Bengali grammar is the study of grammar in the Bengali language. Although Bengali uses a separate alphabet (see Bengali script), a transliteration scheme is used here to suggest the pronunciation.

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.

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 -ā to the stem (for instance, rākhā = "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-: tomrā lekho (you [pl.] write) but āmrā likhi (we write). In general, the following transformations take place: ô → o, o → u, æ → e, e → i, and a → e, where the verbal noun features the first vowel but certain conjugations use the second. In addition, the verbs deoya (to give) and neoya (to take) switch between e, i, a, and æ. 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 honour, but not for number. There are five forms: first person, second person (very familiar), second person (familiar), third person (familiar), and second/third person (polite). The same sample subject pronouns will be used for all the example conjugation paradigms: āmi (Bengali:আমি), tui (তুই), tumi (তুমি), she (সে) and apni (আপনি). These have the following plurals respectively āmrā (আমরা), torā (তোরা), tomrā (তোমরা), tara (তারা) and āpnārā (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.

Present tense

The present tense in Bengali is similar to that of English: I eat, you run, he reads. The endings are -i, -ish, -o, -e (or -y for vowel stems, pronounced the same), and -en (or -n after vowel stems).

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 -lām, -li, -le, -lo, -len (notice that the vowels for the second and third [familiar] persons are the reverse of those in the present tense). For example: āmi dekhlām, tui dekhli, tumi dekhle, se dekhlo, apni dekhlen.

Postpositions

Whereas English features prepositions, Bengali uses postpositions. That is, in English, these modifying words occur before their object (beside him, inside the house). In Bengali, they occur after their object (or pāśe, bāŗir bhitore). Some postpositions require their object noun to take the possessive case, others don't; this distinction must be memorized.

References

• Chatterji, Suniti Kumar. Bengali Self-Taught. Calcutta: Rupa & Co., 1991.
• Radice, William. Teach Yourself Bengali. Chicago: NTC Publishing Group, 1994.