Bengali/Liking and disliking
Liking[edit | edit source]
In English, liking is expressed by using verbs such as "like", "love" and "enjoy". In Bengali, it is mainly expressed using the verbs "pôchondo kôra" (=like), "bhalobasha" (=love) and "upobhog kôra" (=enjoy).
In English, the verbs "like", "love" and "enjoy" take the finite form (that is, they bear signs of their grammatical relation with the subject) and they are followed by a to-infinitive clause or an -ing clause. For example, "he likes sailing" or "she loves to cook", or "I enjoy having a cup of tea in the morning".
In Bengali, the verbs "pôchondo kôra", "bhalobasha" and "upobhog kôra" take the finite form (that is, they bear signs of their grammatical relation with the subject) and they are preceded by a clause that finishes in a non-finite verb (verb root + suffix "-te").
How to form a non-finite verb? Take the dictionary form of the verb, such as "pora" (=read), then strip off the final "-a" to get the verb root "por", and finally add a "-te" in the end to get the non-finite form "porte". Pora - a + te = porte. This is equivalent to the to-infinitive ("to read") or the -ing form ("reading") of the verb in English.
Observe the following examples.
| English | Bengali | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| Samia likes reading books. or Samia likes to read books. |
সামিয়া বই পড়তে পছন্দ করে | Samia boi porte pôchondo kôre. |
| Indrani loves cooking. or Indrani loves to cook. |
ইন্দ্রানী রাঁধতে ভালবাসে। | Indrani randhte bhalobashe. |
| I enjoy the morning breeze very much. | আমি ভোরের হাওয়াটা খুব উপভোগ করি। | Ami bhorer hawata khub upobhog kori. |
Disliking[edit | edit source]
In English, disliking is expressed by using verbs such as "dislike", "hate" and "loathe".
Preference[edit | edit source]
In English, preference is expressed by using patterns such as "prefer A to B" or "prefer A rather than B".