होना - To Be

मैं हूँ         main hoon  -  I am

हम हैं       ham hain   -   We are

तू है         too hai      -   You are (Intimate)

आप हैं     aap hain    -   You are (Formal)

तुम हो     tum ho     -   You are (Casual)

यह है       yeh hai     -    He / She / This is  (Near)

ये हैं         ye hain     -   These / They are  (Near)

वह है       voh hai     -    He / She / That is (Far)

वे हैं         ve hain     -    Those / They are (Far) 

Phew! How was there? There’s a lot to remember don’t you think? Well actually there’s just three (and a bit) rules you really need to know - 

1. हूँ hoon means 'am’. So whenever you want to say 'I am’ you’ll say मैं हूँ main hoon.
2. है hai means 'is’. So whenever you want to say 'is’ you’ll say है hai
3. हैं hain means 'are’. So whenever you want to say 'are’ you’ll say हैं hain.

There’s two exceptions to this though; We use हो ho for तुम tum and we use है hai for तू too. It can be tricky to remember I know so keep practicing and you’ll get there!  

Now do you think you’re ready for a few examples? Before we start there’s one thing you need to know - in Hindi the always verb comes at the end of the sentence! This means we literally say “I Nita am” or “this house is”. This can be super confusing to new learners so be sure to go through the examples slowly!

मैं निता हूँ main neetaa hoon - I am Nita 

Can you see what’s happened here? If you don’t know, निता nitaa is a common girls name in india. Remember we are literally saying “I Nita am”. Ready for another example?

वे किताबें हैं ve kitaaben hain - They are books

यह बिल्ली है yeh billee hai - This is [a/the] cat

आप कैसे हैं? aap kaise hain? - How are you?