Doing things today
🎯 Use the present tense for yourself and others, with the right gender.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- मी जातो / मी जाते — mi jaato / jaate 🔊 mee JAA-to / JAA-tay I go. (male / female) Like Hindi, the verb reveals the speaker's gender.
- तो खातो — to khaato 🔊 to KHAA-to He eats. ती खाते — she eats. ते खातं — it eats (neuter).
- आम्ही शिकतो — aamhi shikto 🔊 aam-HEE SHIK-to We learn. Marathi has two words for 'we': आम्ही excludes the listener, आपण includes them. Few languages make this distinction, and Marathi keeps it carefully.
- मला समजलं नाही — mala samajla naahi 🔊 ma-LA sa-MAJ-la NAA-hee I did not understand. नाही is the Marathi 'no' and 'not'.
- तुम्ही काय करता? — tumhi kaay karta? 🔊 toom-HEE kye KAR-ta What do you do? The politest way to ask about someone's work.
- चालेल — chaalel 🔊 chaa-LAYL That will do / it's fine. Literally 'it will walk'. One of the most Marathi words there is.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 Two kinds of 'we'
आपण includes the person you are talking to; आम्ही leaves them out. Getting this right is a small courtesy that native speakers notice immediately.
- आपण जाऊया = let us go (you and I)
- आम्ही जातो = we are going (my group, not you)
- Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Gujarati make the same distinction. English cannot, which is why 'we' is sometimes ambiguous in Indian English.
🌍 Among the people
चालेल, बघू (let's see) and होऊन जाऊ दे (let it happen) carry a whole attitude — easy-going, unhurried, agreeable. Language teaches temperament.
🔁 Practise today
- Describe your day in six sentences, watching the male/female ending.
- Use आपण and आम्ही correctly in two sentences each.
- Learn चालेल, बरं, काय, कसं — the four words heard most often on a Pune street.
