Three aspects times three tenses, laid out together
I can place any Hindi verb form in the tense and aspect grid
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
वह अभी सो रहा होगा।
He must be sleeping right now.
वह रोज़ यहाँ आता था।
He used to come here every day.
उसने खाना खाया होगा।
He must have eaten.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Hindi separates aspect from tense cleanly. Three aspects - habitual, progressive, perfective - each combine with three tenses through the auxiliary.
| Present | Past | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Habitual | करता है | करता था | करता होगा |
| Progressive | कर रहा है | कर रहा था | कर रहा होगा |
| Perfective | किया है | किया था | किया होगा |
The first element gives the aspect and agrees with the subject in gender and number; the auxiliary gives the tense and agrees in person. Change only the auxiliary and you move along a row.
The future auxiliary often means 'must be' rather than 'will be': वह घर पर होगा - he must be at home. करता होगा is 'he probably does', not 'he will do'.
Apply this grammar in B2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesReading hoga as a plain future when it marks presumption.
hoga read as a plain future
With an aspect form it usually marks presumption.
Russian aspect pairs mapped onto the grid
Hindi aspect is built outside the verb, not chosen with it.
वह अभी सो रहा होगा।
He must be sleeping right now.
Progressive plus the presumptive auxiliary.
वह रोज़ यहाँ आता था।
He used to come here every day.
Habitual plus past auxiliary.
उसने खाना खाया होगा।
He must have eaten.
Perfective plus presumptive: an inference about the past.
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Ready-made hints are free
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in B2 course exercises
Yamuna Kachru's reference grammar; the descriptive account relied on for aspect, valency and clause structure.
R. S. McGregor's outline, the standard concise academic description of Hindi morphology.