Bengali/Grammar

Some basic sentence patterns in Bengali are given below.

Subject + "be" verb + noun/adjective

There are different ways of expressing the verb "to be." The "to be" verb that deals with personality and character traits is mostly omitted in the present tense (e.g., the forms আছি, হই, হও, হয়, etc.).

• I am. - আমি - Ami.
• You (sg.) are. - তুমি - Tumi
• He/she is. - সে - Shay
• We are. - আমরা - Amra
• You (pl.) are. - তোমরা - Tomra
• They are. - তারা - Tara
• John is. - জন - John

• I am well. - আমি ভাল (আছি)। - Ami bhalo (achi).
• He is tall. - সে লম্বা। - Shay lomba.
• She is beautiful. - সে সুন্দরী। - Shay sundori.
• You are intelligent. - তুমি বুদ্ধিমান। - Tumi buddhiman.
• We are humans. - আমরা মানুষ। - Amra Manush.

In the other tenses, the verb "hooya," which means "to become" can be used.

Another way of expressing the "to be" verb is to use the verb stem "ach-", which literally means "to be present."

• Ami ekhane achi. - I am here.
• Tumi ekhane acho. - You (sg/informal) are here.
• Se ekhane ache. - He/she (far/informal) is here.
• Amra ekhane achi. - We are here. (I/we have the same conjugated verb)
• Tomra ekhane acho. - You (pl/informal) are here.
• Tini ekhane achen. - They are here.

Conjugating Verbs

In Bengali, verbs are learned from the verbal ("-ing") form versus the infinitive ("to . . . ") form. Generally, the different subjects are conjugated by replacing the ending "a" by the following endings.

• Ami (I)/Amra (We): "-i"
• Tumi (You sg/informal): "-o"
• e/o/se (he/she in different locations from speaker): "-e"
• Apna (You sg/formal)/ Ini/Uni/Tini (he/she in different locations): "-en"

The locations for the third person pronouns are for here, there (near), and there (far), respectively. In addition, Bengali doesn't conjugate verbs or change subject pronouns to reflect gender of the person/people spoken about.