Auxiliary and linking verbs

Gujarati has auxiliary verbs in present tense and progressive past tense:

A. Present tense auxiliaries:

	Singular	Plural
1^st person	2u&	2IAe
2^nd person	2e	2o
3^rd person	2e	2e

Examples:

1. hu& hsu& 2.u&

‘I am laughing.’

2. Ame / Aap8e hsIAe 2IAe.

‘We are laughing.’

3. tu& hse 2e.

‘You are laughing.’

4. tme hso 2o.

‘You are laughing.’

5. te hse 2e.

‘He /She is laughing.’

6. teAo hse 2e.

‘They are laughing.’

Remember:

1. The plural of the 2u& and is 2IAe.

2. 2e has plural 2o only in second person.

3. The third person auxiliaries do not distinguish between singular and plural. The burden of maintaining showing plurality, if any, is on the subject noun.

B. Progressive past tense auxiliaries

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	hto	hta
Feminine	htI	If the subject is pronoun	hta&
		If the subject is a noun	htI
Neuter	htu&	hta&

Examples:

1. hu& hsto hto.

‘I was laughing.’ (Male speaker)

2. Ame / Aap8e hsta hta.

‘We were laughing.” (Male speakers)

3. hu& hstI htI.

‘I was laughing.’ (Female speaker)

4. Ame / Aap8e hsta& hta&.

‘We were laughing.’ (-male speakers)

5. tme Aavta& hta&.

‘You were coming.’ (The listeners are - male).

6. 2okru& hstu& htu&.

‘The child was laughing.’ (The speaker doesn’t know whether the speaker is male or female)

7. 2okra& hsta& hta&.

‘The children were laughing.’ (The persons referred to are -male)

Remember

1. The past progressive auxiliaries make distinction at three levels: gender, number and person.

2. So far as the gender is concerned it distinguishes among masculine, feminine and neuter.

3. Number distinguishes between singular and plural.

4. There is no special marker for singular.

5. The plural marker is -Ao.

6. The feminine form does not take plural marker in third person. The noun expresses plurality, if any.

7. The first and second person feminine have the plural marker -Aa&.

C. Linking verbs.

Auxiliary verbs are used as linking verbs. Examples:

1. hu& 2okro 2u&.

‘I am a boy.’

2. Ame 2okra 2IAe.

‘We are boys.’

3. hu& i=xk hto.

‘I was a teacher.’

4. Ame i=xko hta.

‘We were teachers.’