer predicate for information held in memory, with item-controlled agreement and related memory constructions.
- करना karnā: to doA1 — Reference करना across its major paradigms, including irregular किया, ergative perfectives, causatives, and productive noun-plus-करना predicates.
- Dative experiencer subjectsB1 — Analyze Hindi experiencer clauses with को-marked participants, local agreement, lexical case frames, and clear scope across clause boundaries.
- Perfective object agreementA2 — Make a transitive perfective agree with an eligible unmarked direct object after ने, including gender-number and auxiliary-bearing forms.
- Noun plus करना predicatesB2 — Build Hindi conjunct predicates in which a noun supplies the event and करना carries tense, aspect, agreement, and agentive structure.
- लेना as self-directed or completive vectorA2 — Use vector लेना to present a result as secured for the agent, brought under control, or carried through to completion.