In this lesson, we will learn how to conjugate verbs in present tense. In later lessons, we will also look at the other present tense as well as future and past tense.
In many languages - and this includes Kannada - we have to change the verb depending on the person it refers to. In English, we say I do ,but he does. (not ”he do”). In Kannada, for every person the verb changes in every tense. Since this means a lot of memorization, we created a conjugation trainer which you can use in the practice tab to help you study the different forms.
Let’s learn some imporant verbs.
to go - hogu
to buy - karidisu
to eat - tinu
to do /make - madu
to learn - kali
These are the stems of the verbs. As soon as you start using them in sentences, you have to conjugate them. For this, you keep the stem (hogu, karidisu, tinu…) and add the ending as you can see below in the color… . If you remember these endings, you can conjugate different verbs.
| Hogu | (to go) |
|---|---|
| Nanu (I) | hogutene |
| Ninu (you) | hogutiya |
| Navu (we) | hoguteve |
| Nivu (you pl.) | hogutira |
Here is the conjugation table for tinu (to eat). If you pay attention to the endings, you will realize that they are the same as for hogu.
| Tinu | (to eat) |
|---|---|
| Nanu (I) | tinutene |
| Ninu (you) | tinutiya |
| Navu (we) | tinuteve |
| Nivu (you pl.) | tinutira |