B1 · The past
Have done and had done: आया है, आया था
the present perfect and the pluperfect
The past form plus है is “has done”, plus था “had done” — with ने where the simple past has it.
At a glance
- Remember
- Past form plus hai for has done, plus tha for had done; ne and its agreement come along unchanged.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
Past linked to the present — Something that began or happened earlier and still holds or matters now.
- Form
- वह आया है / वह आई हैhas come (m / f)
- Signal words
- अभी-अभी
- कभी
- अभी तक
- पहले ही
- है
- था
- Trap
- Wrong:उसने दो चिट्ठियाँ लिखी है।Right:उसने दो चिट्ठियाँ लिखी हैं।
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
| has come (m / f) | वह आया है / वह आई है |
| have come, plural | वे आए हैं / वे आई हैं |
| had come (m / f) | वह आया था / वह आई थी |
| had come, plural | वे आए थे / वे आई थीं |
| with ने, has written | उसने चिट्ठी लिखी है |
| with ने, had written | उसने चिट्ठियाँ लिखी थीं |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Perfective participle + है is the present perfect.
मेरे दोस्त अभी-अभी आए हैं।My friends have just arrived.
Perfective participle + था is the pluperfect.
जब हम पहुँचे, फ़िल्म शुरू हो गई थी।When we arrived, the film had started.
With ने, participle and auxiliary agree with the object.
मैंने यह फ़िल्म दो बार देखी है।I have seen this film twice.
In a feminine plural only the auxiliary shows the plural.
उसने तीन चिट्ठियाँ लिखी हैं।She has written three letters.
कभी in a question asks about experience.
क्या आप कभी भारत गए हैं?Have you ever been to India?
Example sentences
मेरे दोस्त अभी-अभी आए हैं।My friends have just arrived.
मैंने यह फ़िल्म दो बार देखी है।I have seen this film twice.
क्या आप कभी भारत गए हैं?Have you ever been to India?
मैं पिछले साल जयपुर गया था।I went to Jaipur last year.
उसने मुझे यह बात पहले ही बताई थी।She had already told me about it.
माँ ने सबके लिए खाना बनाया है।Mum has cooked for everyone.
6 more example sentences
मैंने अभी तक खाना नहीं खाया।I have not eaten yet.
क्या तुमने कभी आम का अचार खाया है?Have you ever eaten mango pickle?
जब मैं घर पहुँचा, सब लोग सो गए थे।When I got home, everyone had gone to sleep.
मेरी बहन लंदन से लौटी है।My sister has come back from London.
हमने ये किताबें पहले पढ़ी थीं।We had read these books before.
वे दो दिन पहले आए थे।They came two days ago.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
After ने the auxiliary agrees with the object as well. चिट्ठियाँ is plural, so the auxiliary is हैं. It is easy to look at उसने, think “one person”, and write है.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Put है after the simple past and you have the present perfect: वह आया, “he came”, becomes वह आया है, “he has come”. Put था after it and you have the pluperfect: वह आया था, “he had come”. Both auxiliaries agree, so the full forms are आया है, आई है, आए हैं, आई हैं, and आया था, आई थी, आए थे, आई थीं.
Everything you learnt about ने applies unchanged. A transitive verb marks its subject with ने, and both the participle and the auxiliary agree with the object: उसने एक चिट्ठी लिखी है, उसने दो चिट्ठियाँ लिखी हैं. In a feminine plural the participle stays लिखी; the plural shows in हैं.
The present perfect is for a past action that matters now (मेरे दोस्त अभी-अभी आए हैं, “my friends have just arrived”) and for experience (क्या आप कभी भारत गए हैं?, “have you ever been to India?”). It is not used with a length of time that is still running: “I have lived here for five years” is the present with से.
The था form is wider than the English pluperfect. It marks something that happened before another past event, and it is also the normal way to talk about a finished event at a clear distance: मैं पिछले साल जयपुर गया था, “I went to Jaipur last year”. Where English needs a simple past, Hindi often prefers this one, as a way of saying “that is over and done”.
A closer look
आया or आया है?
Hindi is more relaxed about this than English. मैंने खाना खाया and मैंने खाना खाया है can both answer “have you eaten?”. With a finished time — कल, पिछले साल, दो दिन पहले — the plain past or the था form is normal; with अभी-अभी, अभी तक and कभी the perfect is.
In the negative the auxiliary usually drops away: मैंने अभी तक खाना नहीं खाया, “I have not eaten yet”. The sentence still reads as a perfect, because अभी तक says so.
The था form for a remote past
Because गया था marks a past that is cut off from the present, it often appears where English has a plain past and a time word: हम 2015 में शिमला गए थे, “we went to Shimla in 2015”. The plain हम 2015 में शिमला गए is not wrong; it just sounds more like a narrative moving forward.
Worth knowing (1)
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Not for “have lived … for”
“I have lived here for five years” is still true now, and Hindi says it in the present: मैं पाँच साल से यहाँ रहता हूँ. मैं पाँच साल यहाँ रहा हूँ sounds as if the five years are over.
हम दस साल से इस शहर में रहते हैं।We have lived in this city for ten years.
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