Doing and being
🎯 Use the present tense and the two verbs Bengali leans on.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- আমি করি — ami kori 🔊 AA-mee KO-ree I do. করা kora = to do, the busiest verb in Bengali. তুমি করো, আপনি করেন, সে করে.
- আমি খাই — ami khai 🔊 AA-mee KHAA-ee I eat. খাওয়া khaowa = to eat. Bengalis apply it generously: চা খাই (I 'eat' tea), সিগারেট খাই.
- আমি যাচ্ছি — ami jachchhi 🔊 AA-mee JAACH-chhee I am going (right now). -চ্ছি is the present continuous. যাচ্ছি is heard constantly.
- আমার ভালো লাগে — amar bhalo laage 🔊 AA-maar BHA-lo LAA-gay I like it. Literally 'to me it feels good' — Bengali, like Hindi, lets feelings happen to you.
- আমি জানি না — ami jani na 🔊 AA-mee JAA-nee na I do not know. না na comes AFTER the verb in Bengali, unlike Hindi's नहीं before it.
- কী করছেন? — ki korchhen? 🔊 kee KOR-chhen What are you doing? The most common question in any Bengali household.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 The 'no' goes after the verb
Hindi puts नहीं before the verb; Bengali puts না after it. It is a small thing that instantly marks a speaker as trained or untrained.
- আমি জানি = I know → আমি জানি না = I do not know
- আমি যাব = I will go → আমি যাব না = I will not go
- The one exception is the present tense of 'to be', which has its own negative: নয় noy.
🌍 Among the people
চা (tea) in Bengal comes in a clay bhnar and the conversation around it — আড্ডা, adda — is a recognised social institution: long, argumentative, affectionate and about nothing in particular.
🔁 Practise today
- Conjugate করা for আমি, তুমি, আপনি, সে.
- Make five sentences negative by putting না after the verb.
- Use আমার ভালো লাগে about five things you like.
