The simple perfective presents an event as a bounded whole. With many consonant-final stems, add -आ, -ई, -ए, -ईं according to the agreement controller: लिखा, लिखी, लिखे, लिखीं. Several of the most frequent verbs have special perfective bases—किया, गया, हुआ, लिया, दिया—so perfective formation combines a productive pattern with unavoidable lexical irregularity.
Regular formation
Remove infinitival -ना and add the agreeing perfective ending.
| Controller | लिखना | बोलना |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | लिखा | बोला |
| masculine plural/honorific | लिखे | बोले |
| feminine singular | लिखी | बोली |
| feminine plural, simple form without auxiliary | लिखीं | बोलीं |
रवि देर से पहुँचा।
ravi der se pahũcā.
Ravi arrived late.
सीमा देर से पहुँची।
sīmā der se pahũcī.
Seema arrived late.
लड़के समय पर पहुँचे।
laṛke samay par pahũce.
The boys arrived on time.
लड़कियाँ समय पर पहुँचीं।
laṛkiyā̃ samay par pahũcīṃ.
The girls arrived on time.
These intransitive examples agree with their unmarked subjects. The endings express gender and number, not person: मैं पहुँचा and वह पहुँचा share the same masculine singular perfective form.
Frequent irregular perfectives
| Infinitive | Masculine singular | Feminine singular | Masculine plural | Feminine plural simple |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| करना | किया | की | किए | कीं |
| जाना | गया | गई | गए | गईं |
| होना | हुआ | हुई | हुए | हुईं |
| लेना | लिया | ली | लिए | लीं |
| देना | दिया | दी | दिए | दीं |
Vowel-final verbs also show glide or stem changes: खाना → खाया, पीना → पिया, आना → आया. There is no honest shortcut that predicts every high-frequency form; learn irregular perfectives with the infinitive.
मेहमान आए और हमने उन्हें चाय दी।
mehmān āe aur hamne unheṃ cāy dī.
The guests arrived, and we gave them tea.
बैठक जल्दी ख़त्म हुई।
baiṭhak jaldī xatm huī.
The meeting ended early.
Simple perfective and auxiliaries
A simple perfective without an auxiliary commonly narrates a completed past event. Adding present है/हैं produces a present-perfect construction; adding past था/थी/थे/थीं produces a past-perfect or result-before-past construction.
| Form | Viewpoint |
|---|---|
| वह आया | he came |
| वह आया है | he has come / is now here |
| वह आया था | he had come / came in an earlier past frame |
कूरियर सुबह आया।
kūriyar subah āyā.
The courier came in the morning.
कूरियर अभी आया है।
kūriyar abhī āyā hai.
The courier has just arrived.
The auxiliary is genuinely absent in the simple perfective; this is not careless omission. Conversely, do not drop है when the intended construction is present perfect.
Agreement depends on transitivity and case
An intransitive perfective normally agrees with its unmarked subject. A canonical transitive perfective normally marks the actor with ने; an eligible unmarked direct object then controls agreement.
रोहित ने खिड़की खोली।
rohit ne khiṛkī kholī.
Rohit opened the window.
अनु ने दोनों पत्र लिखे।
anu ne donoṃ patr likhe.
Anu wrote both letters.
Feminine खिड़की selects खोली; masculine plural पत्र selects लिखे. The semantic actor does not control after ने.
If the object is marked by को, neither marked argument is eligible, so the verb takes default masculine singular agreement.
रोहित ने सीमा को बुलाया।
rohit ne sīmā ko bulāyā.
Rohit called Seema over.
The conditioning of को depends on animacy, specificity, definiteness, lexical semantics, and construction. Do not add it to every English direct object.
For the full controller logic, see perfective object agreement.
Feminine plural before an auxiliary
Standalone simple perfectives show -ईं: लड़कियाँ आईं, महिलाओं ने चिट्ठियाँ लिखीं. Before an auxiliary, contemporary Standard Hindi normally uses nonnasalized -ई and lets the auxiliary show number: लड़कियाँ आई हैं, लड़कियाँ आई थीं.
दो बसें देर से आईं।
do baseṃ der se āīṃ.
Two buses arrived late.
दो बसें देर से आई हैं।
do baseṃ der se āī haiṃ.
Two buses have arrived late.
This contrast is specific to the structure. Do not copy feminine plural -ईं mechanically into आईं हैं.
Polarity and questions
क्या नेहा कल आई?
kyā nehā kal āī?
Did Neha come yesterday?
नेहा कल नहीं आई।
nehā kal nahīṃ āī.
Neha did not come yesterday.
क्या तुमने खिड़की बंद की?
kyā tumne khiṛkī band kī?
Did you close the window?
Negation precedes the perfective predicate. Questions preserve the same agreement and case structure; क्या or intonation changes clause type, not the verb's controller.
Perfective is aspect, not just “past tense”
The perfective views an event as bounded. It is strongly associated with past narrative in its simple form, but auxiliary combinations can locate the result relative to present or past. English simple past is therefore a frequent translation, not the grammatical definition.
उसने रिपोर्ट पूरी की है।
usne riporṭ pūrī kī hai.
She has completed the report.
Here perfective की agrees with feminine रिपोर्ट, and present है relates the completed event to the current state. Hindi has stacked lexical, perfective, and auxiliary information rather than one tense suffix.
Common Mistakes
Making every perfective regular
❌ वह कल जाया।
Incorrect — जाना has irregular perfective गया.
✅ वह कल गया।
vah kal gayā.
He went yesterday.
Using the infinitive for a completed event
❌ सीमा सुबह आना।
Incorrect — आना is an infinitive, not a finite perfective.
✅ सीमा सुबह आई।
sīmā subah āī.
Seema came in the morning.
Matching a ने-clause to the actor
❌ रवि ने किताब पढ़ा।
Incorrect — unmarked feminine किताब controls पढ़ी.
✅ रवि ने किताब पढ़ी।
ravi ne kitāb paṛhī.
Ravi read the book.
Over-nasalizing before an auxiliary
❌ लड़कियाँ घर गईं हैं।
Incorrect in contemporary Standard Hindi — before हैं use गई.
✅ लड़कियाँ घर गई हैं।
laṛkiyā̃ ghar gaī haiṃ.
The girls have gone home.
Key Takeaways
- Regular perfectives add agreeing -आ/-ई/-ए/-ईं to a stem, but frequent verbs such as करना, जाना, होना, लेना, देना are irregular.
- Simple perfective commonly narrates completed past events; auxiliaries create present-perfect and past-perfect layers.
- Agreement follows Hindi case structure: intransitive subject, unmarked object after ने, or default masculine singular.
- Feminine plural -ईं appears in standalone simple forms; before an auxiliary, use -ई है/हैं/थी/थीं as appropriate.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Masculine perfective -ā and -eA2 — Choose masculine singular -ā and masculine plural or honorific -e in simple and auxiliary-bearing perfective predicates.
- Feminine perfective -ī and -īṃA2 — Distinguish feminine singular -ī from standalone feminine plural -īṃ and control feminine agreement before auxiliaries.
- Intransitive perfective agreementA2 — Make ordinary intransitive perfectives agree with their unmarked subject while recognizing agentive exceptions and experiencer structures.
- Transitive perfective with नेA2 — Mark the actor with ने in canonical transitive perfectives and choose verb agreement from the eligible object rather than the semantic doer.
- Perfective object agreementA2 — Make a transitive perfective agree with an eligible unmarked direct object after ने, including gender-number and auxiliary-bearing forms.
- Perfective aspect and bounded eventsB1 — Use Hindi perfective aspect to present an event as a bounded whole while separating viewpoint, completion, tense, and agreement.