Grammar
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Grammar
Complete reference
Nepali grammar uses Subject-Object-Verb word order, postpositions instead of prepositions, and no grammatical articles. Politeness is built into the verb through a three-level honorific register, and a single tense-and-aspect system covers present, past, future, habitual, progressive, and perfect. Master those four ideas and the rest of this reference is detail.
Every lesson below is a focused page with audio, examples, and cultural notes. Work through them in order, or jump to the topic you need.
The pieces every Nepali sentence is built from. Read these once and the rest of the grammar stops feeling like memorization.
Start here — the fastest path, a daily routine, and the free resources that matter.
Readतपाईं, तिमी, तँ — the three 'you' registers and when each one fits.
ReadEvery verb ends in -नु. The forms of हुनु and the regular present-tense suffix rule.
Readछ for state and location, हो for identity — the single most important distinction.
Read-मा, -बाट, -लाई, -ले — they attach after the noun, not before it.
ReadEight fill-in-the-blank frames in SOV order that cover most tourist talk.
ReadNearly every Nepali question word begins with क — के, को, कति, कहाँ, किन.
Readछैन, होइन, गर्दिन, गरेन — negation lives inside the verb in Nepali.
ReadAspirated consonants, schwa drop, chha-vs-ho — the seven errors to fix first.
ReadOnce the foundations stick, add time and politeness: the tense–aspect system, the honorific paradigm, classifiers, and conditionals.
Habitual, progressive, perfect, and simple past across five everyday verbs.
Readगरेको थियो — 'had done', for narratives, timelines, and reports.
Readखाँदै थियो — what you were doing when something interrupted it.
ReadCommands at three levels — and why tourists default to the -नुहोस् form.
ReadThe full 3×3 conjugation grid for गर्नु across honorific levels and tenses.
Read-वटा, -जना, -थान, -पटक — what goes between the number and the noun.
Readभोक लाग्यो, मन पर्यो — dative-experiencer + light verb for feelings.
ReadIf…then in Nepali — the यदि…भने pattern with ten worked examples.
ReadWhy Nepalis call strangers दाइ and दिदी — and how you can too.
ReadThe constructions that mark fluent Nepali: passive voice, relative clauses, reported speech, evidential copulas, and discourse particles.
गरियो, गरिन्छ — the impersonal, agentless construction you read more than speak.
Read-एको participles vs जो-त्यो correlatives — 'the man who came', two ways.
Readभनेर / भनी — how Nepali quotes speech without back-shifting the tense.
Readगराउनु, खुवाउनु, सुताउनु — making someone else do the action.
Readरैछ, होला, रहेछ — how the verb encodes how you know what you know.
Readर, त, नि, पो, ल — the tiny words that change tone without changing meaning.
Readखाना-वाना, अलि-अलि, ठूलो-ठूलो — three productive doubling patterns.
Read35+ kinship terms by generation — paternal vs maternal, elder vs younger.
ReadFive rules that decide when the inherent vowel of Devanagari drops.
ReadThe questions travelers and new learners ask most about how Nepali is put together.