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PRONOUNS Bengali pronouns are somewhat similar to English pronouns, having different words for first, second, and third person, and also for singular and plural (unlike for verbs, below). Bengali pronouns, unlike their English counterparts, do not differentiate for gender; that is, the same pronoun may be used for "he" or "she". However, Bengali has different third-person pronouns for proximity. The first are used for someone who is nearby, and the second are for those who are a little further away. The third are usually for those who are not present. In addition, each of the second- and third-person pronouns have different forms for the familiar and polite forms; the second person also has a "very familiar" form. In the following tables, the abbreviations used are as follows: VF=very familiar, '''F'''=familiar, and '''P'''=polite (honor); '''H'''=here, '''T'''=there, and '''E'''=elsewhere (proximity). The nominative case is used for pronouns that are the subject of the sentence, such as "''I'' already did that" or "Will ''you'' please stop making that noise?" The objective case is used for pronouns serving as the direct or indirect objects, such as "I told ''him'' to wash the dishes" or "The teacher gave ''me'' the homework assignment." The possessive case is used to show possession, such as "Where is ''your'' coat?" or "Let's go to ''our'' house." Note that the plural forms are identical to those for the objective case. NOUNS Case Nouns are also inflected for Case , including Nominative , Objective , Genitive (possessive) , and Locative . The case marking pattern for each noun being inflected depends on the noun's degree of Animacy . When a Definite Article such as ''-ţa'' (singular) or ''-gula'' (plural) is added, as in the table above, nouns are also inflected for Number . Plural versions of the previous table can be found below: Measure Words When counted, nouns must also be accompanied by the appropriate Measure Word . As in many Asian languages (e.g. Chinese , Japanese , Thai , etc.), nouns in Bangla cannot be counted directly by adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. The noun's measure word (MW) must be used in between the numeral and the noun. Most nouns take the generic measure word ''ţa'', although there are many more specific measure words, such as ''jon'', which is only used to count humans. Measuring nouns in Bangla without their corresponding measure words (e.g. ''aţ biŗal'' instead of ''aţ-ţa biŗal'' "eight cats") would typically be considered ungrammatical. However, omitting the noun and preserving the measure word is grammatical and not uncommon to hear. For example, ''Shudhu êk-'''jon''' thakbe.'' (lit. "Only one-'''MW''' will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one '''person''' will remain.", since ''jon'' can only be used to count humans. The word ''lok'' "person" is implied. VERBS Bengali verbs are highly Inflected and are regular with only few exceptions. They consist of a stem and an ending; they are traditionally listed in Bengali dictionaries in their "verbal noun" form, which is usually formed by adding ''-a'' to the stem (for instance, ''rakha'' = "to put or place"). The stem can end in either a vowel or a consonant. Verbs are conjugated for Tense and Person by changing the endings, which are largely the same for all verbs. However, the stem vowel can often change as part of the phenomenon known as "vowel harmony", whereby one vowel can be influenced by other vowels in the word to sound more harmonious. An example would be the verb "to write", with stem ''lekh-'': ''tomra lekho'' (you {Link without Title} write) but ''amra l'''i'''khi'' (we write). In general, the following transformations take place: ''ô'' → ''o'', ''o'' → ''u'', ''ê'' → ''e'', ''e'' → ''i'', and ''a'' → ''e'', where the verbal noun features the first vowel but certain conjugations use the second. In addition, the verbs ''dêoa'' (to give) and ''nêoa'' (to take) switch between ''e'', ''i'', ''a'', and ''ê''. If verbs are classified by stem vowel and if the stem ends in a consonant or vowel, there are nine basic classes in which most verbs can be placed; all verbs in a class will follow the same pattern. A prototype verb from each of these classes will be used to demonstrate conjugation for that class; '''bold''' will be used to indicate mutation of the stem vowel. Person Verbs are inflected for person and :আমি), ''tui'' (তুই), ''tumi'' (তুমি), ''she'' (সে) and ''apni'' (আপনি). These have the following plurals respectively ''amra'' (আমরা), ''tora'' (তোরা), ''tomra'' (তোমরা), ''tara'' (তারা) and ''apnara'' (আপনারা). Mood There are two moods for Bengali verbs: the Indicative and the Imperative . The imperative mood is used to give commands. The indicative mood is used for statements of fact; its various tenses are given below. Tense Bengali has four simple tenses: the present tense, the simple past tense, the conditional or habitual past tense, and the simple future tense. It also has several compound tenses. Simple present tense The present tense in Bengali is similar to that of English: I eat, you run, he reads. The endings are ''-i'', ''-(i)sh'', ''-o'', ''-e'', and ''-(e)n''. Simple past tense The (simple) past tense differs from its use in English in that it is usually reserved for events that have occurred recently; for instance, less than a day ago. It would be translated into the English simple past tense: I ate, you ran, he read. The endings are ''-lam'', ''-li'', ''-le'', ''-lo'', ''-len'' (notice that the vowels for the second and third {Link without Title} persons are the reverse of those in the present tense). For example: ''ami dekhlam'', ''tui dekhli'', ''tumi dekhle'', ''se dekhlo'', ''apni dekhlen''. Habitual past tense The habitual past tense has a few different uses. It is used for events that happened regularly, such as "I used to eat out every day" or "He wrote poems when he was young", the equivalent of an Imperfect Tense . It may also be used as a sort of Conditional , such as the following: "If you asked I would come" or "If you had asked I '''would have come'''". It is easy to form the habitual past tense: simply start with the simple past tense and change the ''l'' to ''t'' (except in the ''tui'' VF form). The endings are ''-tam'', ''-tish'', ''-te'', ''-to'', ''-ten''. For example: ''ami dekhtam'', ''tui dekhtish'', ''tumi dekhte'', ''she dekhto'', ''apni dekhten''. POSTPOSITIONS Whereas English features ''pre''positions, Bengali typically uses ''post''positions. That is, while these modifying words occur before their object in English (beside him, '''inside''' the house), they typically occur after their object in Bengali (''or '''pashe''''', ''baŗir '''bhitore'''''). Some postpositions require their object noun to take the ''possessive case'', while others require the ''objective case'' (which is unmarked for inanimate nouns); this distinction must be memorized. Most postpositions are formed by taking nouns referring to a location and inflecting them for ''locative case''. Postpositions that require Genitive/Possessive Case
Postpositions that require Accusative/Object Case
Prepositions that require Locative Case
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