“Namaste and welcome to another session of Learn Nepali!
Today, we are going to learn how to conjugate a very important verb — ‘to do’, which in Nepali is गर्नु (garnu).
We will look at how this verb changes in continuous tenses — that means:
✅ Present Continuous
✅ Past Continuous
✅ Future Continuous
Present Continuous Tense
The Present Continuous Tense is used to describe an action that is currently happening at the moment of speaking or a temporary ongoing action.
Structure:
Subject + am/is/are + doing
Conjugation Table
| Pronoun | Conjugation | Romanised Nepali |
|---|---|---|
| I(Ma) | I am doing | Ma gardai chu |
| You(Timi) | You are doing | Timi gardai chau |
| He/she/it(uh/Uhni) | He/she/it is doing | Uh gardai cha/uhni gardai chin |
| We (Hami) | We are doing | Hami gardai chau |
| They(Uhniharu) | They are doing | uhniharu gardai chan |
Note: The verb changes slightly based on who the subject is — whether it’s I, he/she, or we.
Past Continuous Tense
This tense describes actions that were happening in the past — not finished yet at that time. In Nepali, we use ‘गर्दै’ plus the past form of the verb “to be”.
Conjugation Table
| Pronoun | Conjugation | Romanised Nepali |
|---|---|---|
| I(ma) | I was doing | ma gardai thiye |
| You(tmi) Informl | You were doing | timi gardai thiyou |
| You(tapai) Formal | You were doing | tapai gardai hunuhunthyo |
| He/she/it(Uh/uhni/tyo) | He/she/it was doing | uh gardai thyo/uhni gardai thin |
| We(hami) | We were doing | hami gardai thyou |
| They(uhniharu) | They were doing | uhniharu gardai thiye |
Future Continuous Tense
Let’s look at the Future Continuous tense, which tells us about actions that will be happening in the future. In Nepali, we use ‘गर्दै’ plus the future form of the verb “to be.”
Structure:
Subject + will be + doing
Conjugation Table
| Pronoun | Conjugation | Romanised Nepali |
|---|---|---|
| I(ma) | I will be doing | ma gardai hunechu |
| You(timi) | You will be doing | timi gardai hunechau |
| You(tapai) | You will be doing | tapai gardai hunuhunecha |
| He/she/it(uh/uhni) | He/she will be doing | uh gardai hunecha/uhni gardai hunechin |
| We(hami) | We will be doing | hami gardai hunechau |
| They(uhniharu) | They will be doing | uhniharu gardai hunechan |
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