Marathi grammar
Marathi sentence structure — building a basic sentence
Marathi follows Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order. Adjectives come before the noun, and postpositions come after it.
I eat rice
मी भात खातो
mī bhāt khāto
Literally "I rice eat" — the verb always comes last.
The big house
मोठे घर
moṭhe ghar
Adjectives precede the noun, same order as English.
to the market
बाजारात
bājārāt
Postpositions follow the noun, the reverse of an English preposition.
She is reading a book
ती पुस्तक वाचते
tī pustak vācte
Subject → object → verb, in that fixed order.
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More Marathi grammar lessons
Marathi personal pronouns
Marathi marks formality in "you" and, unusually for the region, splits "we" into inclusive and exclusive forms. Marathi nouns and pronouns also inflect for three genders — masculine, feminine, and neuter — which verbs agree with.
Marathi present tense verbs
Marathi present tense endings (-तो/-ते/-तोस/-तेस, etc.) agree with both the person and the gender of the subject. Conjugated here for करणे (karṇe, "to do").
Marathi negation with नाही
नाही (nāhī) is Marathi's all-purpose negator. It typically comes after the verb it negates, and doubles as the everyday word for "no."
Marathi postpositions
Marathi attaches short postpositions to the noun, and the possessive/adjective postpositions change form to agree with the noun's gender.
Marathi question words
Marathi wh-questions use a fixed set of question words; का (kā) placed at the end of a sentence can also mark a yes/no question.
Marathi numbers 1–10
The Marathi numerals 1 through 10.