Transitivity

A transitive verb can have a direct object, whereas an intransitive verb cannot. In English, often the same verb can be used both intransitively and transitively.

Consider the following examples in English:

The movie has started.

We started the movie.

Both examples use the verb “to start”. However, the former example uses the verb intransitively, whereas the second example uses the verb transitively.

In Hindi, however, rather than using the same verb intransitively and transitively, pairs are used which explicitly distinguish transitivity. These pairs are semantically and phonetically related, however.

Patterns of Transitive and Intransitive Verbs in Hindi

Hindi employs several basic patterns for distinguishing transitivity.

Adding आ to the Intransitive Verb Stem

Intransitive Verb	Translation	Transitive Verb	Translation
चलना	to walk, to move	चलाना	to make something move, to drive
बनना	to be made, to be built	बनाना	to make, to build
लगना	to be attached/applied/installed	लगाना	to attach/apply/install
उठना	to rise, to get up	उठाना	to raise, to lift, to get (someone) up
बचना	to be saved	बचाना	to save
पकना	to be cooked	पकाना	to cook

Schwa Deletion

Some words may seem to change because of the phenomenon known as schwa deletion.

समझना “to understand”

समझाना “to make (someone) understand/to explain”

Morphologically, this word is just like any other intransitive-transitive pair that adds आ to the intransitive verb stem to form the transitive verb stem. However, due to schwa deletion, the latter word is pronounced “samjhana” whereas the former word is “samajhna”. The deletion of the schwa can make the word sound different.

Refer to the section on schwa deletion in the article about The Devanagari Script.

Adding आ to the Intransitive Verb Stem and Changing the Preceding Long Vowel

For some verbs, when आ is added to the intransitive verb stem, the preceding long vowel is shortened or altered according to the following patterns:

आ becomes अ

ई, ए, or ऐ becomes इ

ऊ, ओ becomes उ

Intransitive Verb	Translation	Transitive Verb	Translation
बैठना	to sit	बिठाना	to seat (someone)
घूमना	to roam around	घुमाना	to show (someone) around
जागना	to be awake	जगाना	to awaken (someone)
सोना	to sleep	सुलाना	to put (someone) to sleep

Note that consonants may be added, as in the example of सोना/सुलाना.

Altering the Initial or Medial Short Vowels of the Intransitive Verb Stem

Some verbs alter the initial short vowel or medial short vowel of the intransitive verb stem to form the transitive verb stem. The patterns are as follows:

अ becomes आ

इ becomes ई or ए

उ becomes ऊ or ओ

Again, note that sometimes the consonant may change, as in धुलना/धोना.

Intransitive Verb	Translation	Transitive Verb	Translation
निकलना	to go out	निकालना	to take out, to extract, to push out
रुकना	to stop (intransitive)	रोकना	to stop (transitive)
धुलना	to be washed	धोना	to wash
खुलना	to be open	खोलना	to open

Using होना versus करना with Compound Verbs

Refer to the article about compound verbs for an overview of compound verbs. करना is used to form the transitive form of many compound verbs, whereas होना is used to form the corresponding intransitive form of the compound verb.

Intransitive Verb	Translation	Transitive Verb	Translation
शुरू होना	to begin (intransitive)	शुरू करना	to begin (transitive)
ख़त्म होना	to finish (intransitive)	ख़त्म करना	to finish (transitive)

There are other patterns of intransitive and transitive verb pairs. However, the ones listed above are the most prevalent.

Intransitive Imperatives

When issuing imperatives without an explicit object, the intransitive verb is used:

रुको – “Wait!”