Habitual Past Tense
The habitual past tense has a few different uses. It is used for events that happened regularly, such as "I used to eat out every day" or "He wrote poems when he was young", the equivalent of an imperfect. It may also be used as a sort of conditional, such as the following: "If you asked I would come" or "If you had asked I would have come". It is easy to form the habitual past tense: simply start with the simple past tense and change the l to t (except in the tui form). The endings are -tam, -tish, -te, -to, -ten. For example: ami dekhtam, tui dekhtish, tumi dekhte, she dekhto, apni dekhten. In less standard varieties of Bengali, "a" is substituted for "e" in second-person familiar forms; thus "tumi bolta, khulta, khelta," etc.
| Verb | 1 | 2 (VF) | 2 (F) | 3 (F) | 2/3 (P) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| বলা | আমি boltam | তুই boltish | তুমি bolte | সে bolto | apni bolten |
| khola | আমি khultam | তুই khultish | তুমি khulte | সে khulto | apni khulten |
| khêla | আমি kheltam | তুই kheltish | তুমি khelte | সে khelto | apni khelten |
| chena | আমি chintam | তুই chintish | তুমি chinte | সে chinto | apni chinten |
| jana | আমি jantam | তুই jantish | তুমি jante | সে janto | apni janten |
| hôoa | আমি hotam | তুই hotish | তুমি hote | সে hoto | apni hoten |
| dhoa | আমি dhutam | তুই dhutish | তুমি dhute | সে dhuto | apni dhuten |
| khaoa | আমি khetam | তুই khetish | তুমি khete | সে kheto | apni kheten |
| dêoa | আমি ditam | তুই ditish | তুমি dite | সে dito | apni diten |
Read more about this topic: Bengali Grammar, Verbs, Tense
Famous quotes containing the words habitual and/or tense:
“Human contacts have been so highly valued in the past only because reading was not a common accomplishment.... The world, you must remember, is only just becoming literate. As reading becomes more and more habitual and widespread, an ever-increasing number of people will discover that books will give them all the pleasures of social life and none of its intolerable tedium.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)