Verbs: Roots

INTRODUCTION In English, to ever split an infinitive is a grave sin. Or so they say. Verbs — action words that tell you what kind of action is being performed — are often inflected in many languages to show tense, aspect etc. An infinitive is the opposite; it is the basic, uninflected form of a … Read more

Obligation And Permission In Nepali

OBLIGATION There are a few times you are obliged to do something or perform an action, for example, I have to keep this blog running (but I seem to be terrible at it). Maybe, you have to attend someone’s wedding or someone needs to go to the dentist. These things are called ‘obligations’ where you ‘have to’ … Read more

Causative Verbs

When you make someone do something, you are causing someone to do an action. It doesn’t necessarily have to be you to make that event. Take the following sentence: Mary made John to make food. Here, a person is making or ‘causing’ a recipient to do an action. In other words, something is making something or someone … Read more

Transitivity

Transitivity is an important aspect of Nepali. While transitivity might not be a prominent part of English (by that meaning noticeable in daily contexts), it definitely ‘is’ for Nepali. Transitivity helps to explain why some things take objects, some don’t, and why the subject sometimes takes the ’le’ particle. So, what is transitivity?  Transitivity is … Read more

Compound Verbs Formed By Joining Auxiliaries

Verbs are perhaps the most important part of Nepali Language. A whole sentence can be completed by a verb and infact a sentence can have only a verb! Verbs are also one of the most – if not the most – difficult parts on learning Nepali. Did you learn all your basic verbs? That’s cute, … Read more

Applying Conjugated Verbs In Sentences: Intermediate

So you have learnt how to make simple sentences with the right conjugations in the previous chapter, which was published around seven months ago. Let’s learn how to use Agyaat and Habitual Form of Verb! Also, we will learn how ‘Present’ tense is used for ‘future tense’. ____ INTRODUCTION So, you probably know that Nepali is a SUBJECT + OBJECT + … Read more

Infinitive Form Of Verbs In Nepali

INTRODUCTION An Infinitive form of verb is the basic form of a verb, without an inflection binding it to a particular subject or tense. For example, in English, it is the basic verb like ‘to eat’ or ‘to drink’. As such, they function like adverbs. An example use of an infinitive is: To live is to die Twice. Infinitives are also … Read more

Showing Potential In Nepali

This lesson can make you a better person…or perhaps not. To be or not to be; clearly we do see a homage being paid to Shakespeare…perhaps not. We can’t really see anything much now so let’s learn how to show Potentiality in Nepali! So, what does it mean ‘to show potential’? Read these sentences: “John … Read more

Conditional Sentences In Nepali

“If you are reading this, then you are trying to Nepali” Do you know what are conditional sentences? Look at the above sentence…that was a conditional sentence. It has three primary elements, a ‘reason’ otherwise a ’cause’ which leads to an ‘outcome’. It is connected by ‘if’. So, If “you are reading this” then “you are … Read more

Irregularity In Verbs

As every language learner knows, no rules of grammar is written in concrete and there are exceptions in everything and there are exceptions in every exception. Something like Exception-Inception. However, this is not a deterrent!  IRREGULAR VERBS You have good news and bad news. The bad news is, there are irregular verbs in Nepali. The … Read more