Time, wanting and needing
🎯 Speak about yesterday and tomorrow, and ask for what you need.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- কাল আমি গিয়েছিলাম — kal ami giyechhilam 🔊 kaal AA-mee gi-yeh-CHHEE-laam Yesterday I went. কাল kal, like Hindi, means both yesterday and tomorrow; the verb decides.
- কাল আমি যাব — kal ami jabo 🔊 kaal AA-mee JAA-bo Tomorrow I will go. -ব is the future for আমি.
- আমার জল চাই — amar jol chai 🔊 AA-maar jol CHAA-ee I want water. চাই chai never changes, whatever is wanted.
- আমাকে যেতে হবে — amake jete hobe 🔊 AA-ma-kay JEH-tay HO-bay I have to go. -কে marks the person something happens to.
- কত টাকা? — koto taka? 🔊 KO-to TAA-ka How much money? টাকা taka is the rupee in West Bengal and the currency of Bangladesh.
- কিছু মনে করবেন না — kichhu mone korben na 🔊 KI-chhoo MO-nay KOR-ben na Please don't mind. The polite opening before any request or disagreement.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 One verb, many tenses, no gender to track
Because Bengali has no grammatical gender, its verb tables are shorter than Hindi's despite having more tenses. Learn one verb fully and the pattern transfers.
- করি (I do) · করছি (I am doing) · করেছি (I have done) · করলাম (I did) · করব (I will do)
- Each ending is fixed and applies to almost every verb.
- This regularity is why Bengali is easier to write correctly than to hear correctly.
🌍 Among the people
Bengali has a formal literary register (সাধু ভাষা) and a spoken one (চলিত ভাষা). Tagore himself helped move literature towards the spoken form — the one you are learning here.
🔁 Practise today
- Say what you did yesterday and will do tomorrow.
- Ask for five things with চাই.
- Learn the five endings of করা above and apply them to যাওয়া (to go).
