Bengali/Lesson 2

In this lesson, we shall discuss the basics of describing people.

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You are in a café in the middle of Cox's Bazar and get a call from Mustafizur.

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Again, if the link didn't tip you off, Mustafizur is a Bangladeshi cricketer and Cox's Bazar is a resort city in Bangladesh. (We will do that every time.)

বিশেষণ - adjectives
Adjectives in Bengali don't form comparatives and superlatives easily; they aren't often separate words save for the conceptually simplest. Using খুব and একটু (ekţu) to mean 'a lot' and 'a little' save a lot of trouble.

অধিকার - possession
In Bengali, possession is more strongly linked to the person possessing–in other words, there's no word 'to have' and you don't directly 'feel' something. If you wanted to say "I have an idea" or "I feel splendid", a translation would yield "My idea exists" or "My splendidness feels" (for the curious, আমার ধারণা আছে or আমার চমৎকার লাগে).

এটা ও ওটা - this and that
Demonstrative pronouns follow a very logical pattern. In fact, it is the same pattern that governs the third person pronouns.

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ধাতুরূপ - conjugation
If you can't talk about at least the here and now in Bengali, you will have a bad time speaking it. Here, then, is the simple present tense.

করা - to do
There are three basic verbs (and one verb form) that are critical for getting around in Bengali. Let's start with করা, 'to do' and its simple present tense.


 * আমি করি (kori)। - I do.
 * তুই করিস (korish)। - You (informal) do.
 * তুমি করো (koro)। - You (familiar) do.
 * এ/ও/সে করে (kore)। - He/she/it (nearby/farther/farthest, familiar) does.
 * আপনি করেন (koren)। - You (formal) do.
 * ইনি/উনি/তিনি করেন। - He/she/it (nearby/farther/farthest, formal) does.

Notice the lack of plural forms above; they share the same form as their singulars (i.e. আমরা করি, তারা করে).

Lots of verbs do the same thing করা does; one drops the আ sound from the end and one tacks on ই, ইস, ও, এন, or এ depending on the person (making sure, of course, to adjust the vowel form as needed). When a verb follows this same pattern, we will follow it with (করা).

This also shows how in regular speech, when the subject is obvious, one can drop the pronoun; this is significantly easier for আমি, তুই, and তুমি.

When we need to outline the conjugations for a verb in a single tense, like করা in the simple present tense, it will be shown as follows: করি করিস করো করে করেন. This way of listing, keeping in mind which set of people go with which form, is used on the English Wiktionary.

যাওয়া - to go
Unfortunately, the other basic verbs don't share the formation scheme described above.


 * আমি যাই (jai)। - I go.
 * তুই যাস (jash)। - You (informal) go.
 * তুমি যাও (jao)। - You (familiar) go.
 * এ/ও/সে যায় (jae)। - He/she/it (nearby/farther/farthest, familiar) goes.
 * আপনি যান (jan)। - You (formal) go.
 * ইনি/উনি/তিনি যান। - He/she/it (nearby/farther/farthest, formal) goes.

This would be outlined as যাই যাস যাও যায় যান.

হওয়া - to be
Remember that the simple present tense is generally not used except when one needs to emphasize it.


 * আমি হই (hôi)। - I am.
 * তুই হস (hosh)। - You (informal) are.
 * তুমি হও (hôo)। - You (familiar) are.
 * এ/ও/সে হয় (hôe)। - He/she/it (nearby/farther/farthest, familiar) is.
 * আপনি হন (hon)। - You (formal) are.
 * ইনি/উনি/তিনি হন (hon)। - He/she/it (nearby/farther/farthest, formal) is.

This would be outlined as হই হস হও হয় হন.

আছা?
This would be outlined as আছি আছিস আছো আছে আছেন. (Did you get how it's listed?)

This verb, which you have seen in some of the phrases used in the dialogues, plays a larger role in the formation of other tenses, which we'll get into later.

আর ক্রিয়াপদ - other verbs
Here, then, are the other verbs introduced in the dialogue.


 * লাগা (to feel, to touch): লাগি লাগিস লাগো লাগে লাগেন
 * This verb has its own rules, the oddities of which will be described later. Verbs following this form will be denoted (লাগা).
 * থাকা (to stay, to remain): (লাগা)Would you look at that?
 * চাওয়া (to want): চাই চাস চাও চায় চান
 * This verb, while looking similar to যাওয়া, actually will end up more regular than যাওয়া, and thus verbs following this form will be denoted (চাওয়া).