Compound Verbs:

It's actually a buddy system. You take two verbs and smash them together.

1. 1The Hero (Main Verb): This is the first verb. It carries the actual meaning (eating, sleeping, speaking). You strip it down to its root form (chop off the na).
2. 2The Sidekick (Vector Verb): This is the second verb. It loses its original meaning and instead adds a specific "shade" or aspect to the Hero. It takes all the grammatical heat—tense, gender, and number changes happen here.

Think of the Sidekick as an emoji you add to a text. "I ate" is factual. "I ate liya" implies "I ate it up (and enjoyed it)."

1. 1The formula is deceptively simple:
2. 2Take the Main Verb (e.g., khana - to eat).
3. 3Remove the na to get the Root (e.g., kha).
4. 4Choose a Vector Verb based on the vibe you want (e.g., lena for self-benefit).
5. 5Conjugate the Vector Verb according to tense/subject (e.g., liya).
6. 6Result: Maine khana kha liya (I ate the food).

Use compound verbs when you want to emphasize:

• Completeness: The action is totally finished. (kaam kar liya)
• Direction: Who benefited? You (lena) or someone else (dena)?
• Suddenness: Something happened out of the blue (bol utha).
• Intensity: You did it forcefully or recklessly (maar dala).

Use them in most completed actions (Perfective tenses) and commands (Imperatives) to sound natural. If you tell a friend "Come here" using just aao, it's okay. If you say aa jao, it's warm and inviting.

There are specific "No Fly Zones" for compound verbs:

• Negative Sentences: Generally, if you didn't do it, you don't use the compound. You don't say maine nahi kha liya. You just say maine nahi khaya. (Why emphasis the completeness of an action that never happened?)
• Continuous Tense: You usually don't say main kha le raha hoon. It sounds clunky. Just stick to kha raha hoon.
• Modal Verbs: When using sakna (can) or pana (manage to), the compound structure often dissolves.

• The "Ne" Nightmare: Learners often forget that the *Vector Verb* determines if you use ne in the past tense. If the vector is intransitive (like jana), you don't use ne, even if the main verb is transitive!
• Wrong: Usne aa gaya.
• Right: Woh aa gaya (He arrived/came).
• Overusing them: You don't need a vector for every single verb. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.
• Mixing flavors: Using dena (give) when you meant lena (take). It's the difference between "I read the book (to you)" and "I read the book (to myself)."

• Simple Verb vs. Compound: Maine khaya (I ate - factual, maybe I stopped halfway) vs. Maine kha liya (I ate it up - plate is clean).
• Conjunct Verbs vs. Compound Verbs: Don't confuse these. Conjunct is Noun/Adj + Verb (phone karna). Compound is Verb + Verb (kar dena). They are different beasts.