पाना

Managing to Do Something

Level 4Sounds Like pānā

पाना after a verb stem says whether someone managed to do something.

How It Works

Stem plus पाना asks a practical question: did it work out? It is especially common for things someone tried to do but couldn't.

  • मैं कल रात सो नहीं पाया. I couldn't get to sleep last night.
  • भीड़ की वजह से हम उससे मिल नहीं पाए. Because of the crowd, we didn't manage to meet her.

The main verb stays a bare stem. पाना agrees with the doer, never takes ने, and can take any tense: पाया, पाती हूँ, पाऊँगा. A woman says मैं सो नहीं पाई. With आप, use the plural: क्या आप टिकट ख़रीद पाए?

पाना or सकना? सकना is general ability or permission: मैं तैर सकता हूँ (I can swim). पाना is about success in one situation: पानी बहुत ठंडा था, इसलिए मैं तैर नहीं पाया (The water was very cold, so I couldn't swim). In many negative past sentences either works, but पाना stresses the effort and the circumstances.

नहीं can come before the stem or before पाना: नहीं सुन पाई and सुन नहीं पाई are both fine.

Examples (5)

  1. बहुत कोशिश के बाद मैं दरवाज़ा खोल पाया।

    After a lot of effort, I managed to open the door.

    पाया agrees with the male speaker; खोल stays a stem.

  2. रीमा समय पर पहुँच पाई।

    Reema managed to get there on time.

    पाई agrees with Reema and says she succeeded.

  3. मैं आपकी बात ठीक से सुन नहीं पाई।

    I couldn't quite hear what you said.

    The negative is the most common use of पाना.

  4. क्या आप टिकट ख़रीद पाए?

    Were you able to get the tickets?

    With आप, पाना takes the plural form पाए.

  5. शोर की वजह से बच्चे रात भर सो नहीं पाए।

    Because of the noise, the children couldn't sleep all night.

    The noise explains why they didn't manage to sleep.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding ने because the main verb takes an object.

    मैंने दरवाज़ा नहीं खोल पाया।
    मैं दरवाज़ा नहीं खोल पाया।

    पाना never takes ने, even when the main verb has an object.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

पानाLevel 4Managing to Do Something

Learn This First

Managing to follows the stem in the same way as सकना.

Words in This Pattern

पाना