Starting and Stopping

This note is about various ways to express starting or stopping in Hindi.

जैसे ही बारिश होने लगी वैसे ही हम क्रिकेट खेलना बंद करके अन्दर लौटे – “As soon as it started raining, we stopped playing cricket and went back inside”

Starting

There are several idioms in Hindi for expressing the beginning of a thing or action.

शुरू

The noun शुरू (“beginning”) is used in a conjunct verb. When used transitively, it is used with करना, and when used intransitively, it is used with होना. It can be used with a infinitive also to express an action that is stopped.

Examples

उसने माफ़ी मांगने से अपना बयान शुरू किया – “He began his testimony by asking for forgiveness”

मूवी एक मिनट पहेले शुरू हुई – “The movie started one minute ago”

मैंने चार बजे से काम करना शुरू किया – “I started working at 4 o’clock”

 Oblique Infinitive + लगना

The masculine singular oblique infinitive (i.e., ending in “-ने”) can be used with a form of लगना to express the beginning of an action. It can be used transitively and intransitively, depending on the infinitive and the subject of the verb.

Examples

मैं एक साल पहले हिंदी सिखने लगा – “I started learning Hindi one year ago”

पेट का दर्द कम होने लगा है – “(My) stomach pain has started to decrease”

The song title “तेरा होने लगा हूं” means “I have begun to be yours”.

शुरुआत

The noun शुरुआत (“beginning”) is also used in a conjunct verb.

मैंने काम की शुरुआत की – “I began the work”

Note that it is a feminine noun.

Stopping

Hindi has various idioms for expressing the end of an action.

बंद

The adjective बंद (“closed” / “shut”) is used in conjunct verbs to express the stopping of an action.

डॉक्टर ने उसको सिगरेट पीना बंद करने को कहा – “The doctor told him to quit smoking cigarettes”

क्या अभी तक बारिश बंद हुई – “Has it stopped raining yet?”

इस शब्द का प्रयोग होना बंद हो गया है – “This word has ceased to be used”

ख़त्म

The noun ख़त्म (“end”) is used in conjunct verbs to express the end of an action. It is not used with infinitives.

मैं पांच बजे तक अपना काम ख़त्म करने की कोशिश करूंगा – “I’ll try to finish my work by 5 o’clock”

खेल कब ख़त्म हुआ – “When did the game finish?”

 

6 replies on “Starting and Stopping”

फिर से कहता हूँ, बढ़िया पोस्ट. कृपा करके, आप लिखते रहिये, क्यूंकि अगर आप लिखना बंद करते, मैं अपनी हिंदी भूल जाना शुरू करता, और मुझे दूसरी भाषा सीखने की शुरुआत करना पड़ता! मैं आपसे सच बोलता हूँ, मुझे पंजाबी और बंगला भाषा तो इतनी पसंद नहीं, तो लिखते रहिये!

धन्यवाद! आप ने अपने टिपण्णी में इन सब शब्दों का इस्तेमाल किया! बहुत अच्छा! चिंता मत कीजिए, मैं हिंदी के बारे में लिखता रहूंगा.

Hai David.. “जैसे and वैसे ” are usually used for comparison : Like that , like this.. I dint find any correlation btwn them and their usage in the sentence “जैसे ही बारिश होने लगी वैसे ही हम क्रिकेट खेलना बंद करके अन्दर लौटे As soon as it started raining, we stopped playing cricket and went back inside”.. Kindly clarify

जैसे … वैसे can be used for time too. जैसे (ही) … वैसे (ही) means “as soon as”. Usually, “jaise hi” is used without “waise hi”. Sometimes, it is used with “तो”. So, we could say: “jaise hi tumhein kuch pata chale to mujhe bata do” (“tell me as soon as you find out something”). The correlation is literally something like “as soon as … then”.

Got it ..thanq..but a small doubt in the sentence u mentioned here.. “jaise hi tumhein kuch pata chale to mujhe bata do” (“tell me as soon as you find out something”)…Here, is the usage of ‘pata chale’ correct? Shouldnt it be ‘pata chalo’ as u used ‘tumhein’??

Yes, the usage of “pata chale” is correct. This is a common idiom in Hindi known as an “indirect verb construction”. See this article: https://hindilanguage.info/hindi-grammar/verbs/indirect-verb-constructions/ Literally, this sentence says “… to you something becomes known”. The grammatical subject of the verb “pata chale” is “kuch”. Thus, the verb is third person singular masculine. This can be confusing when you translate it into English, because the grammatical subjects are different. However, with some experience, this idiom will become natural to you. “tumhein” cannot be the grammatical subject of any verb, since it is “blocked” by a postposition (tumhein = tum + ko).

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