Modal Verbs: vouloir, pouvoir, devoir
सहायक क्रियाएँ: vouloir, pouvoir, devoir
These three verbs — want, can, must — carry enormous everyday weight in French, and all three are irregular. Hindi doesn't have one uniform 'modal verb' category standing in for all three the way French does: चाहना ('to want') is an ordinary subject-agreeing verb, सकना ('can') is a compound verb that attaches directly onto the main verb's stem, and 'must' is usually built with a dative subject (मुझे) plus है, पड़ना, or चाहिए. French, by contrast, treats vouloir, pouvoir, and devoir alike — all three simply conjugate for their subject and are followed by the main action in its plain infinitive form, with no linking word — a tidier, more predictable pattern than Hindi's three rather different constructions.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
vouloir (to want) — irregular
je veux, tu veux, il/elle/on veut, nous voulons, vous voulez, ils/elles veulent
मैं चाहता हूँ, तुम चाहते हो, वह चाहता/चाहती है, हम चाहते हैं, आप चाहते हैं, वे चाहते हैं
vouloir changes its stem between the singular/3rd-plural forms (veu-) and the nous/vous forms (voul-) — a pattern called 'boot verb' conjugation because of the shape it makes when you circle the irregular forms. Hindi's चाहना doesn't shift its stem at all; instead it agrees with the subject's gender (चाहता for masculine, चाहती for feminine) and number, something French verbs never mark. Hindi also has a second, dative-subject way to express desire — मुझे चाहिए ('to me it is wanted') — which behaves more like a Tamil-style dative construction, but चाहना is the direct structural match for je veux: a genuine subject doing the wanting.
pouvoir (to be able to / can) — irregular
je peux, tu peux, il/elle/on peut, nous pouvons, vous pouvez, ils/elles peuvent
मैं कर सकता हूँ, तुम कर सकते हो, वह कर सकता/सकती है, हम कर सकते हैं, आप कर सकते हैं, वे कर सकते हैं
Same boot-shaped pattern as vouloir: peu- in the singular and 3rd-plural, pouv- in nous/vous. Hindi's सकना is a compound verb that attaches directly after the main verb's stem — कर सकता हूँ is literally 'do-can-am', with the action verb coming first and सकना trailing it. That's the reverse of French's order, where the conjugated modal (peux) comes first and the infinitive (venir, faire...) comes after — so this is one of the clearer word-order contrasts to drill deliberately.
devoir (must / to have to) — irregular
je dois, tu dois, il/elle/on doit, nous devons, vous devez, ils/elles doivent
मुझे करना है, तुम्हें करना है, उसे करना है, हमें करना है, आपको करना है, उन्हें करना है
devoir also follows the boit-shaped pattern (doi- singular/3rd-plural, dev- nous/vous), and it covers both obligation ('must') and probability ('must be' — il doit être fatigué, 'he must be tired'). Hindi's obligation markers don't share that second job: मुझे करना है, मुझे करना पड़ता है, and मुझे करना चाहिए all express duty or necessity, but none of them can shift to mean 'must be' as a guess — for that, Hindi reaches for separate words like शायद ('perhaps') or लगता है ('it seems').
The main verb stays in the infinitive, right after the modal
Je veux manger. / Je peux venir. / Je dois partir.
मैं खाना चाहता हूँ। / मैं आ सकता हूँ। / मुझे जाना है।
French places the action verb (in its unconjugated infinitive form) immediately after the conjugated modal, with no linking word: Je veux manger, not Je veux à manger. Hindi doesn't follow one single template here — चाहना puts its verbal noun before the conjugated helper (खाना चाहता हूँ, 'eating I-want'), सकना does the same with a bare stem (आ सकता हूँ, 'come-can'), and the 'must' constructions front the dative subject and place the verb before है/पड़ता है (मुझे जाना है, 'to-me going is'). In every Hindi case, the action comes before the helper; in every French case, the modal comes before the action — a consistently mirrored order worth noticing.
il faut — the impersonal 'must', no subject choice
Il faut partir. (One must leave. / We have to leave.)
जाना चाहिए (सामान्य कर्तव्य)
falloir only exists in this fixed, impersonal il form — it never conjugates for je/tu/nous etc. Hindi's चाहिए can do exactly the same job when its dative subject is simply dropped: जाना चाहिए ('[one] should/must go') states a general necessity without naming who exactly must do it, just like il faut partir. Add a dative subject back in (मुझे जाना चाहिए) and it becomes personal again — French has no equivalent single-word switch between the impersonal and personal versions of 'must'.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
| French | Pronunciation | Hindi | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| je veux | zhuh vuh | मैं चाहता हूँmaiñ cāhtā hūñ | I want |
| je peux | zhuh puh | मैं कर सकता हूँmaiñ kar saktā hūñ | I can |
| je dois | zhuh dwah | मुझे करना हैmujhe karnā hai | I must / I have to |
| tu veux | tu vuh | तुम चाहते होtum cāhte ho | you want |
| il/elle peut | eel/el puh | वह कर सकता/सकती हैvah kar saktā/saktī hai | he/she can |
| nous voulons | noo voo-LOHN | हम चाहते हैंham cāhte haiñ | we want |
| vous pouvez | voo poo-VAY | आप कर सकते हैंāp kar sakte haiñ | you (formal/pl.) can |
| ils/elles doivent | eel/el dwahv | उन्हें करना हैunheñ karnā hai | they must |
| il faut | eel foh | करना चाहिए (सामान्य कर्तव्य)karnā cāhie (sāmānya kartavya) | one must / it is necessary to |
| je voudrais | zhuh voo-DREH | मुझे चाहिए (विनम्रता से)mujhe cāhie (vinamratā se) | I would like (polite form of je veux) |