How to conjugate “to be” (होना/hona) in present tense in Hindi?

By Victor Lavaud

The omnipresent verb

Hona (होना) is probably the most important Hindi verb. Similarly to its English counterpart — to be — it got grammaticalized and is used in multiple tense structures such as equivalents of the English present simple and present continuous. The characteristic sounds of huh and heh at the the end of sentences is Honain one…