4.1.2 Compound verbs

Understanding Compound Verbs in Urdu

In this chapter you will explore one of the most typical features of modern Urdu: compound verbs, often called complex predicates. These are combinations of a main verb plus a light verb, which together create a single meaning.

You already know basic present, past, and future tense formation, and simple verbs. Here, the focus is on how verb + verb combinations work in Urdu and what they add to meaning.

1. What is a compound verb in Urdu?

A compound verb in Urdu is usually:

Main verb (in a non‑finite form) + a “light” verb (fully conjugated)

The light verb carries tense, person, number, and sometimes gender. The first part carries the main idea of the action.

Common light verbs include:

• کرنا to do
• جانا to go
• لینا to take
• دینا to give
• اٹھانا to lift, to pick up
• رکھنا to put, to keep
• پڑنا to fall, to be subjected to
• آنا to come

Example:

• دیکھ لینا
• دیکھ main verb “to see”
• لینا light verb “to take”
• Overall sense, “to have a look / to check”
• سمجھ جانا
• سمجھ “to understand”
• جانا light verb “to go”
• Overall sense, “to finally understand, to get it”

Example:

• میں نے سمجھ لیا۔
  I understood / I got it.
  لیا is the conjugated light verb in perfective masculine singular.

---

2. Structure of common compound verbs

2.1 Basic pattern

The most frequent pattern is:

Perfective stem of main verb + light verb (conjugated)

Think of the perfective stem as the verb form used in simple past, without the auxiliary.

Examples in the perfective masculine singular:

When you conjugate, you only conjugate the light verb part:

• میں نے کام کر لیا۔
  I finished the work / got it done.
• ہم نے سب کچھ سیکھ لیا۔
  We learned everything.

The first verb form does not change for person or number. Agreement is handled by the light verb, following the normal rules of tense and agreement you know.

3. Common light verbs and their typical meanings

Each light verb adds a specific flavor to the main verb. The exact nuance can vary with context, but some patterns are very regular.

3.1 لینا as light verb

لینا often expresses:

• Completion
• Benefit to the subject
• “Taking” something for oneself
• Sometimes suddenness or intensity

Common examples:

Examples:

• آپ پہلے یہ بات سمجھ لیں۔
  First, understand this point properly.
• میں تمہارا فون نمبر لکھ لوں گا۔
  I will write down your phone number.
• تم ذرا ایڈریس دیکھ لو۔
  Just check the address.

Note how لینا can imply:
“I am doing this and ‘keeping’ the result for my own use or benefit.”

3.2 دینا as light verb

دینا often expresses:

• Action affecting another person
• Doing something for someone else
• Sometimes abruptness or decisiveness
• Sometimes a sense of “offloading”

Common examples:

Examples:

• میں تمہیں سب حقیقت بتا دوں گا۔
  I will tell you the whole truth.
• کتاب میز پر رکھ دو۔
  Put the book on the table.
• اس نے پرانے کپڑے پھینک دیے۔
  He threw away the old clothes.

Here دینا often shifts focus to the effect on another or the final decisiveness of the action.

3.3 جانا as light verb

جانا commonly indicates:

• Completion
• Irreversibility
• Sometimes unexpectedness or loss of control

Common examples:

Examples:

• وہ اچانک سو گیا۔
  He suddenly fell asleep.
• میں تمہارا نام بھول گیا تھا۔
  I had forgotten your name.
• بچہ راستے میں کہیں کھو گیا۔
  The child got lost somewhere on the way.

Here جانا often suggests the action has moved away from your control or has gone to completion.

3.4 اٹھانا, ڈالنا, پڑنا as light verbs

These are less general but very common.

Examples:

• اس نے سارا کھانا اکیلے ہی کھا ڈالا۔
  He ate all the food by himself.
• وہ بات سن کر زور زور سے ہنس پڑی۔
  Hearing that, she burst out laughing.
• مجھے وہاں جانے کے لیے جھوٹ بولنا پڑا۔
  I had to lie in order to go there.

In such cases, the light verb brings in ideas like suddenness, intensity, or compulsion.

4. Form and conjugation

The handy rule:

4.1 Simple present

Example with کر لینا:

The لی part remains; the endings are added to the light verb.

4.2 Perfective (simple past)

Same compound, perfective masculine / feminine:

• میں نے کام کر لیا۔
  I (m.) got the work done.
• میں نے کام کر لی۔
  I (f.) got the work done.
• ہم نے کام کر لیا / کر لیے۔
  We (m.) got the work done. (agreement depends on object and ergative rules, which you already know.)

Often, agreement patterns depend on transitivity and ergative marker نے, which you have learned in past tense basics. Compound verbs follow the same grammatical rules as simple verbs.

5. Meaning differences: simple verb vs compound verb

Compound verbs are not just stylistic decoration. They frequently change the nuance of the base verb. Often there is no direct one‑word translation in English.

Consider دیکھنا “to see,” with different light verbs:

Examples in context:

• ڈاکٹر سے ملنے سے پہلے آپ اپنی رپورٹس دیکھ لیں۔
  Check your reports before seeing the doctor.
• کیا آپ یہ فائل سر کو دیکھ دیں گے؟
  Could you show this file to Sir?

Note how the simple verb is neutral, while the compound verbs add purpose, beneficiary, or completion.

Another example: سمجھنا “to understand”.

So, light verbs often create new “lexical” meanings, not just grammatical ones.

6. Very common compound verb pairs

Below is a mini-lexicon of compound verbs you will meet in real texts and conversations. You do not need to memorize them all at once, but use this as a reference.

6.1 Everyday actions

Example sentences:

• وہ جلدی سے اٹھ گیا اور دفتر چلا گیا۔
  He got up quickly and went to the office.
• میں بعد میں تم سے بات کر لوں گا۔
  I will talk to you later.
• وہ اپنا سامان ساتھ لے گیا۔
  He took his things along.

6.2 Emotional and psychological verbs

These often involve ہونا + جانا or رہ جانا to express a resulting emotional state.

7. Idiomatic compound verbs

Some compound verbs are so idiomatic that you should treat them almost as single dictionary entries. They may not be literally interpretable from the parts.

Examples:

Context examples:

• آخر میں سب کچھ ٹھیک ہو گیا, بات بن گئی۔
  In the end everything became fine, things worked out.
• اس کتاب پر میرا دل لگ گیا ہے۔
  I have grown very fond of this book.

You will see that complex predicates play a major role in literary and everyday Urdu, especially in abstract and emotional expression.

8. Compound verbs with noun or adjective + verb

So far we mostly saw verb + verb compounds. Urdu also has many compound predicates built from noun or adjective + کرنا / ہونا / دینا / لینا / پڑنا.

The structure is still similar, and for usage they behave like verbs.

8.1 Noun + کرنا / ہونا

These are extremely frequent.

Here the verb part (کرنا, ہونا) is the light verb. The noun carries the main semantic content.

8.2 Adjective + ہونا / جانا / پڑنا

Adjectives can form predicates:

These combinations behave like verbs in the sentence, although structurally they include nouns or adjectives.

9. Subtle contrasts between similar compounds

Some compound pairs are particularly useful because they differ in nuance, and advanced learners need to feel those differences.

9.1 لینا vs دینا pairs

Compare:

• سن لینا vs. سنا دینا

• لکھ لینا vs. لکھ دینا

9.2 جانا vs رہ جانا

• سمجھ جانا: to get it, to understand.
• سمجھ نہ پانا / سمجھ نہ آنا: to fail to understand.
• بول جانا: to blurt out, sometimes unintentionally.
• بول نہ پانا / زبان بند رہ جانا: to be unable to speak.

Example:

• میں غصّے میں سب کچھ بول گیا۔
  In anger, I ended up saying everything.
• یہ لطیفہ میں آج تک سمجھ نہیں پایا۔
  I have still not been able to understand this joke.

These subtle distinctions are what make compound verbs central in advanced Urdu.

10. Practice-style examples

Below are short sentences demonstrating different compound verbs. Focus on noticing the light verb and the nuance.

1. کل میں نے سارا کام خود ہی کر لیا۔
   Yesterday I did all the work myself (completed it).
2. استاد نے ہمیں پورا قاعدہ سمجھا دیا۔
   The teacher explained the whole rule to us.
3. بچے کہانی سن کر سو گئے۔
   The children fell asleep after hearing the story.
4. میں نے کتابیں میز پر رکھ دیں۔
   I put the books on the table.
5. اس خبر نے اسے بہت خوش کر دیا۔
   This news made her very happy.
6. اتنی محنت کے بعد آخرکار اس کا خواب پورا ہو گیا۔
   After so much effort his dream finally came true.
7. تم پہلے یہ چپٹر اچھی طرح پڑھ لو پھر سوال کرو۔
   First study this chapter properly, then ask questions.
8. اس نے غصّے میں موبائل دیوار پر پھینک مارا۔
   In anger he threw the phone at the wall.
9. امتحان میں مشکل سوال دیکھ کر وہ تھوڑا گھبرا گیا۔
   Seeing the difficult question in the exam he panicked a bit.
10. میں نے تمہیں سب کچھ صاف صاف بتا دیا ہے۔
    I have told you everything clearly.

Try to identify in each:

• Base meaning of the main verb
• Extra meaning added by the light verb

---

11. Vocabulary list for this chapter

New or important items from this chapter, with simple glosses:

Use these as starting points. In real reading and listening, pay special attention to verb + verb combinations, since they are essential for sounding natural and understanding nuanced Urdu.