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Marathi phrases, by meaning
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Common questions about Marathi
What does this Marathi page actually cover?
Twenty-two functional categories of meaning, with worked examples in each: tense and aspect (including the ergative ने split in the past), modality (पाहिजे for need, शकतो for ability), negation (नाही, नको, नका), questions (कोण, काय, कुठे, का), comparison (पेक्षा), voice (active, passive, causative), reported speech, and 14 others. Every example shows Devanagari, transliteration, and a word-by-word gloss.
How does Marathi mark grammatical roles?
With postpositions, not word order. Case markers attach after the noun: ने (ergative or instrument), ला (object or recipient), त (locative), तून (ablative), शी (associative). Word order is largely SOV but flexible because the postposition tells you who is doing what to whom; reordering changes emphasis, not roles.
Why does the Marathi verb change gender across examples?
Marathi verbs agree with their argument in gender, number, and person. In present and future tenses the verb agrees with the subject; in the perfective past of transitive verbs the subject takes ने and the verb agrees with the object instead — that is the ergative split. Glosses on this page mark M, F, or N along with SG or PL so the agreement target is visible at a glance.
How does Marathi distinguish formal from informal address?
Three layers: तू (intimate or to inferiors), तुम्ही (default polite, also plural), and honorific verb endings such as -तात paired with तुम्ही even when addressing one person. Phrases under Politeness and Social Deixis show the contrast directly; honorific तुम्ही forms appear throughout the page wherever the situation is formal.
Is this standard Marathi or a regional variety?
Standard Marathi based on the Pune variety, the version used in news, formal teaching, and most published material. Regional varieties such as Varhadi, Kolhapuri, and the Konkan coastal forms differ in pronunciation, some lexical items, and a handful of verb endings; the structures shown here are the broadly understood form.
Sources for Marathi
The grammatical descriptions on this page are informed by the following published reference and descriptive grammars. Grammatical facts themselves are not subject to copyright; the scholars who documented them deserve attribution.
- Dhongde, R. V. & Wali, K. (2009). Marathi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (London Oriental and African Language Library 13).
- Pandharipande, R. V. (1997). Marathi. London: Routledge (Descriptive Grammars).
- Joshi, Smita (1989). "Morphological Causativization in Marathi." Stanford University.
- Hook, Peter Edwin & Pardeshi, Prashant (2013). "Prenominal Participial Phrases in Marathi." Lingua Posnaniensis 55(2).
- WALS Online — features for Marathi (wals_code mhi), citing Pandharipande 1997.
- Lele, Kaushik. Learn Marathi with Kaushik (learnmarathiwithkaushik.com).