Basic Bengali Grammar

These are just some basic points of Bengali grammar that non-Bengali  speakers must keep in mind when learning Bengali. The grammar will gradually be made clear to you in more details in succeeding lessons. For now, please  take to heart the following three very essential points.

• Bengali grammar generally follows the SOV form (Subject Object Verb) though in some rare cases SVO forms are allowable. Consider the following sentence:

Lexicon: Ami [I], Am [Mango] khAi [eat, present tense]
Bengali: Ami Am khAi
English: I eat Mango.

• Bengali does not require the verb to be in the Subject-Verb Complement types of sentences. Instead of saying I am a student, in Bengali it is grammatically correct to say: I student. The verb to be is inherent in such sentences. An example is given below:

Lexicon: chhAtro [student, masculine]
Bengali: Ami chhAtro
English: I am a student.

• Based on the subject of the sentence the, basic root of a verb form is modified by appending a suffix. Examples will be given in a succeeding lesson.

• The pronouns

  Bengali pronouns are relatively easy to learn but one must remember some key points:

  1. There is no distinction of gender in Bengali pronouns.
  2. Bengali pronouns distinguish between honorific/polite and familiar pronouns. Honorific or polite forms are marked by a [p] and familiar forms are marked by a [f] in the following tables. This is not only present in the second person as in French but also in the third person. There is yet a third form that is not recommended for use by a visitor to Bangladesh.
  3. In the third person nearness distinguishes three different types of third person pronouns. As an example, for the familiar forms, e imlplies he/she over here, o implies he/she over there, and shay implies he/she elsewhere. These position dependent pronouns are marked by [h], [t], and [e] denoting the proximal relations here, there, and elsewhere respectively.

  Basic Personal Pronouns

  Subject forms

  Person	English	Singular	Plural	English
  First	I	Ami	AmrA	We
  Second	You [p]	Apni	ApnArA	You
  	You [f]	tumi	tomrA	You
  Third [h]	He/She [p]	Ini	enArA	They
  	He/She [f]	e	erA	They
  Third [t]	He/She [p]	uni	unArA	They
  	He/She [f]	o	orA	They
  Third [e]	He/She [p]	tini	tenArA	They
  	He/She [f]	shay	tArA	They

  Possessive forms

  Person	English	Singular	Plural	English
  First	my	AmAr	AmAder	our
  Second	Your [p]	ApnAr	ApnAder	Your
  	Your [f]	tomAr	tomAder	Your
  Third [h]	His/Hers [p]	enAr	enAder	Their
  	His/Hers [f]	er	eder	Their
  Third [t]	His/Hers [p]	unAr	unArder	Their
  	His/Hers [f]	or	oder	Their
  Third [e]	His/Hers [p]	tA(n)re	tA(n)der	Their
  	His/Hers [f]	tAr	tAder	Their

  Object forms

  Person	English	Singular	Plural	English
  First	me	AmAke	AmAderke	us
  Second	You [p]	ApnAke	ApnAderke	You
  	You [f]	tomAke	tomAderke	You
  Third [h]	Him/Her [p]	InAke	enAderke	Them
  	Him/Her [f]	eke	ederke	Them
  Third [t]	Him/Her [p]	unAke	unArderke	Them
  	Him/Her [f]	oke	oderke	Them
  Third [e]	Him/Her [p]	tenAke	tenAderke	Them
  	Him/Her [f]	tAke	tAderke	Them

  Demonstrative Pronouns

  Bengali	English
  eTA	this [h]
  oTA	that [t]
  sheTA	that [e]
  egulo	these [h]
  ogulo	those [t]
  shegulo	those [e]

• Sentence Structure: Interrogation

  ki, the Bengali for what, is much more versatile than in English. It can be used straight forward as an interrogative whence it is pronounced with a slight stress. It can also be used to turn a statement into a question.

  Example:
  

  Ami chhAtro. [I am a student]
  Ami ki chhAtro? [Am I a student?]

  The general rule of thumb is to add the word ki after the subject inorder to convert the statement into an interrogative one.

• Sentence Structure: Negation

  Just like the rule that the verb in Bengali always comes at the end, in negative sentences the negative particle (nA) always comes after the verb. There are of course some exceptions to this where the negative particple is placed before the verb. We will deal with them later.

  First, consider the following sentence with which you are already familiar:

  I am a student: Ami chhAtro

  The negation of this sentence is:

  I am not a student: Ami chhAtro nA

  Exceptions:

  • if sentences:

  If you don't go: tumi jodi nA jAo

  • With the word jyano (so that)

  You watch that I do not fall: tumi dyakho jyano Ami nA pori

  Selected Glossary:

  dyakho: watch
  pori: fall
  jodi: if
  jAo: go (second person, familiar)