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Gujarati/Present

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surya ugyo


Formation of the present tense

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The present tense in Gujarati is for most verbs formed by removing the infinitive ending વું vũ, placing a grammatical person marker in its place, and placing the appropriate present-tense form of the verb to be afterwards.

The formula thus follows the lines of:

[verb stem + personal marker] [form of to be]

For example, for the first person:

[kar + ũ] [chhũ]

Or in full,

Hũ e karũ chhũ. (હું એ કરું છું.)
I it doing am. ("I am doing it.")

The verb to be (હોવું hovũ)

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The verb હોવું is irregular both in its stem (છ chh as opposed to હો cho) and in that it does not take an auxiliary (as it is itself the auxiliary used by all other verbs). Because it is used to conjugate all other verbs, it is essential to know all the following forms.

The forms shown below are the "forms of to be" mentioned above that are used to form the present tense.

Pronoun (En) Pronoun (Guj) Verb form
I હું hũ છું chhũ
you તું tũ છે chhe
he/she/it એ e છે chhe
we અમે ame છીએ chhiie
you તમે tame છો chho
they એ e છે chhe

Present tense endings

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These are the "personal markers" mentioned above that are used to form the present tense.

Pronoun Personal marker
હું hũ ઉં ũ
તું tũ એ e
એ e એ e
અમે ame ઈએ iie
તમે tame ઓ o
એ e એ e

Example: a regular verb, કરવું karvũ

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The verb stem is derived by removing -vũ:

કરવું karvũ → કર kar
Pronoun Verb form Form of to be
હું hũ કરું karũ છું chhũ
તું tũ કરે kare છે chhe
એ e કરે kare છે chhe
અમે ame કરીએ kariie છીએ chhiie
તમે tame કરો karo છો chho
એ e કરે kare છે chhe

Thus we can make such sentences as:

Hũ (e) karu chhũ. I am doing (it).
Apņe (kaam) kariie chhiie. We are doing (work).
Tũ (shũ) kare chhe ? (What) are you doing?

Negative present tense

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The negative present tense is formed completely differently from the positive present tense. It follows the pattern:

[negative marker] [verb stem + form of ]

Note:

  • The negative marker can be any one of the following: નથી nathii, ન na, નહિ nahi.
  • The form of the suffix તું tũ must agree in gender and number with the agent of the verb (thing performing the action).

For example, if Mayur (a man's name) says, "I am not doing work," this is:

[nathii] [kar + to]
Hũ (kaam) nathii karto. I am not doing (work).

Forms of તું tũ

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The various gender forms of તું tũ are:

Singular Plural
Neuter તું tũ તાં tãã
Masculine તો to તા taa
Feminine તી tii તી tii