8.8 Conjunct Verbs

Instructor Video: Conjunct Verbs in Urdu

In English, one can use a noun or an adjective like a verb. To use a noun or adjective as a verb in Urdu, one can combine verbs such as کرنا and strong>ہونا with them. These combinations cannot be used to create a verb which already exists. However, Urdu does not always have a single verb equivalent to English verbs: such as “to close” (بند کرنا).

Adjectival Conjunct Verb Nominal Conjunct Verb
Forms Adjective + کرنا  Noun + کرنا 
Properties
  • Conjunct verbs with کرنا act like a transitive verb and, hence, the subject must appear with the -ne (نے-) marker when the conjunct verb comes in the perfective tense (or express a completed action). Conjunct verbs with کرنا focus on the doer of an action.
  • Negative sentence: To form a negative conjunct verb, the word نہیں should be placed between the noun/adjective and the verb کرنا in a standard word order.
  • Agreement system: In a conjunct verb, the noun/adjective part of the conjunct verb remains unchanged and the verb کرنا agrees with the potential subject/object in the sentence. Based on the agreement, the verb کرنا changes its form.

Examples of Adjectival Conjunct Verbs

“I cleaned my room.” –میں نے اپنا کمرا صاف کیا

“You make your house dirty.” –تم اپنا گھر گندا کرتے ہو

“They are preparing for the program.”- وہ پروگرام کی تیاری کر رہے ہیں

Examples of Nominal Conjunct Verbs

Nominal conjunct verbs can be further divided into two categories:

(a) one that requires a connecter such as کا/کی .

Examples of nouns that require connectors:

“We helped him/her.” ہم نے اس کی مدد کی

“Imran fixed the car.”- -عمران نے گاڑی کی مرمت کی

“Students are practicing Hindi.”- طلب علم اردو کا مشق کر رہے ہیں

“Akhtar cleaned a house.”- اختر نے گھر کی صفائی کی

(b) one that does not require any connector.

Examples of nouns that do not require connectors:

“Imran forgave me.” -عمران نے مجھے معاف کیا

“Children are making noise.” -بچے شور کر رہے ہیں

“I called my mother.” -میں نے اپنی امی کو فون کیا

Conjunct Verb with ہونا

Conjunct verbs with ہونا are intransitive verbs and, hence, the subject must not appear with the -ne (نے-) marker when the conjunct verb comes in the perfective tense (or expresses a completed action). All the conjunct verbs with کرنا also have a construction with ہونا , in which the doer of the action is usually not expressed.

Adjective + ہونا

Examples of adjectival conjunct verbs:

“My room got cleaned.”- میرا کمرا صاف ہوا

“His house became dirty.” –اسکا کمرا گندا ہوا

“Preparation for the program is taking place.” –پروگرام کی تیاری ہو رہی ہے

Noun + ہونا

Like کرنا conjunct verbs, nominal conjunct verbs with ہونا can also be further divided into two categories.

(a) one that requires connecters such as کا/کی .

Examples of nouns that require connectors:

“His/her help happened (literally)./S/he was helped.” –اس کی مدد ہوئی

“The fixing of the car happened (literally)./The car was fixed.” –گاڑی کی مرمت ہوئی

“Practice of Urdu is happening (literally)./Urdu is being practiced.”- اردو کی مشق ہو رہا ہے

(b) one that does not require any connector.

Examples of nouns that do not require connectors:

“A program is happening here.” –یہاں پروگرام ہو رہا ہے

“The program ended.”- پروگرام ختم ہو گیا

“The mistake happened.”- بھول ہو گئی

Activity 1

Please write two sentences with each of the following conjunct verbs.

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.٢ 

 “To decide” فیصلہ کرنا

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 “To clean” صاف کرنا

.١ 

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 “To return” واپس کرنا

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  “To finish” ختم کرنا

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 “To reduce” کم کرنا

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 “To fix up” ٹھیک کرنا

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 “To prepare” تیار کرنا

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 “To start” شروع کرنا

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 “To repair” مرمت کرنا

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 “To help X” کی مدد کرنا x

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 “To wait for X” کا انتظار کرنا x

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 “To try X” کی کوشش کرنا x

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 “To practice X” کا مشق کرنا x

Activity 2

Please write a response of these following personalized questions and then record yourself.

 !شکریہ

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