Grammar
Complete reference
Nepali grammar — the 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.
On this page
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.
Beginner — the foundations
The pieces every Nepali sentence is built from. Read these once and the rest of the grammar stops feeling like memorization.
How to learn Nepali
Start here — the fastest path, a daily routine, and the free resources that matter.
ReadPronouns & honorifics
तपाईं, तिमी, तँ — the three 'you' registers and when each one fits.
ReadVerb conjugation
Every verb ends in -नु. The forms of हुनु and the regular present-tense suffix rule.
ReadChha vs ho (the two 'be' verbs)
छ for state and location, हो for identity — the single most important distinction.
ReadPostpositions
-मा, -बाट, -लाई, -ले — they attach after the noun, not before it.
ReadSentence patterns
Eight fill-in-the-blank frames in SOV order that cover most tourist talk.
ReadQuestion words
Nearly every Nepali question word begins with क — के, को, कति, कहाँ, किन.
ReadNegation
छैन, होइन, गर्दिन, गरेन — negation lives inside the verb in Nepali.
ReadCommon mistakes
Aspirated consonants, schwa drop, chha-vs-ho — the seven errors to fix first.
Read
Intermediate — tense, register & structure
Once the foundations stick, add time and politeness: the tense–aspect system, the honorific paradigm, classifiers, and conditionals.
Tense & aspect overview
Habitual, progressive, perfect, and simple past across five everyday verbs.
ReadPast perfect tense
गरेको थियो — 'had done', for narratives, timelines, and reports.
ReadPast continuous tense
खाँदै थियो — what you were doing when something interrupted it.
ReadHonorific imperatives
Commands at three levels — and why tourists default to the -नुहोस् form.
ReadHonorific verb paradigm
The full 3×3 conjugation grid for गर्नु across honorific levels and tenses.
ReadNumerical classifiers
-वटा, -जना, -थान, -पटक — what goes between the number and the noun.
ReadCompound & light verbs
भोक लाग्यो, मन पर्यो — dative-experiencer + light verb for feelings.
ReadConditional sentences
If…then in Nepali — the यदि…भने pattern with ten worked examples.
ReadKinship as address
Why Nepalis call strangers दाइ and दिदी — and how you can too.
Read
Advanced — clauses, voice & evidentiality
The constructions that mark fluent Nepali: passive voice, relative clauses, reported speech, evidential copulas, and discourse particles.
Passive voice
गरियो, गरिन्छ — the impersonal, agentless construction you read more than speak.
ReadRelative clauses
-एको participles vs जो-त्यो correlatives — 'the man who came', two ways.
ReadReported speech
भनेर / भनी — how Nepali quotes speech without back-shifting the tense.
ReadCausative verbs
गराउनु, खुवाउनु, सुताउनु — making someone else do the action.
ReadEvidential copulas
रैछ, होला, रहेछ — how the verb encodes how you know what you know.
ReadDiscourse particles
र, त, नि, पो, ल — the tiny words that change tone without changing meaning.
ReadReduplication & echo-words
खाना-वाना, अलि-अलि, ठूलो-ठूलो — three productive doubling patterns.
ReadKinship matrix
35+ kinship terms by generation — paternal vs maternal, elder vs younger.
ReadSchwa deletion rules
Five rules that decide when the inherent vowel of Devanagari drops.
Read
Nepali grammar — frequently asked questions
The questions travelers and new learners ask most about how Nepali is put together.