# Hindi:  hain



## BDC

First time poster, new learner to Hindi.  

I dont get this word; it doesn't seem to fit a standard.  Example:

Kaise hain aap - How are you?
Kahan se aaye hain aap - Where do you come from?
Kya aap Hindi bolte hain? Do you speak Hindi?

I am learnin Hindi from an online course, but coming to the conclusion that I am only memorizing phrases, not learning a language.  Trying to change that by breaking down the sentences and derive structure, etc.  "Hain" seems to come up everywhere and I am just not getting it.  This word is defined as "are" in English but it obviously isn't used for that exclusively.  What are the rules, etc surrounding this word?

Thanks for the assistance.


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## Alfaaz

Hello and Welcome to the forum and Hindi!



> I am learnin Hindi from an online course, but coming to the conclusion that I am only memorizing phrases, not learning a language. Trying to change that by breaking down the sentences and derive structure, etc. "Hain" seems to come up everywhere and I am just not getting it. This word is defined as "are" in English but it obviously isn't used for that exclusively. What are the rules, etc surrounding this word?



It's completely natural to feel that way while learning a new language! In the beginning you might have to memorize phrases and words, but as you progress you'll start learning and understanding (hopefully). Now, do realize that it is often difficult to explain things when you translate from one language to the other, as each language has its own special characteristics, ways of expressing things, and grammar, etc. 

So, I'll try to explain this (might not make sense, because not an expert of grammar): 

Kaise *hain* aap - How *are *you?
Kahan se aaye *hain* aap - Where do you come from?--Literal/word by word translation: where from come *have (are)* you; Where *have* you come from? In English it wouldn't be proper to say Where are you come from....
Kya aap Hindi bolte *hain*? Do you speak Hindi? What/do you Hindi speak *are*; 

Among many other differences you will notice, there is an interesting one: Hindi doesn't really have an equivalent for the English word "the"; 

Purush chal rahe hain-Males walk -ing are; Males are walking-raises the question-which males are walking (in English)? So you would translate: "The males/men are walking."


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## Qureshpor

BDC said:


> First time poster, new learner to Hindi.
> 
> I dont get this word; it doesn't seem to fit a standard.  Example:
> 
> Kaise hain aap - How are you?
> Kahan se aaye hain aap - Where do you come from?
> Kya aap Hindi bolte hain? Do you speak Hindi?
> 
> I am learnin Hindi from an online course, but coming to the conclusion that I am only memorizing phrases, not learning a language.  Trying to change that by breaking down the sentences and derive structure, etc.  "Hain" seems to come up everywhere and I am just not getting it.  This word is defined as "are" in English but it obviously isn't used for that exclusively.  What are the rules, etc surrounding this word?
> 
> Thanks for the assistance.



Just to add a little to Alfaaz's reply. Let's think in terms of grammar.

1) kaise haiN aap? How are you?

Here we are using the conjugation of the verb "to be" (honaa)

maiN huuN (I am)
ham haiN (We are)
tuu hai (Thou art!)
tum ho (You are)
aap haiN (You are) (form to show respect)
vuh hai (He/She/It is)
vuh haiN (They are)

2) kahaaN se aa'e haiN aap or aap kahaaN se aa'e haiN?

This is what you would term as the present perfect tense.

maiN aayaa huuN (I have come)
ham aa'e haiN (We have come)
tuu aayaa hai (You have come..familiar form)
tum aa'e ho (You have come..next stage up, used with people of similar age etc)
aap aa'e haiN (You have come)
vuh aayaa hai (He has come)
vuh aa'e haiN (They have come)

The above would change for gender.. (maiN aa'ii huuN I (female) have come)..etc

3) kyaa aap Hindi bolte haiN?

This is normally termed as the present indicative tense.

maiN boltaa huuN (I speak)
ham bolte haiN (We speak) ..

aap bolte haiN (You speak)...

Is your head spinning?


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## BDC

PERFECT!! Thanks to you both!! This makes sense. Answered my next question on Huun and ho as well. I have written it all down in my notebook for further study. All that listening and writing evidently has taken some kind of root.

So I think I see a pattern here: the verbs look like they break down along the lines of ending in "a" (male) and "ii" (female) for Main,tuu,vuh; they end in "e" for ham,tum,aap, and vuh. So I can (most of the time) associate the to-be verb and the verb to the subject and be correct. IOW, the verb and to-be verb follow the same individual pattern as the subject changes ("MaiN ___a huuN"; Tum____e ho", "Aap ___e haiN") - the verb and to-be verbs can be logically linked together. Is this true? If that works out, then its a huge piece of the puzzle.

Thanks again.


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## tonyspeed

BDC said:


> So I can (most of the time) associate the to-be verb and the verb to the subject and be correct. IOW, the verb and to-be verb follow the same individual pattern as the subject changes ("MaiN ___a huuN"; Tum____e ho", "Aap ___e haiN") - the verb and to-be verbs can be logically linked together. Is this true? If that works out, then its a huge piece of the puzzle.
> 
> Thanks again.



Yes, they must always agree. "hona/is" is conjugated according to the "subject" (in this form meaning "is" hona never changes based on gender). Of course there is much more complexity to the actual grammar so your templates above don't work in practice. Also. not all conjugations have "is" on the end. 

This only applies to:

general present - Bob dukaan jaataa hai - (Bob goes to the store.)
present progressive - Bob dukaan jaa rahaa hai - (Bob is going to the store)
present perfect - Bob ne kursiyaaN jalaayii haiN (Bob has set fire to the chairs) - notice the verbs don't agree with Bob but with chairs in this sentence!
stative - Bob purush hai (Bob is a man)
?present perfect stative? - ye kitaabeN yahaaN rahii haiN (These books have been here)

These forms do not use hona/is
perfect - Bob ne kursi jalaayii (Bob set fire to the chair) / Bob dukaan gayaa (Bob went to the store)
future - Bob dukaan jaegaa (Bob will go to the store)
subjunctive - Bob dukaan jae (Bob might go to the store)


Just for further clarification, the verb hona/is always agrees with the _grammatical_ subject and always matches the other verb if there is one. The grammatical subject in Hindi is not always the _logical_ subject (who is actually initiating the action). In the perfect tense with transitive verbs, the verb agrees with the direct object (or the closest noun in some cases) because the particle "NE" blocks the agreement with the subject. Therefore, in the sentence "bob ne kursiyaaN jalaayii haiN", kursiyaaN/chairs is actually the grammatical subject even though Bob is the logical subject.

Another small aspect to recognise is that in the past perfect tense the "ii" ending in verbs conjugated for feminine grammatical subjects doesn't change for plural. Logically, you would expect "ladkiyaaN roii haiN/the girls have cried" to be "ladkiyaaN roiN haiN"; (N being the nasal vowel marker that  indicates plurality); However since haiN has already been pluralised we don't need to conjugate "cry" in plural as well. However, if we simply said "ladkiyaaN roiiN/the girls cried", we do conjugate "cry" in the plural since there is no haiN to indicate plurality.


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## Qureshpor

Tony, I hope we are not over burdening BDC?



tonyspeed said:


> general present - Bob dukaan jaataa hai - (Bob goes to the store.)
> 
> ?present perfect stative? - ye kitaabeN yahaaN rahii haiN (These books have been here)
> 
> subjunctive - Bob dukaan jae (Bob might go to the store)



Bob ghar jaataa hai, Bob school jaataa hai seem fine but I don't know why I feel that 

"Bob dukaan jaataa hai"  ought to have "meN" as in "Bob dukaan meN jaataa hai".

For "These books have been here", more context would clarify the sentence in question.

Where are my books? I've been looking for them for ages!

Well, (pointing to the books) *these books have been here* (for days).

acchaa, (kitaaboN kii taraf ishaarah karte hu'e) *yih kitaabeN* to *yahaaN* ka'ii dinoN *se paRii haiN.
*
For the subjunctive, again a little additional context will make the sentence clearer.

ho saktaa hai *Bob dukaan meN jaa'e*/shaayad *Bob dukaan meN jaa'e*


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## marrish

QURESHPOR said:


> Tony, I hope we are not over burdening BDC?
> 
> 
> 
> Bob ghar jaataa hai, Bob school jaataa hai


 Shouldn't it be _*baab* ghar jaataa hai_?


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## tonyspeed

QURESHPOR said:


> Where are my books? I've been looking for them for ages!
> 
> Well, (pointing to the books) *these books have been here* (for days).
> 
> acchaa, (kitaaboN kii taraf ishaarah karte hu'e) *yih kitaabeN* to *yahaaN* ka'ii dinoN *se paRii haiN.
> *



I have actually only found proof of the existence of this form yesterday even though I have heard it many times before.
Intermediate Hindi Structures by Peter Edwin Hook says that in the perfect tense, the stative hona becomes rahna.

I'm still not quite clear on the usage of this because he merely skims over this fact. 
The difference seems to be "were" vs "have been" or "had been", but I'm not quite sure.

as for meN, what if you are only going to stand outside the store?


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## Qureshpor

marrish said:


> Shouldn't it be _*baab* ghar jaataa hai_?



No, this would mean, "chapter"!


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## marrish

QURESHPOR said:


> No, this would mean, "chapter"!


Not in Hindi!


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## marrish

QURESHPOR said:


> Tony, I hope we are not over burdening BDC?
> 
> 
> 
> Bob ghar jaataa hai, Bob school jaataa hai seem fine but I don't know why I feel that
> 
> "Bob dukaan jaataa hai"  ought to have "meN" as in "Bob dukaan meN jaataa hai".


It's somehow possible, however most commonly we use something different altogether: _dukaan *par* jaanaa._
Also dukaan jaanaa follows the pattern of _skuul jaanaa_, and it's used as well.
_dukaan meN jaanaa_ seems equally good to me, too.


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## Qureshpor

tonyspeed said:


> I have actually only found proof of the existence of this form yesterday even though I have heard it many times before.
> Intermediate Hindi Structures by Peter Edwin Hook says that in the perfect tense, the stative hona becomes rahna.
> 
> I'm still not quite clear on the usage of this because he merely skims over this fact.
> The difference seems to be "were" vs "have been" or "had been", but I'm not quite sure.
> 
> as for meN, what if you are only going to stand outside the store?




Tony SaaHib, aap to 3iid kaa chaaNd ban ga'e haiN! *kahaaN rahe haiN aap*? (?)

.................................................................... *Where have you been*?

yaar QP, *maiN biimaar rahaa huuN*. (?) is liye aap ne mujhe kahiiN dekhaa nahiiN

....*I have been ill*.....

These sentences do seem somewhat dubious. What do you think? We would normally expect, "aap kahaaN the" and "maiN biimaar thaa".

Note also..

What have you been doing for the last hour?

pichhle ghanTe se aap kyaa kar rahe haiN?

pichhle ghanTe se aap kyaa karte rahe haiN?


Bob dukaan tak gayaa (dukaan ke andar nahiiN gayaa)!


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## Qureshpor

marrish said:


> It's somehow possible, however most commonly we use something different altogether: _dukaan *par* jaanaa._



Yes, I would say this is a better option. Thank you.


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## Qureshpor

QURESHPOR said:


> Tony SaaHib, aap to 3iid kaa chaaNd ban ga'e haiN! *kahaaN rahe haiN aap*? (?)
> 
> .................................................................... *Where have you been*?
> 
> yaar QP, *maiN biimaar rahaa huuN*. (?) is liye aap ne mujhe kahiiN dekhaa nahiiN
> 
> ....*I have been ill*.....
> 
> These sentences do seem somewhat dubious. What do you think? We would normally expect, "aap kahaaN the" and "maiN biimaar thaa".




Perhaps not!

Allah ke qurb ke 3ilaavah
Ibliis ke saath bhii rahaa huuN

Raees Amrohvi

(Besides being close to God
I have been with Satan too)


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## marrish

QURESHPOR said:


> Perhaps not!
> 
> Allah ke qurb ke 3ilaavah
> Ibliis ke saath rahaa huuN
> 
> Raees Amrohvi
> 
> (Besides being close to God
> I have been with Satan)




Wonderful example. I've heard and used _maiN biimaar rahaa huuN_ many a times, but I'm still not sure whether it's correct or not...


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## Qureshpor

marrish said:


> Wonderful example. I've heard and used _maiN biimaar rahaa huuN_ many a times, but I'm still not sure whether it's correct or not...



Let's place a noun, an adjective, an adverb and a verb before "rahaa huuN".

a) Noun

har 3ahd meN aadamii rahuuN gaa
har 3ahd meN *aadamii* rahaa huuN

In every era I shall remain a man
In every era I have been *a man
*
b) Adjective

maiN is silsile meN kahaaN tak *kaam-yaab rahaa huuN*, aap hii bataa'iye!

To what extent *I have been successful* in this connection, you will have to tell me!

(I have been successful/I have been ill are comparable)

c) Adverb

kis tarHa rahaa huuN kyaa bataa'uuN
kahne ko *haNsii-Khushii* rahaa huuN

How I have lived, oh what can I say?
Seemingly *happily* have I been living 

d) Verb

sar-chashmah-i-zindagii rahaa huuN
aur zahr-i-Hayaat *pii rahaa huuN*

I have been the fountainhead of life
And now *am drinking* the poison of life


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## marrish

Let me take more time to think about it. All I can say for the moment is that _rahaa huuN_ can be translated using the verbs ''to stay'', ''to remain'' rather than ''to be''.


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## Qureshpor

^ More than seven months now! Enough time?


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## marrish

Yes, you've got me! They say that time is the best healer but in this case it hasn't succeeded in healing my lack of knowledge! Your extensive post with all these poetic examples had made me thinking of something, but to be frank, I don't remember it anymore. Probably _pii rahaa huuN_ can be analyzed as _pii (kar) rahaa huuN_. pii kar on itself seems not to specify any tense. In this case, it might be suggested that _pii kar_ has acquired the tense of the following form ''_rahaa huuN_''. So _piyaa (having drunk) rahaa huuN (I remained) _would be the result of this way of thinking. 

It is also worth confessing that the English Present Perfect forms translate the meanings of the Hindi verbal constructs quite aptly but it would surprise me should this Hindi construction be perfectly equal to the English one, with the exception of different auxiliary verbs.


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