Marathi Verb Tenses: Past, Present, and Future for Beginners

English speakers learning Marathi hit a wall with past tense. You conjugate "he ate the mango" and your Marathi-speaking friend shakes her head. The verb looks wrong, the pronoun sounds off, and you have no idea why. The culprit is something English simply doesn't have: an ergative construction — a past-tense pattern where the subject stops driving the verb and the object takes over. Understanding this one feature unlocks the Marathi verb system more than any other single rule.

But we start before that. Marathi has three core tenses every beginner needs: present habitual, past, and future. Each one works differently. Each one is learnable.

The Present Tense: -तो, -ते, and the Auxiliary

Marathi present tense comes in two flavors. The habitual present describes ongoing habits or general truths — "I go to work every day." The present continuous adds "am/is/are doing right now."

For the habitual present, the verb root takes gender-and-person endings. The verb जाणे (jāṇe, to go) shows the pattern clearly:

Pronoun	Marathi	Romanization	IPA	English
मी (I, masc.)	मी जातो	mī jāto	/miː dʒaːtoː/	I go
मी (I, fem.)	मी जाते	mī jāte	/miː dʒaːteː/	I go
तू (you, informal)	तू जातोस / जातेस	tū jātos / jātes	/tuː dʒaːtos/	You go
तो (he)	तो जातो	to jāto	/toː dʒaːtoː/	He goes
ती (she)	ती जाते	tī jāte	/tiː dʒaːteː/	She goes
आम्ही (we)	आम्ही जातो	āmhī jāto	/aːmɦiː dʒaːtoː/	We go
तुम्ही (you, polite)	तुम्ही जाता	tumhī jātā	/tumɦiː dʒaːtaː/	You go
ते (they)	ते जातात	te jātāt	/teː dʒaːtaːt/	They go

The -तो ending belongs to masculine first-person and third-person singular; -ते belongs to feminine; -ता is the polite second-person marker; -तात is the third-person plural. These endings are consistent across virtually every verb — learn them once with जाणे and खाणे (khāṇe, to eat), and they apply everywhere.

For the continuous present — "I am going right now" — Marathi adds the auxiliary आहे (āhe, is/are) after a slightly modified verb form:

• मी जात आहे (mī jāt āhe) — I am going
• ती खात आहे (tī khāt āhe) — she is eating
• ते बोलत आहेत (te bolat āhet) — they are speaking

The participle form ends in -त (-t) and the auxiliary आहे inflects for person: आहे (singular), आहेत (plural). The present continuous is more common in everyday speech than the pure habitual form, so these structures appear constantly.

A word on the auxiliary आहे: it's the present tense of असणे (asaṇe, to be), and it doesn't change for gender at all — मी आहे, तो आहे, ती आहे, पाणी आहे are all identical. This is one of the rare places in Marathi where gender agreement doesn't bite you. Enjoy it. The past tense "was" — होता / होती / होते (hotā / hotī / hote) — absolutely does agree for gender, but that's the one place in the past tense where gender agreement falls on the "to be" verb rather than on the main verb's ergative construction. मी काम करत होतो (mī kām karat hoto) means "I was doing work" — the auxiliary होतो agrees with the masculine speaker, not with काम.

The Ergative Past: When the Object Drives the Verb

Here is the rule that surprises everyone: in Marathi transitive past sentences, the subject takes the postposition -ने (ne) and the verb agrees with the object, not the subject.

This is called the ergative construction. It has nothing to do with English and very little to do with Hindi. It is simply how Marathi organizes completed actions.

Take the sentence "Priya ate the mango." In English and Hindi, the verb agrees with the subject (Priya). In Marathi:

प्रियाने आंबा खाल्ला. (Priyāne āmbā khāllā.) Priya-ने mango(masc.) ate(masc.)

Priya takes -ने (ne) — the ergative marker. आंबा (āmbā, mango) is masculine. So the verb खाल्ला takes the masculine -ला ending, agreeing with the mango, not with Priya.

Change the object's gender and the verb changes with it:

Object	Marathi sentence	Verb ending	Why
आंबा (āmbā, mango — masc.)	प्रियाने आंबा खाल्ला	-ला	masculine object
चपाती (capātī, flatbread — fem.)	प्रियाने चपाती खाल्ली	-ली	feminine object
फळ (phaḷ, fruit — neut.)	प्रियाने फळ खाल्लें	-लें	neuter object

This can feel arbitrary until you understand the logic: the -ने marks the agent (the doer), and the verb focuses on what was done to what. The object is the thing that was completed upon, so the verb reports its gender.

For intransitive verbs — verbs that take no object, like जाणे (to go) or येणे (to come) — the ergative construction does not apply. The subject takes no -ने, and the verb agrees with the subject's gender:

• प्रिया गेली. (Priyā gelī.) — Priya went. (feminine verb, subject is female)
• रवी गेला. (Ravī gelā.) — Ravi went. (masculine verb, subject is male)
• मूल झोपले. (mūl jhople.) — The child slept. (neuter verb for neuter noun)

The dividing line between transitive and intransitive triggers the ergative — get that line clear and the whole system becomes predictable.

This is also why the verb येणे (yeṇe, to come) and पडणे (paḍṇe, to fall) never take the ergative marker: you can't "come" something or "fall" something in the way you "eat" or "do." A good working test: if you can ask "what did X V?" and get a meaningful answer, the verb is transitive and the past tense needs the ergative -ने. आंबा खाल्ला — "what did she eat?" makes sense. स्टेशनला गेली — "what did she go?" doesn't make sense, so जाणे is intransitive, no -ने required.

The Marathi three-gender system explains how the -ला / -ली / -लें endings map to grammatical gender, which is the same logic the ergative past borrows.

करणे Fully Conjugated: Present, Past, Future

The verb करणे (karaṇe, to do) is the most useful verb to conjugate completely, because it appears in compound verbs everywhere: काम करणे (to work), स्वयंपाक करणे (to cook), बोलणे करणे (to communicate). Work through all three tenses with all six pronoun forms and you have a template that applies across the language.

Present Habitual

Pronoun	Marathi	Romanization	English
मी	मी करतो / करते	mī karto / karte	I do (m/f)
तू	तू करतोस / करतेस	tū kartos / kartes	You do (informal m/f)
तो / ती / ते	तो करतो / ती करते / ते करते	to karto / tī karte / te karte	He/she/it does
आम्ही	आम्ही करतो	āmhī karto	We do
तुम्ही	तुम्ही करता	tumhī kartā	You do (polite)
ते (plural)	ते करतात	te kartāt	They do

Past Tense (Transitive Ergative)

Because करणे is transitive, the subject takes -ने and the verb agrees with the object. The base past form is केला / केली / केलें (kelā / kelī / kelẽ). Below, assume the object is masculine (e.g., "the work" — काम, neuter — so the verb takes -लें):

Pronoun	Marathi	Romanization	English
मी	मी काम केलें	mī kām kelẽ	I did the work
तू	तू काम केलेस	tū kām keles	You did the work (informal)
त्याने (he)	त्याने काम केलें	tyāne kām kelẽ	He did the work
तिने (she)	तिने काम केलें	tine kām kelẽ	She did the work
आम्ही	आम्ही काम केलें	āmhī kām kelẽ	We did the work
तुम्ही	तुम्ही काम केलेत	tumhī kām kelet	You did the work (polite)
त्यांनी (they)	त्यांनी काम केलें	tyānnī kām kelẽ	They did the work

Notice that तो (to) becomes त्याने (tyāne) in the past transitive — the pronoun itself changes form when the ergative -ने attaches. ती (tī) becomes तिने (tine), ते plural becomes त्यांनी (tyānnī). These oblique pronoun forms are one of the things learners need to memorize alongside the verb paradigm.

Future Tense

The future tense in Marathi uses a different set of endings entirely: -ईन / -शील / -ईल / -ऊ / -आल / -तील (-īn / -śīl / -īl / -ū / -āl / -tīl).

Pronoun	Marathi	Romanization	English
मी	मी करीन / करेन	mī karīn / karen	I will do
तू	तू करशील	tū karaśīl	You will do (informal)
तो / ती / ते	तो / ती / ते करेल	to / tī / te karel	He/she/it will do
आम्ही	आम्ही करू	āmhī karū	We will do
तुम्ही	तुम्ही कराल	tumhī karāl	You will do (polite)
ते (plural)	ते करतील	te kartīl	They will do

The future tense is largely regular — once you have the करणे paradigm, apply the same endings to any verb root. मी येईन (mī yeīn, I will come), तू जाशील (tū jāśīl, you will go), ते खातील (te khātīl, they will eat).

Negation: नाही Placed After the Verb

Marathi negation is straightforward in placement but has some inflection to track. The word नाही (nāhī, no/not) follows the verb:

• मी जातो (mī jāto, I go) → मी जात नाही (mī jāt nāhī, I don't go)
• ती खाते (tī khāte, she eats) → ती खात नाही (tī khāt nāhī, she doesn't eat)

In the past tense, नाही replaces the entire verb complex rather than following it — the negative past uses a participial form plus नाही:

• त्याने आंबा खाल्ला (tyāne āmbā khāllā, he ate the mango) → त्याने आंबा खाल्ला नाही (tyāne āmbā khāllā nāhī, he didn't eat the mango)

The word नाही also changes form based on who you're addressing. It inflects for formality and number:

Context	Form	Example
General (statement)	नाही	मी येत नाही — I'm not coming
तू form	नाहीस	तू येत नाहीस — you're not coming (informal)
Plural / polite	नाहीत	ते येत नाहीत — they're not coming

नको (nako) is a related but different negative — it means "I don't want" or "no thank you" for offers, not "it is not the case." Saying नाही when someone offers you tea declines factually; saying नको declines politely. This distinction matters enough to memorize early.

The future tense negation works the same way as the present: the -त participle plus नाही. मी उद्या येत नाही (mī udyā yet nāhī, I'm not coming tomorrow) uses the same structure whether it's present or future context. Marathi doesn't create a distinct "won't" construction the way English does — context and time words like उद्या (udyā, tomorrow) carry the future meaning, and नाही does the negating.

There is also a negative imperative worth knowing: नको (nako) for informal singular ("don't," directed at one person), and नका (nakā) for polite or plural. चहा नको (cahā nako) — "I don't want tea." येऊ नका (yeū nakā) — "Don't come" (polite/plural). These appear in everyday conversation constantly and are distinct from the declarative नाही negation.

What Learners Get Wrong First

Two errors appear in almost every beginner's first Marathi conversations.

First: forgetting the ergative -ने and letting the verb agree with the subject out of English habit. "Priya ate" becomes प्रिया खाल्ली (Priyā khāllī) — which treats it like an intransitive, agreeing the verb with the feminine subject. This is the Hindi pattern. Marathi requires प्रियाने खाल्लें (or -ला/-ली depending on what was eaten). The -ने is the signal that you're in ergative territory.

Second: applying a single gender form of नाही in all contexts. Hindi uses नहीं without inflecting it. Marathi's नाही inflects, and नाहीस and नाहीत are distinct forms, not interchangeable options.

Both errors vanish with practice — but the ergative construction in particular never clicks from a grammar explanation alone. You need to hear it in real sentences. The Marathi vs Hindi differences overview covers the structural contrast between how the two languages organize past tense, which can help Hindi-background learners calibrate what they need to unlearn.

One Verb, Three Tenses, All Six Pronouns

The fastest way to internalize the Marathi tense system is to take one common verb and conjugate it completely across all three tenses — present habitual, past (with a neuter object for करणे), and future. करणे is the ideal choice because you'll use it in compound verbs every day from your first week of speaking.

मी काम करतो. (Mī kām karto.) — I do work. (present, masculine speaker)
मी काम केलें. (Mī kām kelẽ.) — I did the work. (past, ergative with neuter object)
मी काम करीन. (Mī kām karīn.) — I will do the work. (future)

Three sentences. Three tenses. One verb, shifting from the regular -तो ending of the present to the ergative past to the future -ईन. Marathi verb grammar is genuinely harder than Hindi at the beginner stage — three genders, an ergative construction, and negation that inflects. But the upside is that the patterns are consistent. Once you have करणे cold, every other transitive verb follows the same structure.

The Learn Marathi app by Brightwood Apps walks through the present, past, and future tenses in dedicated grammar units with native audio for each conjugation form — including the full करणे paradigm and ergative constructions — so you hear the patterns at natural speaking speed before you try producing them yourself.