Hindi verb phrases often display the gender and number of a grammatical controller. In ordinary habitual and progressive clauses, that controller is usually the unmarked subject: masculine singular करता/रहा, feminine singular करती/रही, masculine or mixed plural करते/रहे, and feminine plural करती/रही with a plural auxiliary. English verbs show almost none of this contrast, so agreement has to become part of how you build every Hindi predicate.
A verb phrase is layered
Hindi does not generally package an English tense into one equivalent word. Start with a lexical stem, add an aspectual layer, and then add an auxiliary when the construction requires one.
| Layer | Habitual example | Progressive example |
|---|---|---|
| Lexical stem | कर- “do” | कर- “do” |
| Aspect | करता “does habitually” | कर रहा “is doing” |
| Auxiliary | करता है | कर रहा है |
The aspectual material carries gender-number agreement. The present auxiliary adds person-number information but does not itself distinguish masculine from feminine.
रवि रोज़ घर पर खाना बनाता है।
ravi roz ghar par khānā banātā hai.
Ravi cooks at home every day.
नैना अभी घर पर खाना बना रही है।
nainā abhī ghar par khānā banā rahī hai.
Naina is cooking at home now.
In बनाता है, habitual -ता is masculine singular. In बना रही है, progressive रही is feminine singular. The time expressions help select habitual versus ongoing meaning; English present forms do not determine the Hindi aspect mechanically.
Compact gender-number paradigm
The habitual of जाना “to go” shows the core four-way pattern. Present auxiliaries are included so that each form is a complete neutral affirmative predicate.
| Controller | Form | Example meaning |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | जाता है | he goes / usually goes |
| feminine singular | जाती है | she goes / usually goes |
| masculine or mixed plural | जाते हैं | they go / usually go |
| feminine plural | जाती हैं | they go / usually go |
अर्जुन सोमवार को जल्दी जाता है।
arjun somvār ko jaldī jātā hai.
Arjun leaves early on Mondays.
सोनिया सोमवार को जल्दी जाती है।
soniyā somvār ko jaldī jātī hai.
Sonia leaves early on Mondays.
लड़के छुट्टी के बाद घर जाते हैं।
laṛke chuṭṭī ke bād ghar jāte haiṃ.
The boys go home after the break.
लड़कियाँ छुट्टी के बाद घर जाती हैं।
laṛkiyā̃ chuṭṭī ke bād ghar jātī haiṃ.
The girls go home after the break.
Feminine plural जाती हैं differs from feminine singular जाती है in the auxiliary: the habitual participle stays जाती, while है/हैं distinguishes singular from plural. This differs from the past copula, whose feminine plural form थीं is itself visibly nasalized.
Progressive and past agreement
Progressive रहा has masculine singular रहा, masculine/mixed plural रहे, and feminine रही for both singular and plural. In a present finite clause, है/हैं distinguishes feminine singular रही है from feminine plural रही हैं.
अमन बाहर इंतज़ार कर रहा है।
aman bāhar intazār kar rahā hai.
Aman is waiting outside.
मेरी बहनें नीचे इंतज़ार कर रही हैं।
merī bahneṃ nīce intazār kar rahī haiṃ.
My sisters are waiting downstairs.
The past copula itself agrees in gender and number: था, थी, थे, थीं.
दुकान सुबह बंद थी, लेकिन दफ़्तर खुले थे।
dukān subah band thī, lekin daftar khule the.
The shop was closed in the morning, but the offices were open.
Here indeclinable बंद shows no visible agreement, plural masculine खुले agrees with दफ़्तर, and the past auxiliaries थी/थे agree with their respective subjects.
Questions and negation do not erase agreement
A yes–no question may add clause-initial क्या or use intonation. A negative normally puts नहीं before the predicate. Neither operation changes the controller or its gender-number features.
क्या मीना आज काम कर रही है?
kyā mīnā āj kām kar rahī hai?
Is Mina working today?
मीना आज काम नहीं कर रही है।
mīnā āj kām nahīṃ kar rahī hai.
Mina is not working today.
क्या बच्चे अभी सो रहे हैं?
kyā bacce abhī so rahe haiṃ?
Are the children sleeping now?
Progressive negatives normally retain the auxiliary: नहीं कर रही है, not merely नहीं कर रही in neutral complete prose. Habitual negatives can omit a present auxiliary in common standard usage—वह चाय नहीं पीता—but affirmative habitual clauses normally retain it. This is a construction-specific asymmetry, not permission to drop auxiliaries freely.
The grammatical controller is not always the actor
In a perfective intransitive clause, the subject ordinarily controls agreement.
रीमा देर से पहुँची।
rīmā der se pahũcī.
Rima arrived late.
In a canonical perfective transitive clause, the actor is normally marked by ने. A ने-marked phrase does not control verb agreement. If the direct object is unmarked, that object can control agreement.
रीमा ने नई किताब खरीदी।
rīmā ne naī kitāb kharīdī.
Rima bought a new book.
Feminine खरीदी agrees with unmarked feminine object किताब, not with actor रीमा. Because both happen to be feminine here, change the actor to see the structure:
रोहन ने नई किताब खरीदी।
rohan ne naī kitāb kharīdī.
Rohan bought a new book.
The verb remains feminine. If the object is marked with को, neither marked argument controls, and the verb takes default masculine singular agreement.
रीमा ने रोहन को बुलाया।
rīmā ne rohan ko bulāyā.
Rima called Rohan over.
This agreement hierarchy is one of Hindi's hardest systems. It is not reducible to “verbs agree with the subject,” nor to semantic ideas like who intentionally did the action. See the agreement hierarchy for the full controller system.
Infinitives are not ordinary finite verbs
The dictionary form in -ना names an action and serves in infinitival constructions. It cannot by itself replace an ordinary finite predicate with a present-time subject.
मुझे शाम को बाज़ार जाना है।
mujhe śām ko bāzār jānā hai.
I have to go to the market in the evening.
This is grammatical because जाना is the infinitival predicate of a necessity construction with मुझे. It does not mean that जाना is a finite first-person present form. For “I go to the market every evening,” Hindi needs the habitual layer and auxiliary: मैं हर शाम बाज़ार जाता हूँ or जाती हूँ according to the speaker.
Common Mistakes
Copying the subject's natural gender but ignoring grammatical number
❌ मेरी बहनें बाहर बैठी है।
Incorrect — feminine plural बहनें requires plural auxiliary हैं.
✅ मेरी बहनें बाहर बैठी हैं।
merī bahneṃ bāhar baiṭhī haiṃ.
My sisters are sitting outside.
Using an infinitive as a finite present verb
❌ मैं रोज़ तैरना।
Incorrect — तैरना is an infinitive, not a complete habitual predicate.
✅ मैं रोज़ तैरता हूँ।
maĩ roz tairtā hū̃.
I swim every day. (male speaker)
Omitting the auxiliary from an affirmative habitual
❌ वह हर शाम टहलती।
Incorrect as a neutral present habitual; the auxiliary is required.
✅ वह हर शाम टहलती है।
vah har śām ṭahaltī hai.
She takes a walk every evening.
Matching the perfective verb to the actor after ने
❌ रवि ने चिट्ठी लिखा।
Incorrect — unmarked feminine चिट्ठी controls perfective agreement.
✅ रवि ने चिट्ठी लिखी।
ravi ne ciṭṭhī likhī.
Ravi wrote the letter.
Translating an English ongoing present with the habitual
❌ रुको, मैं जूते पहनता हूँ।
Incorrect for ‘wait, I am putting on my shoes now’; the habitual suggests a routine.
✅ रुको, मैं जूते पहन रहा हूँ।
ruko, maĩ jūte pahan rahā hū̃.
Wait, I'm putting on my shoes. (male speaker)
Key Takeaways
- Gender-number agreement normally appears on aspectual participles and on gendered auxiliaries such as था/थी/थे/थीं.
- Hindi predicates are layered: lexical stem + aspect or modality + auxiliary.
- Negation and questions preserve the underlying agreement pattern.
- The semantic actor is not always the grammatical controller: perfective transitive ने can redirect agreement to an unmarked object or trigger default agreement.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Person agreement in auxiliariesA1 — Choose हूँ, हो, है, and हैं by person, number, and honorificity while preserving agreement inside layered predicates.
- Finite predicates and auxiliariesA1 — Build complete Hindi predicates by combining a lexical stem with aspect or modality, agreement morphology, and the appropriate finite auxiliary.
- 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.
- Perfective object agreementA2 — Make a transitive perfective agree with an eligible unmarked direct object after ने, including gender-number and auxiliary-bearing forms.
- Agreement hierarchy overviewA2 — Choose the Hindi predicate's agreement controller from case marking and clause structure rather than word order or meaning.