Verb Conjugations

Conjugation refers to the variation of the form of a verb in a language to express different grammatical categories such as tense, mood, voice, aspect, person, and number. Nepali, like many languages, has a complex system of verb conjugations. Here’s an overview of the types of conjugations and their uses with structural explanations:

Nepali has different levels of politeness/respect, and there is a corresponding verb conjugation with each level. It isn’t easy to keep track of them all at first, so if you like you can just focus on the most polite forms to make it easier on yourself! There are a couple of irregular verbs in Nepali to keep in mind. However, most of the verbs will follow these rules.

All Nepali verbs end with -नु  -nu.
To conjugate the verb into a different tense, you have to remove the -nu ending to leave the “stem” of the verb. In the case of गर्नु garnu, the stem would be गर् “gar.” Then you can change the ending depending on the conjugation needed.

Use of conjugation in three tenses:

Simple Present Tense

In Nepali, the present tense (i.e., “I do” or “You do”) can mean…
– something that you do regularly (“I eat vegetables”)
– something that you are going to do (“I clean the house today” = “I will clean the house today”)

For any of the pronouns (with the exception of “ma,” the first person), you can add the suffix हरु “haru” to indicate more than one person. For example, “timi” means you (informal) while “timiharu” means “you all.”
There is another word for you, तँ “ta~” which is not at all respectful and is usually used for one’s own children, extremely close friends, or someone who you are angry at. There isn’t really any reason for a non-native to ever use this form, so I’m not including it here. You can find it in Nepali textbooks and other resources, though, if you’re curious.

Examples:

Vocab:
खानु    khaanu – to eat
खाना    khaana – food/large meal
उठ्नु    uThnu (“OOT-noo”) – to get up
८ बजे    8 baje – (“aaTh baje”) – 8 o’clock
सधैं    sadhain – always

म सधैं ८ बजे उठ्छु    Ma sadhain 8 baje uThchu – I always get up at 8 o’clock.

तपाईं खाना खानुहुन्छ    Tapain khaana khaanuhuncha – you eat a meal/will eat a meal

उठ्छु    uThchu – I will get up

IRREGULAR VERBS:

This is where it gets tricky with some verbs – the present tense is straightforward enough, but the “stems” of irregular verbs undergo certain changes depending on the conjugation.
Some examples:

• जानु jaanu – to go
• जान्छु Jaanchu – I go
• जान्दिनँ jaandina~ – I don’t go
• गएँ  gae~ – I went
• गइनँ gaaina~ – I didn’t go
• जान्छौं jaanchau~ – we go
• जान्दैनौं jaandainau~ – we don’t go
• गयौं gayau~ – we went
• गएनौं gaenau~ – we didn’t go
• जान्छौ jaanchau – you (informal) go
• जान्दैनौ jaandainau – you (informal) don’t go
• गयौ gayau – you (informal) went
• गएनौ gaenau – you (informal) didn’t go
• जान्छ jaancha – he/she/it goes (informal)
• जान्दैन jaandaina – he/she/it doesn’t go (informal)
• गयो gayo – he/she/it went (informal)
• गएन gaena – he/she/it didn’t go
• जान्छन jaanchan – they (medium) go
• जान्दैनन् jaandainan – they (medium) don’t go
• गए gae – they (medium) went
• गएनन् gaenan – they (medium) didn’t go
• जानुहुन्छ jaanuhuncha – you/they go (formal)
• जानुहुन्न jaanuhunna – you/they don’t go (formal)
• जानुभयो jaanubhayo – you/they went (formal)
• जानुभएन jaanubhaena – you/they didn’t go (formal)

As you can see, with this verb jaanu, the present tense conjugations are all what you’d expect, but things switch up with some of the past tense forms.
Since this is such a common verb, you should get used to the irregular forms after hearing them/using them quite often.

Another irregular verb is आउनु aaunu – to come.

आउनु aaunu – to come
आउंछु aaunchu – I come
आउँदिनँ aaundina~ – I don’t come
आएँ aae~ – I came
आएनँ aaena~ – I didn’t come
आउँछौं aaunchau~ – we come
आउँदैनौं aaundainau~ – we don’t come
आयौं aayau~ – we came
आएनौँ aaenau~ – we didn’t come
आउँछौ aaunchau – you come (informal)
आउँदैनौ aaundainau – you don’t come (inf.)
आयौ aayau – you came (informal)
आएनौ aaenau – you didn’t come (inf.)
आउँछ aauncha – he/she/it comes (informal)
आउँदैन aaundaina – he/she/it doesn’t come (inf.)
आयो aayo – he/she/it came (informal)
आएन aaena – he/she/it didn’t come (inf.)
आउँछन aaunchan – they come (medium)
आउँदैनन् aundainan – they don’t come (medium)
आए aae – they came (medium)
आएनन् aaenan – they didn’t come (medium)
आउनुहुन्छ aaunuhuncha – you/they come (formal)
आउनुहुन्न aaunuhunna – you/they don’t come (formal)
आउनुभयो aaunubhayo – you/they came (formal)
आउनुभएन aaunubhaena – you/they didn’t come (formal)

Verbs that end in -aaunu (बोलाउनु bolaaunu “to call/invite”, मिलाउनु milaaunu “to arrange/set up”, etc) behave the same way as aaunu shown above. (E.g, बोलाएँ bolaae~ “I called”)

Other forms of irregular verbs are ones like धुनु dhunu “to wash” and रुनु runu “to cry”:

रुन्छु runchu – I cry
रुन्दिनँrundina~ – I don’t cry
रोएँ roe~ (“roy-eh~”) – I cried
रोएनँ roena~ – I didn’t cry
रोयो royo – he/she/it cried
रोएन roena – he/she/it didn’t cry
रोयौ royau – you (informal) cried
रोएनौ roenau – you (inf) didn’t cry
रुनुभयो runubhayo – you/they cried (formal)
रुनुभएन runubhaena – you/they didn’t cry (formal)

As you can see, the verb endings stay the same, but the stem of the verb underwent some changes for all but the formal conjugation in the past tense. 
The same goes with धुनु dhunu – धोएँ dhoe~, धोयो dhoyo, etc. But in the present tense, no changes to the stem: dhunchu, dhuncha…

It was disheartening at first when studying the language and finding out about all these exceptions, but I promise you will get the hang of it when you practice regularly!

SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE

Since the present tense can also be used to describe things you are going to do, the future tense seems unnecessary, right?
Well, this tense is generally used for talking about plans in the future – not necessarily today. It also is used for when you are not quite sure exactly when something is going to happen.
For example, “I am going to go to Nepal someday” has a quite different meaning than “I’m going to Nepal” – the first expresses intention or hope, but the second is definitely happening – you know probably know the dates of your trip at this point. For that first example, you would probably use the future tense in Nepali.

As you can see, the future tense is exactly the same as the present tense except with an extra syllable “ne” thrown in.
To make it even more simple, in spoken Nepali, you can usually just say (verb)-ne without the ending, e.g. garne, khaane, aune. To convert to the negative form, just at the prefix na- to the beginning: “Nagarne” = will not do, “nakhaane” – will not eat, etc.

*In the case of saying के गर्ने “Ke garne” – “ke” meaning “what” – you may think that this is asking “what will you do” or “what will they do”. But as discussed in a previous article, “ke garne” is actually an expression meaning something along the lines of  “What can be done” or “oh well, what can you do.”
For other things, though, you can use “garne” without it skewing the meaning this way. For instance,
पछि गर्ने “pachi garne” (“pachi” means “later”) means “I’ll do it later.” If you put it in the form of a question (“Pachi garne?”) it’s sounds more like you’re asking someone “You’ll do it later?” So based on context and tone, these are cases where you don’t even really need to use the corresponding pronouns.
As with the present tense, you don’t need to worry about changing the irregular verbs’ stems at all – that only happens in past-tense conjugations.