GCSE Gujarati · Words and sentences

Negatives and questions

નથી, નહીં and ન, ક્યારેય નહીં, and asking with શું, ક્યાં, ક્યારે, કેમ and કેટલા.

50 GCSE-style practice questions

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Negatives and questions, explained point by point

Everything the GCSE specification expects you to be able to do, and how to actually do it - the same lesson a signed-in student studies from.

  1. Say not in the present with નથી

    નથી replaces the helper: હું થાકેલો નથી I am not tired. With an action verb, use the -તો form and નથી: હું માંસ નથી ખાતો I don't eat meat, or નથી ખાતી for a girl.

  2. Say not in the past and the future with નહીં or ન

    મેં ટીવી જોયું નહીં I didn't watch TV; હું કાલે નહીં આવું or હું કાલે આવીશ નહીં I won't come tomorrow.

  3. Say have not, or not yet, with નથી

    મેં હજી ખાધું નથી I haven't eaten yet; તે હજી આવ્યો નથી he hasn't come yet.

  4. Say never, nobody and nothing

    ક્યારેય ever, કોઈ anyone and કંઈ anything become never, nobody and nothing with નહીં or નથી: હું ક્યારેય મોડો નથી પડતો I am never late, ત્યાં કોઈ નહોતું nobody was there, મારી પાસે કંઈ નથી I have nothing.

  5. Ask a yes-no question

    Raise your voice at the end, or begin with શું: શું તમે ગુજરાતી બોલો છો? do you speak Gujarati? ને? at the end asks for agreement: તમે આવશો ને? you will come, won't you?

  6. Use the question words

    શું what, કોણ who, ક્યાં where, ક્યારે when, કેમ and શા માટે why, કેવી રીતે how, કેટલું how much and કેટલા how many, કયું which.

  7. Put the question word where the answer would go

    Gujarati keeps the order of a statement: તમે લંડનમાં રહો છો you live in London becomes તમે ક્યાં રહો છો? where do you live? The question word sits just before the verb.

Negatives and questions key terms

The words the specification and the mark schemes use, each defined the way an examiner wants it.

Negative
A sentence that says not: હું નથી જતો I don't go.
નથી
Is not, am not, are not, or does not with the -તો form: તે ઘરે નથી.
નહીં
Not, in the past, the future and commands: હું નહીં આવું I won't come.
Question word
A word that asks for information: શું, કોણ, ક્યાં, ક્યારે, કેમ.
Yes-no question
A question answered હા or ના, often opened with શું.
કેમ
Why, but in કેમ છો? it means how are you?

Common mistakes in Negatives and questions

The slips that cost marks year after year, and what to do instead.

  • Keeping the present ending with નથી, as in હું નથી ખાઉં છું.

    Use the -તો form: હું નથી ખાતો, or નથી ખાતી for a girl.

  • Reading કેમ છો? as why are you?

    It is the everyday greeting, how are you? Why is કેમ in a question like તું કેમ મોડો આવ્યો? why are you late?

  • Writing ક્યારેક નહીં for never.

    Never is ક્યારેય નહીં, or ક્યારેય with નથી. ક્યારેક on its own means sometimes.

Practice

Try a Negatives and questions question

A GCSE-style original question from this topic. Have a go before you open the working - deciding on an answer first is what makes the working stick.

Which completes the sentence? મેં હજી હોમવર્ક ___. (I haven't done my homework yet.)

  1. નથી કરતો
  2. કર્યું છે
  3. કર્યું નથી
  4. કરીશ નહીં
Show the answer and the working

Answer: કર્યું નથી

Have not, not yet, is the past form with નથી: મેં હજી હોમવર્ક કર્યું નથી. કર્યું agrees with હોમવર્ક.

  1. મેં and હજી point to have not.
  2. That is the past form with નથી: કર્યું નથી.
  3. I haven't done my homework yet.

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