When one person wants another person to act, Hindi commonly uses चाहना + कि + subjunctive: मैं चाहता हूँ कि तुम आओ “I want you to come.” The main predicate चाहता हूँ agrees with the person who holds the desire; embedded आओ matches the subject of the desired action. When the same person wants to act, Hindi normally prefers an infinitive: मैं आना चाहता हूँ “I want to come.” The broader lexical and politeness behavior of the matrix verb is covered under चाहना: desire and polite requests.
Two subjects: कि plus subjunctive
The subordinate action is not asserted as fact; it exists inside the main subject's desire. That semantic dependence motivates the subjunctive.
| Desire holder | Embedded subject | Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| masculine singular | तुम | मैं चाहता हूँ कि तुम आओ |
| feminine singular | वह | मैं चाहती हूँ कि वह आए |
| male/mixed plural | आप | हम चाहते हैं कि आप आएँ |
| female plural | वे | हम चाहती हैं कि वे आएँ |
मैं चाहता हूँ कि तुम कल थोड़ा जल्दी आओ।
maĩ cāhtā hū̃ ki tum kal thoṛā jaldī āo.
I want you to come a little early tomorrow. (male speaker, familiar addressee)
मैं चाहती हूँ कि रोहन मुझे पहले फ़ोन करे।
maĩ cāhtī hū̃ ki rohan mujhe pahle fon kare.
I want Rohan to call me first. (female speaker)
हम चाहते हैं कि आप प्रस्ताव पर फिर से विचार करें।
ham cāhte haiṃ ki āp prastāv par phir se vicār kareṃ.
We would like you to reconsider the proposal. (male or mixed group; respectful addressee)
हम चाहती हैं कि दोनों छात्राएँ अपनी राय दें।
ham cāhtī haiṃ ki donoṃ chātrāẽ apnī rāy deṃ.
We want both female students to give their opinion. (all-female group)
The main participle marks the desire holder: चाहता, चाहती, चाहते. Embedded आओ, करे, करें, दें marks person-number-honorificity, not gender. Female plural छात्राएँ therefore takes the same दें as any other third-person plural subject.
One subject: infinitive is normally simpler
When the desire holder will perform the action, Hindi usually uses an infinitive directly before चाहना.
मैं अगले साल हिंदी पढ़ना चाहती हूँ।
maĩ agle sāl hindī paṛhnā cāhtī hū̃.
I want to study Hindi next year. (female speaker)
रवि आज जल्दी घर जाना चाहता है।
ravi āj jaldī ghar jānā cāhtā hai.
Ravi wants to go home early today.
हम यह काम शुक्रवार तक पूरा करना चाहते हैं।
ham yah kām śukravār tak pūrā karnā cāhte haiṃ.
We want to complete this work by Friday. (male or mixed group)
The infinitive does not agree with the main subject here; it remains पढ़ना/जाना/करना. Main चाहती/चाहता/चाहते carries subject agreement and हूँ/है/हैं supplies present person-number anchoring.
A same-subject कि-clause is possible when the speaker makes the embedded subject explicit or contrastive:
मैं चाहता हूँ कि यह बात मैं ख़ुद समझाऊँ।
maĩ cāhtā hū̃ ki yah bāt maĩ xud samjhāū̃.
I want to explain this matter myself. (male speaker)
Here repeated मैं contrasts “myself” with another possible explainer. Without that contrast, मैं यह बात ख़ुद समझाना चाहता हूँ is more economical.
Negative scope
Negating चाहना and negating the embedded action place the negative in different grammatical locations.
मैं नहीं चाहता कि वह इस बहस में पड़े।
maĩ nahīṃ cāhtā ki vah is bahas meṃ paṛe.
I don't want them to get involved in this argument. (male speaker)
मैं चाहता हूँ कि वह इस बहस में न पड़े।
maĩ cāhtā hū̃ ki vah is bahas meṃ na paṛe.
I want them not to get involved in this argument. (male speaker)
In ordinary conversation, the first is often understood as a negative desire and can be close to the second. Structurally, however, नहीं has scope over wanting, while embedded न directly negates पड़े. The second makes the desired nonoccurrence explicit.
Questions and polite framing
क्या आप चाहते हैं कि हम अभी प्रस्तुति शुरू करें?
kyā āp cāhte haiṃ ki ham abhī prastuti śurū kareṃ?
Would you like us to start the presentation now? (respectful)
मैं चाहूँगी कि आप यह जानकारी गोपनीय रखें।
maĩ cāhū̃gī ki āp yah jānkārī gopnīy rakheṃ.
I would like you to keep this information confidential. (female speaker, polite/formal)
Direct मैं चाहता हूँ कि आप... is grammatical but can sound firm when addressed to a colleague or service provider. मैं चाहूँगा/चाहूँगी कि आप... is a conventional polite future framing, especially in professional speech and writing. It softens the request without changing the subordinate subjunctive. कृपया can make an official request explicitly polite but may sound formal in casual conversation.
Time reference comes from context
The simple subjunctive has no past or future gender suffix. A past form of चाहना can place the desire in the past while the embedded form remains आओ/आए/आएँ.
उस समय मैं चाहता था कि तुम मेरे साथ चलो।
us samay maĩ cāhtā thā ki tum mere sāth calo.
At that time I wanted you to come with me. (male speaker, familiar addressee)
नीरा चाहती थी कि बैठक सोमवार को हो।
nīrā cāhtī thī ki baiṭhak somvār ko ho.
Neera wanted the meeting to be on Monday.
The matrix चाहता था/चाहती थी locates the wanting in the past. Embedded चलो/हो stays subjunctive because it represents the desired situation relative to that past viewpoint. Whether the desire was fulfilled must be supplied separately.
Passive and modal layers in the desired clause
निदेशक चाहते हैं कि रिपोर्ट आज ही भेजी जाए।
nirdeśak cāhte haiṃ ki riporṭ āj hī bhejī jāe.
The director wants the report to be sent today. (respectful singular)
Feminine रिपोर्ट controls passive perfective भेजी, while जाए is the singular subjunctive of the passive auxiliary जाना. The director is the desire holder, not the controller of the embedded passive.
मैं चाहता हूँ कि तुम्हें यह काम अकेले न करना पड़े।
maĩ cāhtā hū̃ ki tumheṃ yah kām akele na karnā paṛe.
I don't want you to have to do this work alone. (male speaker, familiar addressee)
Semantic actor “you” is dative तुम्हें, so it does not select familiar पड़ो. The infinitival necessity यह काम अकेले करना takes third-person singular/default subjunctive पड़े. Hindi follows its own case-and-agreement structure, not the English subject.
Common Mistakes
Using the infinitive for a different embedded subject
❌ मैं तुम कल आना चाहता हूँ।
Incorrect — the desired actor तुम needs a finite कि-clause.
✅ मैं चाहता हूँ कि तुम कल आओ।
maĩ cāhtā hū̃ ki tum kal āo.
I want you to come tomorrow. (male speaker, familiar addressee)
Making the embedded verb agree for gender
❌ मैं चाहता हूँ कि रीना करई।
Incorrect — simple third-person subjunctive करे has no feminine ending.
✅ मैं चाहता हूँ कि रीना यह काम करे।
maĩ cāhtā hū̃ ki rīnā yah kām kare.
I want Reena to do this work. (male speaker)
Using the wrong honorific form
❌ हम चाहते हैं कि आप कल आओ।
Incorrect in respectful agreement — आप requires आएँ.
✅ हम चाहते हैं कि आप कल आएँ।
ham cāhte haiṃ ki āp kal āẽ.
We want you to come tomorrow. (male or mixed group; respectful addressee)
Copying English “want someone to” word order
❌ रीना मेरी मदद करना चाहती है।
Incorrect for ‘Reena wants me to help her’ — this instead means ‘Reena wants to help me.’
✅ रीना चाहती है कि मैं उसकी मदद करूँ।
rīnā cāhtī hai ki maĩ uskī madad karū̃.
Reena wants me to help her.
Agreeing with a dative embedded actor
❌ मैं नहीं चाहता कि तुम्हें अकेले जाना पड़ो।
Incorrect — dative तुम्हें does not control पड़ना.
✅ मैं नहीं चाहता कि तुम्हें अकेले जाना पड़े।
maĩ nahīṃ cāhtā ki tumheṃ akele jānā paṛe.
I don't want you to have to go alone. (male speaker)
Key Takeaways
- Use an infinitive when the desire holder normally performs the desired action: मैं जाना चाहता हूँ.
- Use कि + subjunctive when the embedded action has its own subject: मैं चाहता हूँ कि तुम जाओ.
- Main चाहता/चाहती/चाहते agrees with the desire holder; the subjunctive marks its own embedded subject without gender.
- Keep matrix negation, embedded negation, politeness, and the embedded agreement controller analytically separate.
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