Gujarati grammar

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The grammar of the Gujarati language (ગુજરાતી વ્યાકરણ Gujarātī Vyākaraṇ) is the study of the word order, case marking, verb conjugation, and other morphological and syntactic structures of the Gujarati language, an Indo-European language native to the Indian state of Gujarat, also spoken abroad where Gujaratis have carried it, such as in South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Canada, the UK, and the US.

Gujarati grammar is very much like that of its Indo-Aryan cousin languages such as Punjabi, Nepali, Hindi, Bengali, and Marathi. This section overviews the grammar of standard Gujarati. It is written in Gujarati script, alongside with a romanization.

Contents 1 Articles 2 Word Order 3 Nouns 3.1 Gender and number 3.2 Nominative and Oblique 3.3 Postpositions 3.3.1 Primary 3.3.2 Secondary 3.4 Vocative 3.5 Becoming a Noun 4 Pronouns 4.1 Personal 4.2 Interrogative 4.3 Relative-Correlative 5 Adjectives 6 Verbs 6.1 Aspect and Tense 6.2 Oblique 6.3 Causatives 6.3.1 Single 6.3.2 Double 6.3.3 Table 6.4 Passives and Potentials 6.4.1 Passives 6.5 Compounds 7 Tenses and Conjugation 7.1 Present 7.2 Subjunctive 7.3 Past 7.3.1 Imperfect 7.3.2 Perfect 7.4 Future 7.4.1 Simple 7.4.2 More on "To be" 7.4.3 Continuous 7.4.4 "Must" 8 Mood 8.1 Imperative 8.2 Interrogative 8.3 Conditional 9 Miscellaneous 9.1 Quoting Speech 10 See also 11 Notes 12 Further Reading

[edit] Articles

Gujarati possesses no definite or indefinite articles. The word "one" (એક ek) can sometimes be used for "a".^[1]

[edit] Word Order

The word order of Gujarati is SOV. Though since Gujarati has more of an agglutinative character, there is considerable flexibility in word order, such that SVO can be used for stylistic or complex constructions, and OVS for short replies. OSV is also acceptable for a set of "reflexive-type" verbs. Personal pronouns can also be omitted in conversational speech and instead inferred from context as well as through unique verbal conjugations that render the pronouns redundant. See pro-drop language.

However to say that Gujarati's word order is SOV compared to English's SVO does not relay enough information. A better summation would be that like English, Gujarati starts with S, but all that follows is reversed. Thus with an order of A number of verbs and B number of objects the English formation of (S)(V₁...V_A)(O₁...O_B) would be (S)(O_B...O₁)(V_A...V₁) in Gujarati.

SVO → SOV	He is a teacher	એ શિક્ષક છે e śikṣak che	He (a) teacher is
SV1V2 → SV2V1	We were running	આપણે દોડતા હાતા āpṇe doḍtā hatā	We running were
SV1V2O1O2 → SO2O1V2V1	They're phoning me	તેઓ મને ફોન કરે છે teo mane fon kare che	They me phone doing are
SV1V2V3O1O2 → SO2O1V3V2V1	I shall be going to give a letter to her	હું એને કાગળ આપવા જતો હઈશ huṃ ene kāgaḷ āpvā jato haīś	I to her (a) letter to give going shall be

[edit] Nouns

[edit] Gender and number

Gujarati nouns have three genders and two numbers.^[2] They are masculine (પુલ્લિંગ pulliṅg), neuter (નપુંસકલિંગ napuṃsakliṅg), feminine (સ્ત્રીલિંગ strīliṅg), singular (એકવચન ekvacan), and plural (બહુવચન bahuvacan).

While all nouns are of one of three genders and one of two numbers regardless, on some nouns this can be morphologically marked. There are five hybrid gender-number markings and two number markings in Gujarati, found in that respective order on the ends of some nouns.

Gender-Number markers

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	o	ā
Neuter	uṃ	āṃ
Feminine	ī

Number markers

Singular	Plural
Ø	o

Examples

Goat (n) — bakruṃ, has a neuter singular gender-number marker of uṃ, and has a singular number marker of Ø. Men (m) — māṇaso, hasn't a gender-marker, and has a plural number of o. Wrath (m) — krodh, has neither a gender-number marker nor a number marker.

So, nouns come in the general form of <Noun Stem + (Gender-Number marker) + (Number marker)>, with the rounded parentheses signifying what was said before: that some words are formally marked, and some aren't. Having a gender-number marker is incumbent on the noun's etymology. Native Gujarati words and Perso-Arabic loans are split between having them and not having them, while English and Sanskrit loans do not have them. Having a number marker is incumbent on noun type. Mass nouns don't have them and count nouns do.

[edit] Nominative and Oblique

Where in English words such as "to", "by", and "in" come before the noun, in Gujarati their equivalents come after the noun, as postpositions. Thus, the general noun form can be expanded fully as <Noun Stem + (Gender-Number marker) + (Number marker) + Postposition>. Without postpositions, nouns are nominative. With postpositions, they are obliqued. Think of how the English pronoun "I" has to become "me" when it follows those words such as "to", "by", and "in". In that way, Gujarati nouns (Gujarati pronouns are a different story) must undergo some kind of change (obliquing) before they are subject to postpositions.

The gender-number marker set shown above is for the nominative case, and the change to a noun that is obliquing a noun is taking on a different set of gender-number markers. Here, the gender-number marker scheme is updated to include the oblique forms. The number marker and its application is not changed.

	Nominative		Oblique
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Masc	o	ā
Neut	uṃ	āṃ	ā	āṃ
Fem	ī

[edit] Postpositions

Having learned about the oblique case, presented in this section about nouns are the postpositions that can be suffixed to obliqued nouns, as well as pronouns and verbs (surveyed later on in this article).

[edit] Primary

Ø
nuṃ	's
ne	(to)
e
	at
māṃ	in
par	on
thī	by
	with
	from
	than

Postpositions can suffix onto other postpositions. The all-important nuṃ can suffix anything. Also, thī (as "from") often suffixes other postpositions, which help to specify what type of "from" is meant.

[edit] Secondary

This set is comprised of postpositions that are extensions of, or built on, primary postpositions. They are genitive postpositions (hanging off of obliqued nuṃ), with a couple accusative/dative (ne).^[3]

nā aṅge	with regard to, about
nī andar	inside
nī āgaḷ	in front (of), further on
nī upar	on top (of), above
nā kartā	rather than
ne kāraṇe	because of
nī joḍe	with
nī taraph	towards, in the direction of
nī tarīke	as, in the character of
ne darmiyān	during
nī najīk	near, close to
nī nīce	below, underneath
nī/nā pachī	after
nī/nā pahelāṃ	before
nī pāchaḷ	behind
nī pāse1	by, near, at the side of
nī puṭhe	behind
nā pramāṇe	by the standard of, according to
nī/nā badle	instead of
nī bahār	outside of
nā/(n)e māṭe	for
nā/(n)e līdhe	because of, for the sake of
nā vagar	without
nī vacce	(in) between
nī vaḍe	by, with, by means of
nā vinā	without
nī sāthe	with
nī sāme	opposite, across
nā sivāy	except
nā sudhī	until

¹ Two extra levels of meanings for two specific contexts. 1) Near me is X = I've got X. 2) I went near Y_(animate) = I went to Y_(animate).

Thus by way of the genitive marker, these postpositions can be made. There are many more besides what is listed. The genitive bit is often omitted.

[edit] Vocative

Gujarati has a vocative case. It is morphologically equivalent to the oblique.

[edit] Becoming a Noun

Certain non-noun words can become nouns if isolated. In the French language, for example, vieux is an adjective for old. However, when not attached to a noun, it becomes a noun itself, old one. The similar follows in Gujarati.

For example, possessive determiners can become pronouns if left alone.

મારી ચોપડી છે mārī copḍī che / It's my book

ચોપડી મારી છે copḍī mārī che / The book is mine

[edit] Pronouns

[edit] Personal

Case		Marker	First Person			Second Person		Third Person
			Singular	Plural		Singular and Informal	Plural or Formal	Proximal		Distal
				Inclusive	Exclusive			Informal	Formal	Informal		Formal
										Singular	Plural
Nominative		Ø	હું huṃ	આપણે āpṇe	અમે ame	તું tuṃ	તમે tame	આ ā		તે te	તેઓ teo
Ergative		એ e	મેં meṃ			તેં teṃ		આણે āṇe	આમણે āmṇe	તેણે teṇe	તેઓએ teoe	તેમણે temṇe
Accusative / Dative	B		મારે māre		અમારે amāre	તારે tāre	તમારે tamāre
	A	ને ne	મને mane	આપણને āpṇne	અમને amne	તને tane	તમને tamne	આને āne	આમને āmne	તેને tene	તેઓને teone	તેમને temne
Genitive		નું nuṃ	મારું māruṃ	આપણું āpṇuṃ	અમારું amāruṃ	તારું tāruṃ	તમારું tamāruṃ	આનું ānuṃ	આમનું āmnuṃ	તેનું tenuṃ	તેઓનું teonuṃ	તેમનું temnuṃ

The third person (last three columns) works differently than in English and must be explained. Both આ and તે are demonstrative pronouns, meaning this/these (proximal) and that/those (distal). Therefore, આ ગાડીઓ is these cars and તે બિલાડી is that cat, and so on. When આ and તે are not put before specific nouns, they become this/these one(s) and that/those one(s). In this way they can move from being demonstrative pronouns to being personal pronouns. "That one" or "this one" may be used for He/She/It and "these ones" and "those ones" for They. One does not have the ability to specify gender like in English, but unlike in English one does have the ability to specify whether the referred to He is a proximal ("this") or a distal ("that") He. Most of the time, the He/She/It's we use in English are distal, so grammars generally just stick the label of He/She/It to તે, rather than go through this lengthy explanation. And finally, when used as a personal pronoun, તે can get the pluralizing ઓ as a number marker to make "they", which is the only instance where a word that isn't a common noun gets a number marker.

Further things to note for personal pronouns:

• તેઓ is almost never spoken. Instead, it's તે લોકો (lit. those people).
• As there are no આઓ or તમેઓ, similarly લોકો can added to specify plurality.
• The ત્ in તે, તેમ-, and the other (correlative) pronouns that start with it is mostly dropped in speech, for એ, એ લોકો, એમનું, એટલું, etc.
• આપ is borrowed from Hindi and is much more formal in Gujarati than in its original Hindi. It is very rarely used.
• Accusative/Dative (A) is the primary form; (B) is a special form used for specific circumstances: expressing want, need, possession, obligation, and intention.
• Though Accusative/Dative (B)'s third person forms technically match those of Ergative, often in usage they will match Accusative/Dative (A)'s.

[edit] Interrogative

	Nominative		Genitive
	Gujarati	English	Gujarati
Variable	શું śuṃ	What	શેનું śenuṃ
	કયું kayuṃ	Which	કયાંનું kayāṃnuṃ
	કેવું kevuṃ	What kind
	કેટલું keṭluṃ	How much	કેટલાંનું keṭlāṃnuṃ
	કેવડું kevḍuṃ	How big
Invariable	ક્યાં kyāṃ	Where	ક્યાંનું kyāṃnuṃ
	કોણ koṇ	Who	કોનું konuṃ
	ક્યારે kyāre	When	ક્યારનું kyārnuṃ

In speech, શું is most often not variable. The underlined genitive forms deviate from their nominative.

How and Why

These two are not so clear-cut. From a more archaic and grammatically consistent point of view, these are the words for how and why:

• કેમ | How ("કેમ છો?" means "How are you?", and its relative-correlative of જેમ...તેમ is suited for "how")
• શા માટે | Why (lit. for what, "pourquoi")

However this is the general modern usage:

• કેવી રીતે / કયી રીતે | How (lit. in what kind of way / in which way)
• કેમનું | How (variable)
• કેમ | Why

So basically, don't use કેમ as 'how', except in certain rare phrasings.

[edit] Relative-Correlative

Interrogative		Relative		Correlative
Gujarati	English	Gujarati	English	Gujarati	English
શું śuṃ	What	જે je	What	તે te	That
કયું kayuṃ	Which
કેવું kevuṃ	What kind	જેવું jevuṃ	As (noun)	તેવું tevuṃ
કેટલું keṭluṃ	How much	જેટલું jeṭluṃ	As much	તેટલું teṭluṃ	That much
કેવડું kevḍuṃ	How big	જેવડું jevḍuṃ	As big	તેવડું tevḍuṃ	That big
ક્યાં kyāṃ	Where	જ્યાં jyāṃ	Where	ત્યાં tyāṃ	There
કોણ koṇ	Who	જ je, જેઓ jeo	Who	તે te, તેઓ teo	He/She/It/They
ક્યારે kyāre	When	જ્યારે jyāre	When	ત્યારે tyāre	Then
કેમ kem	How	જેમ jem	As (verb)	તેમ tem

[edit] Adjectives

Gujarati adjectives precede nouns. "Variable" adjectives have gender-number markers that agree with nouns (see first table), even if the nouns haven't gender-number markers themselves. "Invariable" adjectives do not have gender-number markers and thus don't agree.

When written alone and having nothing to agree, variable adjectives are marked by default as neuter singular, ઉં uṃ.

Honourables are plural. Honourable females take આં āṃ instead of ઈ ī.

[edit] Verbs

[edit] Aspect and Tense

A verbal form has three components^[2]: verbal root, an aspect/other suffix, and an agreement suffix. Some verbal forms are used as functioning verbs in a verbal phrase (imperfectives, perfectives, etc.), while other verbal forms are used as non-verbs (adjectives: past participle, present participle, etc.). Furthermore, the former of the two can be followed by a second auxiliary form which has two components: one of four tense/other-marking verbal roots specifically derived from "to be", and an agreement suffix.

There are three categories of agreement suffixes, based on either number (^N), person and number (PN), or gender and number (GN). Within that there are five types of agreement suffixes, or vowelic inflection sets. There is a single gender-number set, but there are two each of number and person-number sets. Also, regarding the two hybrid marker categories (gender-number and person-number): they are not wholly perfect as they often have the same inflection for different persons or numbers. Agreement is with the subject, except in the transitive perfective where it is with the object. Lastly, formals are grammatically plural.

This following table lists the five agreement suffix sets.

NUMBER	^1	^2	GENDER			P1ERSON			P2ERSON
			Mas	Neu	Fem	1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Singular	∅	e	o	uṃ	ī	uṃ			īś		śe
Plural	o		ā	āṃ		īe	o		īśuṃ	śo

Following a consonant, u, ū	e
Following a	ī
Following ā, o	y

This table displays the various verb forms in Gujarati. Listed are the additions to the verbal root: the aspect/other suffix, and the agreement suffix. Notice that the aspect/other suffix is generally a singular consonant, though it is sometimes multiple consonants, or nothing at all; while as shown in the table above, the agreement suffixes are vowel-based.

Future	-P2N
Subjunctive	-P1N
Present
Imperfective	-t-GN
Present Participle
Perfective	-y-GN
Past Participle	-el-(GN)
Imperative	-^1N
Imperative Future	-j-^2N
Desiderative	-v-GN
Infinitive
Obligatory	-vān-GN
Conjunctive	-ī-(ne)
Agentive	-nār-GN

[edit] Oblique

When verb forms oblique, they don't follow under the system described with nouns. Rather, the gender-number marker just invariably shifts to ā.

Infinitive	vāt karvī	vāt karvāthī	by talking
Perfective	phon karyo	phon karyā bād	after having phoned
Imperfective	nāhtuṃ	nāhtā pahelāṃ	before bathing

[edit] Causatives

The distinction between intransitive and transitive is very important in Gujarati. It effects two things: first is verb form, discussed here; the second, subject case and verb agreement, discussed in the section on Past Tense.

Take these three English verbs: "to tear", "to spoil", and "to crack". Here are some phrases using those three:

• "The paper is tearing... ", "Did you tear the paper?... "
• "Make sure the food doesn't spoil... ", "You're really spoiling him... "
• "I noticed that the glass has cracked... ", "I think I cracked it yesterday... "

However, these three English verbs represent six Gujarati verbs. For each pair of phrases for a single verb, the first phrase is the intransitive usage, and the second the transitive. Oftentimes, a single English verb can cover for both intransitive and transitive usage, but not the case in Gujarati: the intransitive and transitive have a different verb for each.

Intransitive				Transitive
Phrase		Verb		Phrase		Verb
English	Gujarati		English	English	Gujarati		English
The paper is tearing	કાગળ ફાટે છે kāgaḷ fāṭe che	ફાટવું fāṭvuṃ	To tear → to be torn	Did you tear the paper?	તેં કાગળને ફાડયું? teṃ kāgaḷne fāḍyuṃ?	ફાડવું fāḍvuṃ	To tear → to cause to be torn
Make sure the food doesn't spoil	જોઈજો કે ખાવાનું ન બગડે joījo ke khāvānuṃ na bagḍe	બગડવું bagaḍvuṃ	To spoil → to be spoiled	You're really spoiling him	તમે એને ખરેખર બગાડો છો tame ene kharekhar bagāḍo cho	બગાડવું bagāḍvuṃ	To spoil → to cause to be spoiled
I noticed that the glass has cracked	મારાં ધ્યાનમાં આવ્યું કે કાચ ફૂટયો છે mārāṃ dhyānmāṃ āvyuṃ ke kāc fūṭyo che	ફૂટવું fūṭvuṃ	To crack → to be cracked	I think I cracked it yesterday	મને લાગે છે કે મેં ગઈ કાલે ફોડયો mane lāge che ke meṃ gaī kāle foḍyo	ફોડવું foḍvuṃ	To crack → to cause to be cracked

An English example: the intransitive "to fall"'s causative would be the transitive "to cause to fall", or conveniently, "to fell". That's one example where the verb is modified (specifically, the verb's vowel), like in Gujarati. Besides that, one can think of "to cause to... " being added to transitivize these verbs, thus they are also called causatives. Other auxiliaries could be "to get to..." or "to have to...".

But in the end, this feature just doesn't exist in English (besides a couple of instances; fall/fell), so it is not possible to get the meaning across by just translating the verbs, even with techniques such using auxiliaries to help. Ultimately, "to spoil (i)" and "to spoil (t)" are morphologically the same. Trying to clarify using "to be spoilt" or "to get spoiled" for (i) would be inaccurate, as those lean towards transitive passive constructions. What can clarify, however, is placing the verbs in sentences/contexts.

[edit] Single

Causatives are made by two main schemes involving alteration of the root.^[4]

• Lengthening of final vowel; shortening of a preceding vowel (if ū is the only vowel, then → o).
• Final ṭ → ḍ.

or

• Suffix v if ending in vowel or h.
• Shortening of vowel(s).
• Suffix: āv, āḍ, v, vḍāv, or eḍ.
• Sometimes nasalisation (anusvāra).

If the causativization is of a transitive, resulting in a double transitive, then the secondary agent, whom the subject "causes to" or "gets to" do whatever, is marked by the postposition nī pāse.^[5]

[edit] Double

Furthermore, that causative can be causativized again, for a double causative ("to cause to cause... "), with a possible tertiary agent.^[6]

• ḍāv suffixed to 1st causative suffix of āv.
• āv suffixed to 1st causative suffixes of āḍ and eḍ.
• Beyond this are irregular forms that must be memorized.

At the end of this, through double causativization, intransitive base verbs end up double transitives, and transitive base verbs (not having a causative counterpart) end up triple transitive.

A few intransitive verbs don't transitivize, and, there are a small number verbs that can be used both transitively and intransitively.

[edit] Table

Intransitive	1x Transitive	2x Transitive	3x Transitive
ઊતરવું	ઉતારવું
ખૂલવું	ખોલવું
છૂટવું	છોડવું	છોડાવવું
		છોડાવડાવવું
ફાટવું	ફાડવું
મરવું	મારવું	મરાવવું
	કરવું	કરાવવું	કરાવડાવવું
ચાલવું	ચલાવવું	ચલાવડાવવું
	દેખવું	દેખાડવું	દેખાડાવવું
			દેખાવડાવવું
બેસવું	બેસાડવું	બેસાડાવવું
		બેસાવડાવવું
સૂવું	સુવાડવું
	સુવડાવવું
મળવું	મેળવવું	મેળાવડાવવું
શીખવું	શીખવવું	શિખવડાવવું
	શિખવાડવું
	પીવું	પિવડાવવું
	જોવું	જોવડાવવું
નાહવું	નવડાવવું
	ખાવું	ખવડાવવું
ખસવું	ખસેડવું
	માગ/માંગવું	મંગાવવું
	નાખ/નાંખવું	નંખાવવું

[edit] Passives and Potentials

[edit] Passives

There are two ways of expressing the passive voice.^[7] Verbal agreement is with the direct object.

Root Modification

A transitive verb's passive counterpart is made by modifying the root as such:

• If the first vowel is આ ā, it becomes અ a.
• If ending in a vowel, suffixing of હ ha or વ va.
• Suffixation of આ ā.

"To come in" suffix

A passive counterpart can be equally made by suffixing માં આવવું māṃ āvvuṃ to the infinitive.

Tense	Active		Verb					Passive
	English	Gujarati	Active		Passive			Gujarati		English
			Gujarati	English	Root Modification	"To come in" suffix	English	Root Modification	"To come in" suffix
Present	He's doing (the) work / He does (the) work	એ કામ કરે છે e kām kare che	કરવું karvuṃ	To do	કરાવું karāvuṃ	કરવામાં આવવું karvāmaṃ āvvuṃ	To be done	એનાથી કામ કરાય છે enāthī kām karāy che	એનાથી કામ કરવામાં આવે છે enāthī kām karvāmaṃ āve che	(The) work is being done by him / (The) work is done by him

The post-position થી thī marks the agent ("by"). ની વડે nī vaḍe is a formal equivalent.

Pseudo-Passive

A third way is simply to use the active, 3rd person, and just omit the subject. This would be like English's generalized "They... ", or "One... ", but even slightly more so.

[edit] Compounds

To relay more complex information, one often has to used multiple verbs in succession, as opposed to just one. This section will deal with the ways this is done in Gujarati, as well as how: the declensions made when verbs are put together. This section is currently incomplete and to be revised.

Distinct

The so-called "distinct" category of compound verb formation is when verbs are simply in conjunction, retaining their distinct meanings. Here are some English examples: "I like acting", "He's coming to eat", "They started to speak Gujarati". With these we can make the observation that English verbs are strung together in two ways: using the "to" and the "ing". "To" can be placed before the root of the second verb (infinitive), or "ing" appended on (present participle). They also have different meanings; the usage of "to" links the subject to the verb, while "ing" posits the verb as a general concept. To be shown below are the Gujarati equivalents of "to" and "ing": the declensions made when verbs are put together.

Auxiliary

This category has to do with instances where verbs are in conjunction and do not retain their distinct meanings. This is an important feature of modern Indo-Aryan languages and is very rarely found in English. Oftentimes, instead of a verb being used by itself, a second verb from a set of common auxiliaries can be added to colour or nuance the meaning of the verb it has been added to. Again, this added verb does not to act as a new, second, stand-alone verb, but instead an auxiliary or helper verb. Also, the meaning of the auxiliary itself often does not seem to have a logical connection with the way in which it colours and nuances.

• જવું To go
• આવ્વું To come
• લેવું To take
• દેવું To give
• કાઢવું To remove
• નાખવું To throw
• આપ્વું To give
• રહેવું To stay

[edit] Tenses and Conjugation

The general scheme of Gujarati verb conjugation involves the verbal root appended with tense marking information, further appended with some sort of a person marker.

Verbs agree with subjects, and the subjects are in nominative case, except for in the transitive past tense, where verbs agree with objects and the subjects are in ergative case.

[edit] Present

હોવું hovuṃ, To be

હોવું hovuṃ should be dealt with first, due to its importance. In English, "to be" can in simple tenses be just like any other verb; in continuous tenses it becomes unique as an auxiliary verb. Gujarati follows the latter to an even higher degree by having હોવું hovuṃ as an auxiliary in almost every verb form, even when it wouldn't mean anything in English. As it would in the English continuous, and more so overall in Gujarati, the હોવું hovuṃ auxiliary has an important role as a tense marking particle.

હોવું hovuṃ has three roots: છ્ ch, હ ha, and હો ho. છ્ ch and હ ha are auxiliary forms, while હો ho both is and is not an auxiliary form. છ્ ch is for the present, હ ha for the past and future, and હો ho is used for conditional statements and general statements. Here is the conjugation table for the present tense of "to be":

Person	Singular	Plural
First	હું છું huṃ chuṃ / I am	આપણે, અમે છીએ āpṇe, ame chīe / We are
Second	તું છે tuṃ che / You are	તમે છો tame cho / You are
Third	તે છે te che / He-She-It-That is	તેઓ છે teo che / They are

Non-હોવું hovuṃ verbs, and continuous vs simple

With all other verbs, they are added, with હોવું hovuṃ acting as the auxiliary. The verb comes before હોવું hovuṃ, in between the subject and હોવું hovuṃ. Its root generally takes the same vowel suffix as its auxiliary છ્ root. Here is the conjugation table for the present tense of ઘસવું ghasvuṃ, "to scrub":

Person	Singular	Plural
First	હું ઘસું છું huṃ ghasuṃ chuṃ	આપણે, અમે ઘસીએ છીએ āpṇe, ame ghasīe chīe
Second	તું ઘસે છે tuṃ ghase che	તમે ઘસો છો tame ghaso cho
Third	તે ઘસે છે te ghase che	તેઓ ઘસે છે teo ghase che

While the header says the ambiguous "Present (Tense)", one may infer that what is being referred to above is specifically the continuous present tense, as "to be" is the auxiliary, just as it is in the English continuous present tense. This is not the case. હું ઘસું છું huṃ ghasuṃ chuṃ can mean "I am scrubbing" or "I scrub", depending on the context. Gujarati does not distinguish between the continuous and simple. This is one present tense, covering both continuous and simple present. However, this present tense is nonetheless more skewed towards the continuous ("I am scrubbing"), and for ease, now and later, it is best to go with that logical inference, that literal analysis, and make the reduction that this present tense is the continuous present tense, and that the છ્- ch- forms are "am/is/are" and the ઘસ્- ghas- forms are "scrubbing". The logic of present tense general statements (partly involving હોવું's હો root) will be elucidated later. As it turns out, Gujarati can't differentiate between continuous and simple, but it can differentiate between two types of simple. Also, in grammatical situations other than the indicative present, the distinction between continuous and simple can be cleanly made

Gujarati	English
	Major	Minor
તેઓ ઘસે છે teo ghase che	They are scrubbing	They scrub

Negation

There are two words in Gujarati that are equivalent to English's "not". They are ન na and નહિ nahi. When ન na is used, it comes before the negated verb; નહિ nahi comes after. In some cases either can be used (future tense) and in others only one (imperfect tense, present tense). The present tense requires નહિ nahi. On top of that, whenever a છ્- ch- is followed by નહિ nahi, they combine to make an invariable નથી nathī. They are often separated back for emphasis.

If નથી nathī is not alone and is an auxiliary to a non-હોવું hovuṃ verb, then the root of that verb is appended with તું tuṃ. Remember, ઉં uṃ is a variable gender marker. Gender marker vowel suffixes are different from the less logical vowel suffixes shown for the affirmative present tense so far (ઉં uṃ/એ e/ઈએ īe/ઓ o). Refer to the gender section for the appropriate appended vowel endings.

[edit] Subjunctive

The subjunctive is the affirmative present tense without the છ્- ch- auxiliary, negateable by either ન na or નહિ nahi.

It is a broad form with many functions, used essentially when expressing something less than firm fact. The specific grammatical forms it manifests for different situations:

• Conditional sentence, If clause: Simple Present Tense
• Conditional sentence, Then clause: Conditional Tense
• Interrogative mood: Adds, major- "should" / minor- "can"
• Indicative mood: Generalized statement, Conditional Tense, "weakened" Future Tense

[edit] Past

હોવું hovuṃ, the હ ha root

If છ્- ch- is the present root for હોવું hovuṃ and accounts for "am/is/are", then હ ha is its past counterpart accounting for "was/were". હ ha is suffixed with તું tuṃ.

[edit] Imperfect

The imperfect is made by the root taking તું tuṃ, with હતું hatuṃ as auxiliary. Notice the same continuous vs simple dichotomy spoken about in the present tense.

Gujarati	English
	Major	Minor
તું નાચતી હતી tuṃ nāctī hatī	You (f) were dancing	You (f) danced (as in, You used to dance)

This tense is negated by placing ન na in front of હતું hatuṃ. In speech, the હ ha sound is almost always neglected. In writing it is occasionally replaced by an apostrophe. See clitic.

Written	Speech
અમે રમતા હતા ame ramtā hatā	અમે રમતાતા ame ramtātā
મને ગમતું ન હતું mane gamtuṃ na hatuṃ	મને ગમતું નતું mane gamtuṃ natuṃ

With this, there may be some ambiguity between the feminine નતી natī and the present tense's નથી nathī. This may be resolved by replacing the spoken નતું natuṃ with નહોતું nahotuṃ, as some speakers do.

[edit] Perfect

The perfective is made by adding the gender-variable યું yuṃ onto the root; though minus the ય્ y in feminine. The auxiliary હોવું hovuṃ with its many forms acts as tense marker.

Also, here the distinction between transitive and intransitive comes into play:

Tense (Active)	Subject Case	Verb Agreement
Transitive Perfective	Ergative	Direct Object
All Else	Nominative	Subject

[edit] Future

[edit] Simple

These are the suffixes to the verbal root to form the simple future tense:

Person	Singular	Plural
First	ઈશ īś	ઈશું īśuṃ
Second		શો śo
Third	શે śe

There is no હોવું hovuṃ auxiliary. The sentence can be negated by placing ન na before the verb or નહિ nahi after.

[edit] More on "To be"

હોવું hovuṃ was introduced as the word for "to be". However, there are actually two verbs dealing with two connotions of meaning in "to be". હોવું hovuṃ deals with the state of being, while થવું thavuṃ deals with the act of being. In this way, થવું thavuṃ also means "to happen".

In situations where "become" would be equally valid in place of "be", થવું thavuṃ is to be used. In these two Gujarati sentences, which mean both "I will be a writer"...

• હું લેખક થઈશ huṃ lekhak thaīś
• હું લેખક હઈશ huṃ lekhak haīś

... the first can stand alone, relating to the future movement from non-writer, to writer. The second cannot stand alone, and is used in reference: "At age _____, I will be a writer". Again, હોવું hovuṃ "to be" concerns state, while થવું thavuṃ "to be" concerns act.

[edit] Continuous

હોવું hovuṃ is the ubiquitous tense-marking auxiliary, and just as છ્- ch- marks present, હ- ha- marks future.

• તે વાંચે છે te vāṃce che / She is reading → તે વાંચતી હશે te vāṃctī haśe / She will be reading

[edit] "Must"

The future of હોવું hovuṃ has a second meaning. It creates the word "must", as in probability or likeliness; not compulsion. So તે વાંચતી હશે te vāṃtī haśe could either mean "She will be reading" or "She must be reading", depending on context.

[edit] Mood

[edit] Imperative

The imperative in Gujarati is similar to English, where the subject is dropped, but sometimes left on for emphasis. Word order is OV. There are three levels of time(?), corresponding to three levels of politeness. Added to the verbal root:

	તું tuṃ	તમે tame
Present	∅	ઓ o
Near Future	જે je	જો jo
Distant Future	ઈશ īś ?	શો śo ?

[edit] Interrogative

Interrogative pronouns find themselves after the subject: S(i)OV. For Yes-No questions, which lack an interrogative pronoun, "What" (શું śuṃ) may be placed before the subject to designate it a question, though this is not done to the extent that it is in Gujarati's cousin language of Hindi.

The word order is not changed, nor is there an insertion of a "do"-type word; both are redundant. Similarly redundant, but used in Gujarati, are rising intonation and question mark punctuation. Gujarati makes a complete distinction between interrogative-relative pronoun counterparts. Relatives start with જ્ j and and interrogatives start with ક્ k (except for શું śuṃ). When there is a word being used that could only ever be used in the context of a question, none of these four things would be needed.

Though, a Yes-No question without "What" (શું śuṃ) at beginning would need rising intonation in speech and a question mark on paper to mark it as a question.

[edit] Conditional

The words for If and Then are જો jo and તો to. Where in English the If is mandatory, with the Then optional, in Gujarati it is the જો jo that is optional and the તો to that is mandatory.

Furthermore, in both clauses, these changes are made:

• હોવું hovuṃ છ્- ch- forms become હો- ho- forms
• હતું hatuṃ becomes હોત hot

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] Quoting Speech

Referring to someone else's speech may be done in two ways:

1. "... He said, 'I... '"

2. "... He said that he... "

In Gujarati, number 1 is the common form. Gujaratis often will say it in its original language too, making it even more of a "direct quote".

[edit] See also

• Gujarati language
• Gujarati script
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers
• Gujarati people

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further Reading

• Tisdall, W.S. (1892) A Simplified Grammar of the Gujarati Language. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
• Taylor, G.P. (1908) The Student's Gujarati Grammar. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
• Cardona, G. (1965) A Gujarati Reference Grammar. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Lambert, H.M. (1971) Gujarati Language Course. Cambridge University Press.
• Dave, J. (1995) Colloquial Gujarati. New York: Routledge.
• Dwyer, R. (1995) Teach Yourself Gujarati. (43 Mb) London: Hodder and Stoughton.
• Mistry P.J. (2001) Gujarati. Facts about the world's languages: An encyclopedia of the world's major languages, past and present. Ed. Jane Garry, and Carl Rubino: New England Publishing Associates.

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