2.1.1 Perfect tense

Understanding the Perfect Tense in Urdu

In this chapter you meet your first past tense in Urdu, the perfect tense. You will learn what it expresses, how it is formed, and how to use it with some very common verbs.

Later chapters will deal with the ergative marker نے, more complex verb patterns, and other past forms. Here we focus only on the basic perfect tense without نے.

What the Perfect Tense Expresses

The Urdu perfect tense describes:

• A completed action in the past, often with a result that still matters
• A finished experience

In English it often corresponds to:

• “has/have done”
• “did” (in many everyday sentences)

Examples in English:

• “I have eaten.”
• “She has gone home.”
• “They have come.”

We will now see how to form similar ideas in Urdu.

Basic Structure of the Perfect Tense

The perfect tense in Urdu is built with:

1. Past participle of the main verb (a special verb form)
2. A present form of to be (ہے, ہیں, ہوں) that agrees with the subject

Very simplified pattern:

• Subject + past participle + appropriate form of “to be”

Examples:

• میں آیا ہوں
  main aayaa hoon
  “I have come / I came.”
• وہ گئی ہے
  woh gayi hai
  “She has gone / She went.”
• وہ لوگ آئے ہیں
  woh log aaye hain
  “They have come / They came.”

We now need to learn the past participles.

Past Participles of Common Verbs

Most Urdu perfect forms in this chapter will use three very common verbs:

• آنا (aanaa) to come
• جانا (jaanaa) to go
• کرنا (karnaa) to do

These verbs are very frequent, and their past participles are irregular in spelling and sometimes in sound.

Past Participle Table

You will also need their feminine and plural forms, because Urdu verbs change with gender and number.

We focus here on the basic pattern, but remember that a later chapter explains gender in detail.

Agreement of the Past Participle

The past participle behaves like an adjective. It agrees with the subject in:

• Gender: masculine or feminine
• Number: singular or plural

Below, the subject is the doer of the action, and there is no نے.

Masculine Forms

For many verbs, the pattern is:

Examples:

• لڑکا آیا
  ladkaa aayaa
  “The boy came / has come.”
• لڑکے آئے
  ladke aaye
  “The boys came / have come.”

Feminine Forms

For many verbs, the pattern is:

Examples:

• لڑکی آئی
  ladki aayi
  “The girl came / has come.”
• لڑکیاں آئیں
  ladkiyaan aayeen
  “The girls came / have come.”

The Helping Verb “to be” with the Perfect

After the past participle, you add the correct present tense form of to be:

In the perfect tense:

• The subject determines this form.
• The past participle matches the subject’s gender and number.

Example summary:

• میں آیا ہوں
  main aayaa hoon
• وہ آئی ہے
  woh aayi hai
• ہم گئے ہیں
  hum gaye hain

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Perfect Tense with “آنا” (to come)

Basic forms

Example sentences

• آج میں جلدی آیا ہوں۔
  aaj main jaldi aayaa hoon.
  “Today I have come early.”
• وہ ابھی ابھی آیا ہے۔
  woh abhi abhi aayaa hai.
  “He has just come.”
• مہمان آ چکے ہیں۔
  mehmaan aa chukay hain.
  “The guests have already come.”

(“چکا / چکی” is an additional aspect marker. Full explanation comes later. Here, understand it as “already.”)

Perfect Tense with “جانا” (to go)

“جانا” is irregular. The masculine singular past participle is گیا (gayaa).

Basic forms

Example sentences

• علی اسکول گیا ہے۔
  Ali school gayaa hai.
  “Ali has gone to school.”
• فاطمہ بازار گئی ہے۔
  Fatima bazaar gayi hai.
  “Fatima has gone to the market.”
• ہم پاکستان جا چکے ہیں۔
  hum Pakistan ja chukay hain.
  “We have (already) been to Pakistan.”
• وہ لوگ گھر جا چکے ہیں۔
  woh log ghar ja chukay hain.
  “Those people have already gone home.”

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Perfect Tense with “کرنا” (to do)

“کرنا” is also irregular. The masculine singular past participle is کیا (kiyaa).

Basic forms

For this chapter, we avoid sentences with نے for doing actions, because نے is introduced in the next chapter. Instead, we use impersonal or simple expressions where no “doer” with نے appears, or we focus on non-ergative uses and fixed phrases.

Useful patterns where کرنا appears in simple expressions:

You will learn full perfect forms with “کرنا” and نے in the next chapter.

Everyday Questions in the Perfect Tense

The perfect tense is used very often in daily questions such as “Have you eaten?”, “Have you gone?”, “Has she come?” and so on.

Common question patterns

1. Yes / No questions
   Usually the word order stays the same, and intonation or a question mark shows that it is a question.
• کیا تم آئے ہو؟
  kya tum aaye ho?
  “Have you come?” / “Did you come?”
• کیا وہ گیا ہے؟
  kya woh gayaa hai?
  “Has he gone?” / “Did he go?”
• کیا وہ لوگ آئے ہیں؟
  kya woh log aaye hain?
  “Have they come?”
2. Questions without کیا
   Intonation alone can mark the question, especially in conversation.
• تم آئے ہو؟
  tum aaye ho?
  “You have come?” / “Have you come?”
• وہ گئی ہے؟
  woh gayi hai?
  “Has she gone?”

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Short Answers with the Perfect Tense

You often answer briefly. The main verb can be omitted if it is clear from context.

Affirmative answers

Negative answers

To say “has not / have not” you use نہیں before the helping verb.

Pattern:

• Subject + past participle + نہیں + ہے / ہوں / ہیں

Examples:

• میں نہیں آیا ہوں۔ (m)
  main nahin aayaa hoon.
  “I have not come.”
• میں نہیں آئی ہوں۔ (f)
  main nahin aayi hoon.
  “I have not come.”
• وہ نہیں گیا ہے۔
  woh nahin gayaa hai.
  “He has not gone.”
• وہ نہیں گئی ہے۔
  woh nahin gayi hai.
  “She has not gone.”
• وہ لوگ نہیں آئے ہیں۔
  woh log nahin aaye hain.
  “They have not come.”

Short answers:

Time Expressions with the Perfect Tense

The perfect tense is used with many time expressions, just like English “have done” or simple past “did.”

Some very common ones:

Example sentences

• میں آج دیر سے آیا ہوں۔
  main aaj der se aayaa hoon.
  “Today I have come late.”
• وہ ابھی تک نہیں آئی ہے۔
  woh abhi tak nahin aayi hai.
  “She has not come yet.”
• کیا تم کبھی پاکستان گئے ہو؟
  kya tum kabhi Pakistan gaye ho?
  “Have you ever been to Pakistan?”
• میں کبھی انگلینڈ نہیں گیا ہوں۔
  main kabhi England nahin gayaa hoon.
  “I have never been to England.”

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Contrast: Present vs Perfect with “آنا” and “جانا”

To feel the difference, compare simple present and perfect.

Present vs Perfect with آنا

Present vs Perfect with جانا

The present describes regular actions or general truths. The perfect describes one completed action in the past, often connected to the present situation.

Practice: Recognizing the Perfect Tense

Study these sentences and identify:

1. The subject
2. The past participle
3. The form of “to be”
4. وہ آیا ہے۔
   woh aayaa hai.
5. ہم گئے ہیں۔
   hum gaye hain.
6. وہ نہیں آئی ہے۔
   woh nahin aayi hai.
7. بچے اسکول گئے ہیں۔
   bachay school gaye hain.
8. میں کبھی ادھر نہیں آیا ہوں۔
   main kabhi idhar nahin aayaa hoon.

You can check yourself by underlining the past participle and circling the helping verb in your notes.

Summary

• The perfect tense describes completed actions in the past, often with a present result.
• It is formed with a past participle plus a present form of “to be” that agrees with the subject.
• The past participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.
• Common verbs you practiced:
• آنا → آیا / آئی / آئے / آئیں
• جانا → گیا / گئی / گئے
• کرنا → کیا (mostly in fixed expressions here)
• Negation uses نہیں before the helping verb.
• Questions are formed with intonation or with کیا at the beginning.

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Vocabulary List for This Chapter