Compound Verb Expressions
Do not translate each part of a multiword verb in isolation. Notice which part supplies the main meaning and which part carries the changing verb form.
How It Works
In کوشش کرنا, کوشش names an effort and کرنا helps form the verb to try. صاف کرنا similarly combines an adjective with a verb to mean to clean.
Agreement is construction-specific. In ندا نے کوشش کی, کی agrees with the feminine noun کوشش. In ندا نے کمرہ صاف کیا, the masculine room controls کیا. Do not assume that every expression ending in کرنا has identical agreement.
A second verb can also accompany a main verb stem. In ندا نے پتا لکھ دیا, دیا adds a sense of carrying the writing through, often for someone in this context. It does not describe a separate act of handing over a physical object.
Not every sequence of verbs is interchangeable with these expressions. Learn the meaning and allowed forms of each construction from examples; a second verb cannot be attached to any main verb with a predictable English translation.
Examples (4)
- ندا کوشش کر رہی ہے۔
Nida is trying.
کوشش کرنا is a noun-plus-verb expression.
- ندا نے کوشش کی۔
Nida tried.
کی agrees with feminine کوشش in this perfective expression.
- ندا نے کمرہ صاف کیا۔
Nida cleaned the room.
صاف کرنا uses an adjective plus a verb; کیا follows masculine کمرہ.
- ندا نے میرے لیے پتا لکھ دیا۔
Nida wrote down the address for me.
لکھ دیا presents the writing as carried through; میرے لیے makes the beneficiary explicit.
How It Connects
Related Patterns
Learn Next
Patterns that build on this one.
Practice Compound Verb Expressions in Bubblegum
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