Hindi has three main second-person pronouns—तू, तुम, आप—and each selects a different future personal base. Compare masculine तू करेगा, तुम करोगे, आप करेंगे and feminine तू करेगी, तुम करोगी, आप करेंगी. The choice is grammatical and social at once: the pronoun establishes an address relationship, and the verb must match it.
This is not a simple formal-versus-informal switch. तू can signal deep intimacy, devotional closeness, or aggression; तुम covers a wide familiar range and may address one or several people; आप is respectful and also serves as an ordinary plural address in many contexts. Those values depend on relationship, setting, community, and moment. Unless labeled otherwise, the examples below are neutral contemporary Hindi.
The three future rows
With करना, the base is करे- for तू, करो- for तुम, and करें- for आप. The final element then marks gender and number.
| Addressee | Personal base | Masculine | Feminine | Typical scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| तू | करे- | करेगा | करेगी | one intimate or deliberately non-respectful addressee |
| तुम | करो- | करोगे | करोगी | one familiar addressee; also a familiar group |
| आप | करें- | करेंगे | करेंगी | one respectful addressee or a respectful/plural group |
तू मेरे साथ चलेगा?
tū mere sāth calegā?
Will you come with me? (intimate, male addressee)
तुम कितने बजे लौटोगी?
tum kitne baje lauṭogī?
What time will you return? (familiar, female addressee)
आप रिपोर्ट कब भेजेंगे?
āp riporṭ kab bhejeṅge?
When will you send the report? (respectful, male addressee)
आप हमारे साथ चलेंगी?
āp hamāre sāth caleṅgī?
Will you come with us? (respectful, female addressee)
English you will leaves both social relation and gender unexpressed. Hindi makes the social contrast visible in the base and gender visible at the end.
Number and mixed groups
तुम historically and grammatically has plural-shaped agreement, even when it addresses one familiar person. With one addressee, the final choice tracks that person's gender. With a familiar group, an all-female group takes -गी, while a male or mixed group takes -गे. आप follows the same gender-number ending pattern on its honorific/plural base.
तुम दोनों बहनें कहाँ ठहरोगी?
tum donoṃ bahneṃ kahā̃ ṭhahrogī?
Where will you two sisters stay? (familiar)
तुम लोग मैच कहाँ देखोगे?
tum log maic kahā̃ dekhoge?
Where will you all watch the match? (familiar, male or mixed group)
आप दोनों अध्यापिकाएँ किस सत्र में बोलेंगी?
āp donoṃ adhyāpikāẽ kis satr meṃ boleṅgī?
Which session will you two teachers speak in? (respectful, all-female group)
When a plural audience is mixed or its composition is not presented as all-female, standard agreement uses masculine plural -गे. This is a grammatical convention, not a statement about the relative importance of people in the group.
Honorific agreement is not optional decoration
With आप, plural/honorific morphology belongs throughout the predicate. Switching only the pronoun while leaving a तुम or तू form creates an agreement mismatch. Hindi can omit the pronoun when context identifies the addressee, but the verb still reveals the selected level.
ज़रा बताइए, आप कब आएँगे?
zarā batāie, āp kab āẽge?
Please tell me, when will you come? (respectful, male addressee)
कल फिर आओगे?
kal phir āoge?
Will you come again tomorrow? (familiar, male addressee; pronoun omitted)
The imperative बताइए and future आएँगे align at a respectful level. ज़रा softens the request; the future itself is not automatically polite. For choosing an address pronoun in context, see तू versus तुम versus आप.
High-frequency forms
Ordinary consonant-final verbs use the productive bases: तू लिखेगा, तुम लिखोगे, आप लिखेंगे. Vowel-final verbs create several very frequent forms worth memorizing.
| Verb | तू, masculine | तुम, masculine | आप, masculine | Feminine change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| जाना | जाएगा | जाओगे | जाएँगे | -गा/-गे → -गी |
| आना | आएगा | आओगे | आएँगे | -गा/-गे → -गी |
| लेना | लेगा | लोगे | लेंगे | लेगी/लोगी/लेंगी |
| देना | देगा | दोगे | देंगे | देगी/दोगी/देंगी |
| होना | होगा | होगे | होंगे | होगी/होगी/होंगी |
तुम रास्ते से सब्ज़ी ले लोगी?
tum rāste se sabzī le logī?
Will you pick up the vegetables on the way? (familiar, female addressee)
Here lexical ले- is followed by vector लेना, whose familiar future is लोगी. The final verb carries the person-gender layers. Compound verbs are lexical choices: ले लोगी adds a successful/completive nuance and is not mechanically interchangeable with every simple verb.
A simple future has no separate auxiliary
Second-person future forms are finite without हो or हैं after them. Compare habitual तुम जाते हो “you go” with future तुम जाओगे “you will go.” The former contains an aspectual participle plus present copula; the latter contains the future personal base and agreement element in one word.
आप कल कार्यालय में रहेंगी।
āp kal kāryālay meṃ raheṅgī.
You will be at the office tomorrow. (respectful, female addressee)
The construction is layered—lexical रह- + respectful/plural base -ें- + feminine future -गी—but does not select a separate present auxiliary.
Negation and questions
Neutral नहीं precedes the future predicate. Clause-initial क्या may mark a yes–no question, while a wh-word normally remains in its natural preverbal position. Neither operation changes honorific agreement.
तुम आज देर तक नहीं रुकोगे।
tum āj der tak nahīṃ rukoge.
You will not stay late today. (familiar, male addressee)
क्या आप कल बैठक में आएँगी?
kyā āp kal baiṭhak meṃ āẽgī?
Will you come to the meeting tomorrow? (respectful, female addressee)
तू उससे फिर बात नहीं करेगी?
tū usse phir bāt nahīṃ karegī?
Won't you speak to her again? (intimate, female addressee)
Negative questions can express surprise or an expectation that the answer may be yes. That pragmatic coloring comes from question type and intonation, not from a special future ending.
The addressee may not control agreement
An English second-person subject can correspond to oblique Hindi तुम्हें/आपको in necessity constructions. Then the future form need not be second person.
आपको ये दोनों रसीदें सँभालकर रखनी पड़ेंगी।
āpko ye donoṃ rasīdeṃ sãbhālkar rakhnī paṛeṅgī.
You will have to keep both receipts safe. (respectful addressee)
Although “you” is the obligated actor, आपको does not control पड़ेंगी. Feminine plural रसीदें controls the agreeing infinitive and necessity predicate. This is why translating English person morphology word for word fails.
Common Mistakes
Mixing आप with a familiar base
❌ आप कब आओगे?
Incorrect in respectful standard agreement — आओगे belongs with तुम.
✅ आप कब आएँगे?
āp kab āẽge?
When will you come? (respectful, male addressee)
Giving तुम a third-person singular form
❌ तुम कल जाएगा?
Incorrect — तुम requires the familiar base जाओ-.
✅ तुम कल जाओगे?
tum kal jāoge?
Will you go tomorrow? (familiar, male addressee)
Using masculine agreement for a female addressee
❌ रीना, तुम कब लौटोगे?
Incorrect when addressing Reena — use feminine लौटोगी.
✅ रीना, तुम कब लौटोगी?
rīnā, tum kab lauṭogī?
Reena, when will you return? (familiar)
Adding a present copula
❌ आप कल आएँगे हैं।
Incorrect — आएँगे is already a finite future.
✅ आप कल आएँगे।
āp kal āẽge.
You will come tomorrow. (respectful, male addressee)
Assuming तू is merely “casual”
❌ सर, तू कल आएगा?
Pragmatically inappropriate in an ordinary respectful workplace exchange — तू can sound insulting here.
✅ सर, आप कल आएँगे?
sar, āp kal āẽge?
Sir, will you come tomorrow? (respectful workplace address)
Key Takeaways
- तू takes करे-, तुम takes करो-, and आप takes करें- before the future agreement element.
- Masculine and mixed plural usually take -गे; an all-female group takes -गी.
- आप always selects plural/honorific agreement, even for one person.
- Negation and question formation do not remove person, gender, or honorific marking.
- Oblique तुम्हें/आपको in a necessity construction may not control the finite verb.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Future personal basesA2 — Build Hindi future predicates from person-number-honorific bases such as करूँ-, करे-, करो-, and करें- before adding gender-number endings.
- Future suffixes -gā -gī -geA2 — Choose -गा, -गी, or -गे for gender-number and honorific agreement after the appropriate Hindi future personal base.
- First-person future formsA2 — Form and use Hindi first-person futures with मैं and हम, including gender, number, negation, questions, and irregular high-frequency bases.
- तू versus तुम versus आपB2 — Choose among intimate तू, familiar तुम, and respectful आप by relationship and setting, then keep pronouns and agreement at the same social level.
- Making requests across honorific levelsB1 — Match Hindi requests to intimate, familiar, and respectful relationships by coordinating address level, verb form, indirectness, particles, and tone.