3. MORPHOLOGY
3.4.5. Mood
In Hindi there are three moods: indicative, imperative, and optative.
3.4.5.1. Indicative Mood
The indicative represents the action as a fact or makes a query about
it. The verb can be used in habitual (hab), progressive (prog), or
perfective (perf) aspects. The present and past participle forms of
these verbs have been explained above. The following aspectual
marks are added to the verb stem bol ‘say’ in the indicative mood.
Masculine Feminine
(^) Sg Pl Sg Pl
Habitual baaolata baaolato baaolatI baaolatIM
bolta: bolte bolti: boltĩ:
Progressive baaola rha baaola rho baaola rhI baaola rhIM
bol raha: bol rahe bol rahi: bol rahĩ:
Perfective baaolaa baaolao baaolaI baaolaIM
bola: bole boli: bolĩ:
The above paradigm shows the agreement of indicative mood with
gender and number.
3.4.5.2. Imperative Mood
The imperative expresses an action as a command, a request, a
warning, a prohibition, etc. The imperative is restricted to the future
and cannot refer to the present or past tenses. Since the imperative
denotes a command, request, etc., its proper domain is the second
person. Indirect commands or requests made to a third person are
expressed by the subjunctive form. In imperative constructions, the
subject is omitted and can be guessed from both the context and the
form of the verb. The verb agrees with the second person subject
which has three second person pronominal forms: (i) intimate, (ii)
familiar, and (iii) polite.
The intimate imperative forms are used in issuing orders/commands
for those who are usually addressed with the intimate second person
pronoun tU tu: ‘you.’ The familiar imperatives are used in issuing
commands to all those who are normally addressed by the familiar