A2 · Verbs in pairs
Noun + करना or होना: इंतज़ार करना, शुरू होना
conjunct verbs
A noun or adjective plus करना (someone does it) or होना (it happens): काम शुरू करना, काम शुरू होना.
At a glance
- Remember
- Karna if someone does it, hona if it just happens; the noun inside decides ka or ki.
- Form
- शुरू करना → शुरू कियाsomeone starts it
- Signal words
- करना
- होना
- शुरू
- बंद
- इंतज़ार
- मदद
- बात
- Trap
- Wrong:मैं आपको इंतज़ार करूँगा।Right:मैं आपका इंतज़ार करूँगा।
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
| someone starts it | शुरू करना → शुरू किया |
| it starts | शुरू होना → शुरू हुआ |
| to close / to be closed | बंद करना / बंद होना |
| to wait for someone | किसी का इंतज़ार करना |
| to help someone | किसी की मदद करना |
| to talk to someone | किसी से बात करना |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Noun or adjective + करना: someone does it.
कृपया दरवाज़ा बंद कीजिए।Please close the door.
The same word + होना: it happens by itself.
फ़िल्म सात बजे शुरू होगी।The film will start at seven.
The person takes the postposition the noun asks for.
मैं आपका इंतज़ार करूँगा।I will wait for you.
With ने, the verb agrees with the noun inside it.
उसने मेरी बहुत मदद की।She helped me a lot.
Example sentences
मैं आपका इंतज़ार करूँगा।I will wait for you.
फ़िल्म सात बजे शुरू होगी।The film will start at seven.
मैंने अपना काम ख़त्म किया।I finished my work.
कृपया दरवाज़ा बंद कीजिए।Please close the door.
उसने मेरी बहुत मदद की।She helped me a lot.
मैं अपनी माँ से रोज़ बात करता हूँ।I talk to my mother every day.
6 more example sentences
दुकान नौ बजे बंद होती है।The shop closes at nine.
हमने दो घंटे तक तुम्हारा इंतज़ार किया।We waited for you for two hours.
क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकता हूँ?Can I help you?
मीटिंग दस बजे ख़त्म हुई।The meeting ended at ten.
मैंने कल उसे फ़ोन किया।I phoned him yesterday.
बच्चे कविता याद कर रहे हैं।The children are learning a poem by heart.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
English “wait for you” suggests को, but इंतज़ार is a noun, “waiting”, and the person is its owner: “I will do your waiting”, आपका इंतज़ार. The same logic gives आपकी मदद, “your help”.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Hindi makes many of its verbs by putting a noun or an adjective in front of करना, “to do”, or होना, “to be, become”: शुरू करना, “to start”; बंद करना, “to close”; इंतज़ार करना, “to wait”; मदद करना, “to help”; बात करना, “to talk”. The first word stays as it is; करना or होना does all the conjugating.
The pair करना / होना is the pair “someone does it” / “it happens”. मैंने दरवाज़ा बंद किया, “I closed the door”; दरवाज़ा बंद हुआ, “the door closed”. हमने मीटिंग शुरू की, “we started the meeting”; मीटिंग शुरू हुई, “the meeting started”. English uses one verb for both; Hindi changes the helper.
Many of these verbs take their “object” with a postposition, and which one depends on the noun inside the verb: आपका इंतज़ार करना (इंतज़ार is masculine, hence का), आपकी मदद करना (मदद is feminine, hence की), आपसे बात करना. Learn each verb with its postposition.
In the past, करना takes ने, and if there is no other unmarked object, the verb agrees with the noun inside the verb: मैंने उसकी मदद की, feminine because of मदद; मैंने आपका इंतज़ार किया, masculine because of इंतज़ार. With होना there is no ने.
A closer look
Why so many verbs are built this way
Conjunct verbs are the way Hindi absorbs new meanings: any noun, Indian or borrowed, can become a verb with करना. फ़ोन करना, पार्क करना, चेक करना, डाउनलोड करना are all ordinary Hindi. The grammar never changes: the noun stays still, the helper moves.
Some pairs use a third helper. याद करना is “to memorise” or “to think of”, याद होना “to know by heart”, याद आना “to come to mind, to miss”: मुझे घर की याद आ रही है, “I miss home”.
Worth knowing (1)
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Agreement with the noun inside
Because the noun in a conjunct verb is a real noun, its gender shows after ने: मैंने बात की (बात f.), मैंने फ़ोन किया (फ़ोन m.), मैंने कोशिश की (कोशिश f.). A learner who knows the gender of the noun knows the verb.
मैंने बहुत कोशिश की, पर नहीं हुआ।I tried hard, but it didn’t work.
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