The present auxiliary has four core forms: हूँ (hū̃), हो (ho), है (hai), and हैं (haiṃ). Their choice depends on grammatical person, number, and honorificity—not on gender. In a layered predicate such as काम कर रही हूँ, feminine रही identifies the speaker's gender, while first-person हूँ identifies the subject as मैं.
Present auxiliary paradigm
| Subject | Auxiliary | Complete habitual example |
|---|---|---|
| मैं | हूँ | मैं जाता हूँ / जाती हूँ |
| हम | हैं | हम जाते हैं / जाती हैं |
| तू | है | तू जाता है / जाती है |
| तुम | हो | तुम जाते हो / जाती हो |
| आप | हैं | आप जाते हैं / जाती हैं |
| यह/वह | है | वह जाता है / जाती है |
| ये/वे | हैं | वे जाते हैं / जाती हैं |
आप takes plural/honorific agreement even when it refers to one person. तू is grammatically singular but socially restricted; it is intimate, devotional, insulting, or otherwise relationship-dependent, never a neutral default for a stranger. तुम is familiar, and आप is respectful or safely polite.
मैं रोज़ छह बजे उठता हूँ।
maĩ roz chah baje uṭhtā hū̃.
I get up at six every day. (male speaker)
मैं आज घर से काम कर रही हूँ।
maĩ āj ghar se kām kar rahī hū̃.
I am working from home today. (female speaker)
तुम अब कहाँ रह रहे हो?
tum ab kahā̃ rah rahe ho?
Where are you living now? (addressing a male or mixed familiar group)
आप बहुत अच्छा गाती हैं।
āp bahut acchā gātī haiṃ.
You sing very well. (respectful, addressing a woman)
The auxiliary expresses person-honorific agreement; habitual or progressive material expresses gender-number agreement. Treating the whole string as one indivisible conjugated word hides this division of labor.
The same auxiliary works across predicate types
Present forms of होना can close nominal, adjectival, locative, habitual, and progressive predicates.
हम पुराने दोस्त हैं।
ham purāne dost haiṃ.
We are old friends.
वह आज बहुत व्यस्त है।
vah āj bahut vyast hai.
She is very busy today.
मैं अभी बस में हूँ।
maĩ abhī bas meṃ hū̃.
I am on the bus right now.
बच्चे बाहर खेल रहे हैं।
bacce bāhar khel rahe haiṃ.
The children are playing outside.
The lexical content comes from दोस्त, व्यस्त, बस में, or खेल रहे. The auxiliary anchors that content as a present finite predicate. English also uses forms of be in several constructions, but the form-by-form mapping is not exact: Hindi has no article in हम दोस्त हैं, and its participial material carries overt agreement.
Past auxiliaries organize agreement differently
Past था/थी/थे/थीं chiefly mark gender and number rather than distinct persons.
| Controller | Past auxiliary | Example phrase |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | था | मैं तैयार था |
| feminine singular | थी | मैं तैयार थी |
| masculine/mixed plural or honorific | थे | हम तैयार थे / आप तैयार थे |
| feminine plural | थीं | वे तैयार थीं |
कल मैं दफ़्तर में था, लेकिन नेहा घर पर थी।
kal maĩ daftar meṃ thā, lekin nehā ghar par thī.
Yesterday I was at the office, but Neha was at home. (male speaker)
आप कल बहुत व्यस्त थे।
āp kal bahut vyast the.
You were very busy yesterday. (respectful)
The second sentence uses honorific plural थे even for one male addressee. With a known female addressee, use feminine plural थीं: मैडम, आप कल बहुत व्यस्त थीं. The referent supplies gender, while respectful आप supplies plural-honorific number.
Affirmative, negative, and question contrasts
Changing polarity or clause type does not license a different person form.
तुम आज खाली हो।
tum āj khālī ho.
You are free today.
तुम आज खाली नहीं हो।
tum āj khālī nahīṃ ho.
You are not free today.
क्या तुम आज खाली हो?
kyā tum āj khālī ho?
Are you free today?
All three retain हो because the subject remains तुम. Hindi does not invert the auxiliary and subject as English does; the yes–no question uses क्या or intonation while preserving ordinary predicate-final order.
In habitual negatives, the present auxiliary is often omitted:
मैं सुबह चाय नहीं पीती।
maĩ subah cāy nahīṃ pītī.
I don't drink tea in the morning. (female speaker)
The positive counterpart requires हूँ in a neutral complete clause: मैं सुबह चाय पीती हूँ. Progressive negatives normally keep the auxiliary: मैं चाय नहीं पी रही हूँ. Auxiliary omission is therefore licensed by a particular negative habitual pattern, not by a general rule that हूँ/हो/है/हैं are optional.
Auxiliary selection expresses time and mood
The same lexical-aspectual material can combine with a present or past auxiliary.
वह पहले यहीं काम करता था, अब घर से काम करता है।
vah pahle yahīṃ kām kartā thā, ab ghar se kām kartā hai.
He used to work right here; now he works from home.
Habitual करता stays masculine singular; था places the former routine in the past and है anchors the current routine in the present. Hindi tense is thus distributed across layers rather than copied from a single English verb form. Future and subjunctive formations add other person-marked material; their full paradigms belong on the dedicated tense and mood pages.
Semantic experiencers do not automatically control the auxiliary
English often treats the person who experiences obligation, possession, or sensation as the subject. Hindi may mark that person with को or another postposition, leaving a different agreement controller or default masculine singular.
आपको अब जाना है।
āpko ab jānā hai.
You have to leave now. (respectful)
Despite respectful आप, the construction uses है, not हैं: आपको is a marked experiencer/obligor, while infinitive जाना supplies a default masculine singular predicate. Compare this with unmarked-subject आप जा रहे हैं, where आप controls honorific plural agreement.
मुझे दो टिकट चाहिए।
mujhe do ṭikaṭ cāhie.
I need two tickets.
Invariant चाहिए does not acquire a first-person form merely because मुझे is the person with the need. Agreement follows Hindi syntax, not the English translation's subject.
See finite predicates and auxiliaries for the broader distinction between person-bearing finite material and non-finite layers.
Common Mistakes
Using है with मैं
❌ मैं घर पर है।
Incorrect — first-person singular मैं requires हूँ.
✅ मैं घर पर हूँ।
maĩ ghar par hū̃.
I am at home.
Treating respectful आप as singular agreement
❌ आप कहाँ रहता है?
Incorrect — आप requires honorific plural agreement.
✅ आप कहाँ रहते हैं?
āp kahā̃ rahte haiṃ?
Where do you live? (respectful)
Omitting the auxiliary from a positive progressive
❌ बच्चे बाहर खेल रहे।
Incorrect as a neutral complete present progressive; हैं is required.
✅ बच्चे बाहर खेल रहे हैं।
bacce bāhar khel rahe haiṃ.
The children are playing outside.
Letting the semantic actor control a marked obligation construction
❌ आपको अभी जाना हैं।
Incorrect — marked आपको does not control the auxiliary in this infinitival necessity construction.
✅ आपको अभी जाना है।
āpko abhī jānā hai.
You have to leave now. (respectful)
Using an infinitive instead of layered finite morphology
❌ हम अभी खाना बनाना।
Incorrect for an ongoing event — बनाना is an infinitive.
✅ हम अभी खाना बना रहे हैं।
ham abhī khānā banā rahe haiṃ.
We are cooking now. (male or mixed group)
Key Takeaways
- Present हूँ/हो/है/हैं mark person, number, and honorificity, not gender.
- Habitual and progressive material carries visible gender-number agreement before the auxiliary.
- Negation and questions preserve the subject's auxiliary form; only particular constructions license omission.
- A person translated as English “I/you/he” does not control agreement when Hindi marks that experiencer and selects another controller or default form.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Agreement in gender and numberA1 — Track masculine, feminine, singular, and plural agreement across Hindi participles, predicates, and auxiliaries.
- Finite predicates and auxiliariesA1 — Build complete Hindi predicates by combining a lexical stem with aspect or modality, agreement morphology, and the appropriate finite auxiliary.
- Present copula हूँ हो है हैंA1 — Choose हूँ, हो, है, or हैं by person, number, and honorificity, and use the present copula as both a main verb and an auxiliary.
- Past copula था थी थे थींA1 — Use था, थी, थे, and थीं for past identity, state, location, and auxiliary constructions, with gender-number agreement.
- 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.
- Plural agreement with singular आपB2 — Track plural-honorific agreement with one आप across copulas, habituals, progressives, futures, perfectives, predicates, and imperatives.