कल माँ ने चाय बनाई।

ने is the ergative marker in Hindi. It is commonly used with the subject of a transitive verb in the perfective past.

In this sentence:

• माँ = mother
• ने = marks माँ as the doer of the action
• बनाई = made

So माँ ने means mother did the action.

This pattern is very common in Hindi:

• राम ने खाना खाया।
• सीमा ने किताब पढ़ी।

It is especially important because it affects verb agreement, which is why बनाई looks the way it does here.

Because the verb is agreeing with चाय, and चाय is feminine singular.

In sentences with ने, the verb usually does not agree with the subject. Instead, it agrees with the direct object, as long as that object does not have को.

Here:

• माँ = feminine, but marked by ने
• चाय = feminine singular, direct object
• so the verb becomes बनाई to match चाय

Compare:

• माँ ने चाय बनाई। → चाय is feminine
• माँ ने खाना बनाया। → खाना is masculine
• माँ ने रोटियाँ बनाईं। → रोटियाँ is feminine plural

So the form बनाई is chosen because of चाय, not because of माँ.

Yes, चाय is treated as a feminine noun in standard Hindi.

That is why adjectives and verbs that agree with it often take feminine forms:

• गरम चाय
• अच्छी चाय
• चाय बनाई

This is something you usually just have to learn with the noun.

Because चाय here is a direct object used in a general, non-specific way, so को is not needed.

Hindi often uses को with:

• specific people
• animate objects
• sometimes definite/specific objects

But with many inanimate objects, especially in ordinary sentences like this, को is usually omitted.

So:

• माँ ने चाय बनाई। = natural
• माँ ने चाय को बनाई। = not natural in normal Hindi

Also, since चाय has no को, the verb is free to agree with it, which gives us बनाई.

Yes. कल can mean either yesterday or tomorrow.

Hindi relies on context to tell you which one is meant.

In this sentence, the past verb form बनाई strongly suggests yesterday:

• कल माँ ने चाय बनाई। → Yesterday mother made tea.

If the sentence were about the future, the verb would normally make that clear:

• कल माँ चाय बनाएगी। → Tomorrow mother will make tea.

So कल itself is ambiguous, but the rest of the sentence usually removes the ambiguity.

The dictionary form is बनाना, which means to make.

A simple breakdown:

• बना- = verb stem
• -ई = feminine singular perfective ending in this sentence

So बनाई is the perfective form used here, agreeing with the feminine object चाय.

Related forms:

• बनाना = to make
• बनाया = made (masculine singular agreement)
• बनाई = made (feminine singular agreement)
• बनाए = made (masculine plural / some contexts)
• बनाईं = made (feminine plural)

Hindi does not normally use articles like English a, an, and the.

So चाय can mean:

• tea
• the tea
• some tea
• a tea (depending on context, though often better understood as tea in general)

Context tells you what is meant.

This is very normal in Hindi. For example:

• मैं किताब पढ़ रहा हूँ। can mean I am reading a book or I am reading the book, depending on context.

The normal word order is Subject–Object–Verb, which is what you see here:

• कल = time
• माँ ने = subject
• चाय = object
• बनाई = verb

So the structure is basically:

Yesterday + mother + tea + made

But Hindi word order is fairly flexible, especially with time words like कल.

These are also possible:

• माँ ने कल चाय बनाई।
• चाय माँ ने कल बनाई।
• कल चाय माँ ने बनाई।

They can all be grammatical, but the emphasis changes. The most neutral version is usually:

• कल माँ ने चाय बनाई।

Yes, absolutely.

Both are natural:

• कल माँ ने चाय बनाई।
• माँ ने कल चाय बनाई।

The difference is mostly about focus and style:

• कल माँ ने... puts yesterday first, so the time is emphasized a bit more.
• माँ ने कल... starts with the subject, which can feel a little more neutral in some contexts.

Hindi often moves time expressions around quite freely.

Because बनाई already works as the main finite verb in this simple past/perfective sentence.

So:

• माँ ने चाय बनाई। = Mother made tea.

If you add थी, the meaning changes slightly:

• माँ ne चाय बनाई थी।

This often means something like:

• Mother had made tea
• or Mother did make tea / had made tea earlier

So थी is not required here. The shorter sentence is a normal simple past statement.

Semantically, माँ is naturally female, so it is feminine.

But in this sentence, that does not control the verb, because माँ is marked with ने. That is an important point for learners.

So even though माँ is feminine, the verb still agrees with चाय:

• माँ ने चाय बनाई।

If the object were masculine, the verb would change:

• माँ ने खाना बनाया।

So the gender of माँ matters as a noun, but here the verb agreement is determined by the object.

माँ is pronounced roughly like maa, but with a nasalized vowel.

The mark ँ is called chandrabindu. It shows nasalization.

So:

• मा = plain maa
• माँ = nasalized maã

Many learners first pronounce both the same way, which is understandable, but Hindi speakers do hear the difference.

Yes. It is a perfective past sentence, which often corresponds to the English simple past.

So:

• कल माँ ने चाय बनाई। = Yesterday mother made tea.

In learner-friendly terms, it is fine to think of it as simple past here.

More grammatically, Hindi is using a perfective form with ने, which is a very common way to talk about completed past actions.

Yes. Depending on context, चाय बनाई can be understood as:

• made tea
• prepared tea

In everyday Hindi, बनाना is a very common verb for preparing food or drinks.

So चाय बनाई naturally means made/prepared tea.