Notes · BengaliUK · A-Levels

ব্যাকরণ ও অনুবাদ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

This topic covers section 3.3 of AQA 7637 in full - from 3.3.1 Script, which asks for all single and conjunct letter forms, to 3.3.12 Common variations in Bengali spelling, which is the specification quietly admitting that Bengali is written in more than one way - together with the two translation tasks, which live in two different papers and test two different things. Translation from Bengali into English is worth 10 of Paper 1's 85 marks; translation from English into Bengali is worth 10 of Paper 3's 75 marks, and there you are given a supporting text in Bengali that supplies some of the vocabulary and structures you will need. No dictionary is allowed in any paper. The grammar list is not an ornament: AO3, manipulating the language accurately in written form using a range of lexis and structure, is thirty per cent of the whole qualification, and it is assessed by grid in the summary questions, in the research-project essay, in both Paper 2 essays and in the multi-skill task. The three structural facts that carry most of the AO3 weight in Bengali are the three-way person system, in which choosing তুমি where আপনি belongs is a social error and a marking error at once; the verb, which is entirely regular in its endings and entirely unforgiving in its tenses; and the classifier, which English has no equivalent of and which no sentence containing a number can do without. These notes write Bengali in the modern colloquial standard, চলিত ভাষা, and where Dhaka and Kolkata usage differ, both are given and labelled, because reading both is specification content.

5 sections~42 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

T·0777 / 13

Exam profile

AO3 · Manipulate Bengali accurately in written form, using a range of lexis and structure drawn from the prescribed grammar list of section 3.3AO2 · Understand written Bengali precisely enough to render an unseen passage of at least 100 words into accurate EnglishAO3 · Render an unseen English passage of at least 100 words into Bengali, choosing person, tense, case, classifier and word order deliberatelyAO2 · Use the supporting Bengali text provided in Paper 3 as a source of structures rather than as a phrasebook

Operators:অনুবাদ করারূপ বদলানোবাছাই করাযুক্তি দেওয়াপরীক্ষা করাসংশোধন করাব্যাখ্যা করা

basic level

In the first year the work is the system itself, learned as a system rather than as a list. Read and write the whole alphabet including the conjuncts, so that a printed conjunct never stops you mid-sentence. Learn the three second-person pronouns with their verb endings together, never separately, because they are one choice with three outcomes. Get the four cases and the commonest postpositions secure. Learn the present, the present continuous, the present perfect, the simple past and the future in all persons before touching the past habitual or the past perfect. Learn the classifiers early, because you cannot write a sentence containing a number without one.

higher level

The full A-Level expects the grammar to be a resource you reach into, not a hurdle you clear. That means the past habitual used in its conditional sense, the compound verbs that give Bengali its aspectual precision, the conjunct verbs that let you build a formal register, the causatives, the impersonal constructions with the genitive experiencer, and the relative and correlative pairs that hold a complex sentence together. It also means the two spelling standards, the sadhu register you will meet in older prose, and the ability to translate in both directions under time pressure without a dictionary.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

ব্যাকরণ ও অনুবাদ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

বর্ণ ও বানান: the script, and the spelling the specification itself calls variable#

FoundationAQA 7637 - 3.3.1 Script: all single and conjunct letter formsAQA 7637 - 3.3.12 Common variations in Bengali spelling: Hindu/Muslim distinctions in kinship terms and other words; East/West Bengal variations in standard Bengali; Bengali calendar

Section 3.3.12 in one view

Fig. 1The specification lists common variations in Bengali spelling as content in its own right. This is the practical core of it: kinship terms and everyday words that differ between the two conventions the specification names. Read both; write one. The row set in heavier ink is the false friend - the same word pointing at two different generations depending on who is using it.

The Bengali-Assamese script is an abugida, which means every consonant letter already carries a vowel inside it. ক is not the sound k but the syllable ko, and the traditional alphabet is counted as eleven vowels, স্বরবর্ণ, and thirty-nine consonants, ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণ. Each vowel therefore has two shapes: an independent letter used at the start of a word or after another vowel, and a dependent sign, a কার, hung on a consonant. আ is the independent letter and া is its sign, so ক plus া gives কা. The signs sit in four different places relative to the consonant - ি before it, া and ে after it, ু below it, ে plus া wrapped around it - and ি in particular is written to the LEFT of the consonant it follows in sound, which is the single most common source of beginner misreading. The horizontal line along the top, the মাত্রা, joins letters into a word and is drawn last.

Conjuncts are what 3.3.1 means by all conjunct letter forms, and they are unavoidable. When two consonants meet with no vowel between them, the inherent vowel of the first is killed by the হসন্ত, ্, and the two letters fuse. Some fusions are transparent: ন plus ত gives ন্ত as in চিন্তা, thought. Others must simply be recognised: ক্ষ in পরীক্ষা, examination, জ্ঞ in জ্ঞান, knowledge, ঙ্গ in বাংলা's cousin ভঙ্গ. Four fused shapes recur constantly and are worth naming - র-ফলা, the little hook under a consonant as in প্র of প্রথম, first; য-ফলা, the tail as in বিদ্যা, learning; ব-ফলা as in বিশ্ব, world; and রেফ, the tick above a consonant standing for a preceding র, as in কর্ম, work. Three further signs carry no consonant of their own: অনুস্বার ং, as in বাংলা; চন্দ্রবিন্দু ঁ, which nasalises the vowel, as in চাঁদ, moon; and বিসর্গ ঃ. Finally খণ্ড ৎ, as in বৃহৎ, great, is its own letter and not a ত with a হসন্ত.

Three letters are written as a consonant with a dot beneath, the নুক্তা: ড় as in বড়, big, ঢ় as in আষাঢ়, the month, and য় as in হয়, becomes. In Unicode these three are composition exclusions, which means their canonical form is base letter plus dot as two separate characters rather than one - so a Bengali word containing them is invisibly two spellings unless everything is normalised the same way. Every Bengali string in these notes is stored in Normalisation Form C, and no zero-width joiner or non-joiner appears anywhere, so anything you copy from these pages is the form a mark scheme would recognise. Sentences end with the দাঁড়ি, ।, not a full stop, and a question still ends with the দাঁড়ি unless the writer chooses a question mark. Bengali has its own digits, ০ ১ ২ ৩ ৪ ৫ ৬ ৭ ৮ ৯, and a Bengali sentence should use them consistently rather than switching to Western digits halfway.

Section 3.3.12 is where AQA acknowledges what every Bengali reader already knows: standard Bengali is not one thing. Kinship terms divide substantially along community lines, so that the word for a paternal uncle is চাচা in the usage common among Bengali Muslims and কাকা in the usage common among Bengali Hindus, and মাসি and খালা both mean a maternal aunt in the two conventions. One of these is a genuine false friend: দাদা means an elder brother in West Bengal and a paternal grandfather in much Bangladeshi usage, so the same word in a reading text can point at two different generations. Everyday words vary the same way - পানি and জল for water, গোসল and স্নান for a bath, দাওয়াত and নিমন্ত্রণ for an invitation. The specification requires you to KNOW the variation, which means reading both; in your own writing, choose one convention and hold it, because consistency is what an AO3 language mark rewards and a text that switches conventions mid-paragraph reads as uncertain.

Worked example

Turning a সাধু sentence into চলিত, and why the exam makes you do it

A Paper 1 stimulus text may be historical, and one of the prescribed works is early-twentieth-century prose. Both may be written in সাধু ভাষা, the older literary register. Take the sadhu sentence তাহারা গ্রামে বাস করিতেছিল এবং প্রত্যহ নদীতে যাইত and rewrite it in চলিত ভাষা, then translate it. Say what changed and what did not.

Recognise the register by its markers
সাধু is identified by three things and only three things matter for reading: long pronoun forms (তাহারা, ইহা, উহা, যাহা where চলিত has তারা, এটা, ওটা, যা), long verb forms built on -ইয়া and -ইত (করিতেছিল, যাইত, করিয়াছে), and a heavier Sanskritic vocabulary (প্রত্যহ for রোজ). The syntax is unchanged: sadhu is not a different grammar, it is a different set of forms hung on the same grammar.
Convert the pronouns
তাহারা becomes তারা. The rule is mechanical: তাহা to তা, ইহা to এটা, উহা to ওটা, যাহা to যা, তাহাদের to তাদের.
Convert the verbs
করিতেছিল, past continuous third person, becomes করছিল; so বাস করিতেছিল becomes বাস করছিল. যাইত, past habitual third person, becomes যেত. The tense does not change - only the shape of the form does.
Leave the vocabulary alone unless you must
প্রত্যহ, daily, is Sanskritic but perfectly usable in চলিত; you may keep it or write রোজ or প্রতিদিন. Converting register does not oblige you to simplify the lexis, and a stimulus text will not expect you to.
Write the চলিত version
তারা গ্রামে বাস করছিল এবং রোজ নদীতে যেত। Note that the postpositional and case marking is untouched: গ্রামে is still locative, নদীতে is still locative.
Translate
They were living in the village and used to go to the river every day. The past continuous and the past habitual are two different tenses in Bengali and two different constructions in English; keeping them apart is exactly what the Paper 1 translation is testing.

Result: চলিত: তারা গ্রামে বাস করছিল এবং রোজ নদীতে যেত। English: They were living in the village and used to go to the river every day. The conversion is a three-step mechanical routine - pronouns, verb forms, optionally lexis - and it is worth practising, because a candidate who freezes at করিতেছিল loses a whole stimulus text.

Typical mistakes

Reading ি as though it followed its consonant, and so mis-hearing কিন্তু as ক-ন-ত-ি.
Writing খণ্ড ৎ as ত with a হসন্ত. They look similar in print and are different letters; বৃহৎ and বৃহত্তর both appear in the specification's own examples.
Dropping the নুক্তা, so that বড় becomes বড, which is not a word, or আষাঢ় loses its month.
Omitting the চন্দ্রবিন্দু on the honorific pronouns, so that তাঁর, his or her with respect, collapses into তার, plain his or hers - a respect error, not a typing error.
Mixing Bengali and Western digits inside one Bengali sentence.
Switching between চাচা and কাকা, or between পানি and জল, inside a single essay, which tells the examiner you are assembling phrases rather than writing.

Active revision

নিচের শব্দগুলো হাতে লিখুন এবং প্রতিটি যুক্তবর্ণ আলাদা করে দেখান: পরীক্ষা, জ্ঞান, বিদ্যালয়, প্রথম, কর্মসূচি, স্বাধীনতা, চিন্তা, রাষ্ট্রভাষা। তারপর একই তালিকা থেকে যে শব্দগুলোতে নুক্তা, চন্দ্রবিন্দু বা খণ্ড ৎ আছে সেগুলো আলাদা করুন এবং প্রতিটির উচ্চারণ লিখুন।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Bengali (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7637 specification (AQA)

সর্বনাম ও সম্মান: person, respect and case#

StandardAQA 7637 - 3.3.3 Personal pronouns: singular and plural; polite and familiar; subject, object and possessive caseAQA 7637 - 3.3.4 Other pronouns: demonstrative, indefinite, reflexive, relative and correlativeAQA 7637 - 3.3.5 Interrogatives: the k-wordsAQA 7637 - 3.3.6 Nouns: plural forms for personal nouns; subject, object, possessive and locative/instrumental case

The three-way person system

Fig. 2Bengali makes you decide, in every sentence, how you stand towards the person you are addressing or describing. The verb ending follows the pronoun automatically, so the choice cannot be hidden. The honorific row is set in heavier ink because it is the default for everything written in this qualification.

Bengali has three second persons, and choosing between them is a social judgement encoded in grammar. তুই is intimate: childhood friends, small children, and in some families siblings; used to a stranger it is an insult. তুমি is familiar: friends, younger relatives, people of your own generation you know. আপনি is honorific: strangers, elders, teachers, officials, anyone whose standing you are marking. The third person divides the same way - সে is the plain third person and তিনি the honorific one, with এ and ইনি as their near-deictic partners. Each pronoun takes its own verb ending, so the choice propagates through the whole sentence: তুমি কী করো, তুই কী করিস and আপনি কী করেন all mean what are you doing. For everything you write in this qualification - a letter in a stimulus response, a reported opinion, an essay about a writer or a politician - আপনি and তিনি are the default, and dropping into তুমি about a public figure reads as contempt.

The case forms of the pronouns must be learned as sets, because they are irregular and they are constant. আমি gives আমাকে for the object and আমার for the possessive; তুমি gives তোমাকে and তোমার; তুই gives তোকে and তোর; আপনি gives আপনাকে and আপনার; সে gives তাকে and তার; তিনি gives তাঁকে and তাঁর. The plurals follow: আমরা, আমাদের; তোমরা, তোমাদের; আপনারা, আপনাদের; তারা, তাদের; তাঁরা, তাঁদের. The single most examinable detail here is the চন্দ্রবিন্দু: তাঁর with the nasal mark is his or hers with respect, তার without it is plain his or hers. Leaving it off is not a typing slip - it demotes the person you are writing about, and in an essay on a writer or a public figure it is visible. The genitive is the workhorse of the language: it governs most postpositions, it carries the experiencer of impersonal constructions, and it turns a postposition into an adjective.

Nouns take four case forms and no gender. The subject is bare: ছাত্র পড়ে, the student reads. The object takes -কে when it is animate and usually stays bare when it is not: ছাত্রকে ডাকো, call the student, but বইটা পড়ো, read the book. The possessive is -র after a vowel and -এর after a consonant: রামের বই, Ram's book; ছেলের নাম, the boy's name. The locative, which also does instrumental duty, is -এ, -য় or -তে: ঢাকায় থাকি, I live in Dhaka; হাতে লিখি, I write by hand; স্কুলে যাই, I go to school. Personal nouns take -রা or -এরা in the plural, ছাত্ররা, মানুষেরা, and -দের in the oblique plural, ছাত্রদের বই. Non-personal nouns use গুলো or গুলি instead: বইগুলো. There is no article and no agreement: an adjective never changes for the noun it modifies.

The other pronoun classes are small and worth learning whole. Demonstratives work on a near-far axis: এই or এ for this, ওই or ও for that, সেই for that already mentioned; এটা, ওটা, সেটা for the corresponding things. Indefinites are কেউ, someone or anyone, কিছু, something, and কোনো, any: কেউ আসেনি, nobody came. Reflexives are নিজে, oneself, and নিজের, one's own: সে নিজেই বলেছে, he said it himself. Relatives come in pairs with their correlatives and are the backbone of a complex Bengali sentence - যে…সে, যা…তা, যখন…তখন, যেখানে…সেখানে, যেমন…তেমন, যত…তত, যদি…তাহলে. The interrogatives are the k-words: কে who, কী what, কোন which, কখন when, কবে on what day, কোথায় where, কেন why, কীভাবে how, কত how much. Note the pair কি and কী: কি with the short vowel is the yes-no question particle, তুমি কি যাবে, will you go; কী with the long vowel means what, তুমি কী করবে, what will you do. Writing one for the other changes the question.

Four cases and the postpositions they feed

Fig. 3Bengali has no gender and no adjective agreement, so nearly all the grammatical work that European languages spread across endings is done here by four noun cases and a large set of postpositions. The genitive row is set in heavier ink because it governs most postpositions and carries the experiencer of the impersonal constructions in 3.3.10.

Worked example

Choosing a person, and following the choice through a sentence

The Paper 3 English-into-Bengali passage contains the sentence: You told the reporter that your father had been living in the town for many years. Decide which second person to use, then write the Bengali, justifying every form.

Decide the person from the register of the passage
The passage is journalistic and the addressee is an adult being interviewed. That is আপনি. This decision is not decorative: it fixes the verb ending, the possessive and the imperative for the rest of the passage, and switching later would be an error the examiner can see at a glance.
Set the verb of the main clause
Told is a completed past act reported as a single event, so the simple past, and with আপনি the ending is -লেন: বললেন. The verb is বলা, to say, root বল-.
Mark the addressee
To the reporter is an animate recipient, so the objective -কে: সাংবাদিককে. With verbs of saying Bengali also allows the locative-style সাংবাদিকের কাছে, to the reporter, and either is acceptable here; -কে is tighter.
Build the subordinate clause
Bengali reports speech with যে, that: আপনি সাংবাদিককে বললেন যে… Inside it, your father is আপনার বাবা - the genitive of আপনি, and the honorific choice must carry over to the father, who is an elder, so his verb goes to the তিনি row.
Choose the tense inside the clause
Had been living is a state that began earlier and was still going on at the reported moment. Bengali uses the past continuous with a duration phrase: বাস করছিলেন. The duration itself is অনেক বছর ধরে, for many years, with ধরে, a postposition taking no genitive.
Order the parts and write it out
Bengali is verb-final, so each clause ends with its verb: আপনি সাংবাদিককে বললেন যে আপনার বাবা অনেক বছর ধরে ওই শহরে বাস করছিলেন। Note ওই শহরে, locative, for in the town.
Check the pass
One reading for person: আপনি, আপনার, বললেন, করছিলেন - all in the honorific row, consistent. One reading for the চন্দ্রবিন্দু: none needed here, because the honorific is second person, not তিনি. One reading for case: -কে on the animate recipient, genitive before nothing, locative on শহর.

Result: আপনি সাংবাদিককে বললেন যে আপনার বাবা অনেক বছর ধরে ওই শহরে বাস করছিলেন। Every form in the sentence follows from one decision taken in step one. That is why the honorific level is the first thing to fix in a translation and the last thing to check.

Typical mistakes

Using তুমি of a writer, a politician or an interviewee, which reads as disrespect rather than as informality.
Mixing person mid-answer, so that the same referent is তিনি in one sentence and সে in the next.
Attaching -কে to an inanimate object, giving বইকে পড়ো instead of বইটা পড়ো.
Forgetting that the genitive is required before most postpositions: আমার সঙ্গে, not আমি সঙ্গে.
Writing কি for কী in a content question, which turns what will you do into will you do.

Active revision

একই বাক্য তিনটি সম্বোধনে লিখুন এবং প্রতিটির উপযুক্ত প্রসঙ্গ এক বাক্যে ব্যাখ্যা করুন: (ক) তুই, (খ) তুমি, (গ) আপনি। বাক্যটি হলো: তুমি কি আগামীকাল সভায় আসবে? তারপর একই বাক্যকে তৃতীয় পুরুষে বদলান, একবার সে দিয়ে এবং একবার তিনি দিয়ে, এবং সর্বনামের সব রূপ চিহ্নিত করুন।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Bengali (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7637 specification (AQA)

ক্রিয়া: the verb, and the nine tenses the specification names#

AdvancedAQA 7637 - 3.3.9 Verbs: tenses present, future, present continuous, perfect, past perfect, simple past, past habitual, past continuous, familiar and polite; negative forms; imperatives; emphatic; verbal noun with case endings; negative of the zero verb; extended causative verbs; compound verbs; conjunct verbs; stative verbs; the obligation construction; verbal noun plus jaoya; hypothetical past and future conditions using the past habitual in its conditional senseAQA 7637 - 3.3.10 Clauses: impersonal constructions; non-hypothetical conditional clauses; clauses of time, purpose and result; expressions of need

করা across the prescribed tenses

Fig. 4Section 3.3.9 names nine tenses and requires them in the familiar and the polite person. This is the whole system on one verb; every other regular verb takes the same endings on its own root. The future row is set in heavier ink because it is the one place where the familiar second person and the plain third person fall together.

The Bengali verb is easier than it looks, because it is regular and because it agrees only with person - never with number and never with gender. Every finite form is a root plus a tense marker plus a person ending, and the person endings barely change from tense to tense. Take করা, to do, root কর-. The present is করি, করিস, করো, করে, করেন across the five persons; the present continuous inserts -ছ- to give করছি, করছিস, করছ, করছে, করছেন; the present perfect uses the perfective participle করে plus the same set, করেছি, করেছ, করেছে, করেছেন; the future is করব, করবি, করবে, করবে, করবেন. Once you have the five endings, every new verb is a matter of finding the root. One trap is built in and cannot be avoided: in the future, তুমি করবে and সে করবে are identical, so context alone tells you who will do it.

The past is where the specification's list is most demanding, because it names four different past tenses and expects them kept apart. The simple past reports a single completed event: গতকাল সে এল, he came yesterday, from আসা. The past continuous reports something in progress: সে আসছিল, he was coming. The past habitual reports repeated or customary action: সে রোজ আসত, he used to come every day. The past perfect reports a state resulting from something earlier still: সে এসেছিল, he had come. English collapses several of these into came, so the Bengali-into-English translation asks you to choose an English tense that keeps the distinction, and the English-into-Bengali translation asks you to hear which Bengali tense an English phrase implies. Used to and would, in the habitual sense, both point at the past habitual; was doing points at the past continuous; had done points at the past perfect.

Negation is placed, not conjugated. The general rule is that না follows the finite verb: আমি করি না, I do not do; সে যাবে না, he will not go. The perfect is the exception and negates with নি attached to the present-tense stem, replacing the perfect entirely: আমি করিনি, I have not done or I did not do; সে আসেনি, he has not come. The zero verb - Bengali's absent present-tense copula - has its own negatives, which 3.3.9 names explicitly. এটা ভালো, this is good, has no verb at all; its negative is এটা ভালো নয়, this is not good. Existential আছে, there is or has, negates as নেই: আমার সময় আছে becomes আমার সময় নেই, I have no time. Learning নয় and নেই as a pair, and knowing that neither is a form of হওয়া, saves a whole category of error.

Five derived verb types give Bengali most of its expressive range, and all five are on the list. Compound verbs pair a perfective participle with a light verb that adds aspect or direction: করে ফেলা, to get done and finished with; চলে যাওয়া, to go away; নিয়ে আসা, to bring; পড়ে ফেলা, to read right through. Conjunct verbs make new verbs from a noun or adjective plus করা, দেওয়া, হওয়া or পাওয়া: শুরু করা, to begin; চেষ্টা করা, to try; ভয় পাওয়া, to be afraid; অনুবাদ করা, to translate - and this is how Bengali builds its formal and academic register. Causatives, the extended verbs of 3.3.9, add -আনো: পড়া, to read, gives পড়ানো, to teach; খাওয়া gives খাওয়ানো, to feed. Statives pair a perfective participle with আছ-: সে বসে আছে, he is sitting. And obligation is expressed impersonally with the infinitive plus হবে: আমাকে যেতে হবে, I have to go - note that the person goes into the objective case, not the subject. The same impersonal habit governs need, আমার টাকা দরকার or আমার টাকা লাগবে, and liking, আমার ভালো লাগে.

Worked example

Reading an English past and choosing the Bengali tense

Translate into Bengali: When I was a student in Dhaka, I used to read a newspaper every morning, but I had never read a Bengali novel until my aunt gave me one. Justify each verb choice.

Split the sentence into its clauses
Three clauses and three different pasts: a time clause with was, a main clause with used to read, and a contrastive clause with had never read plus a simple past gave. Bengali will need three different tenses, and getting them right is the whole exercise.
The time clause
When I was a student is a state, not an event, and Bengali handles it with the past of the zero verb, ছিলাম: আমি যখন ঢাকায় ছাত্র ছিলাম. যখন opens the clause and its correlative তখন can be left implicit when the main clause follows immediately.
The main clause
Used to read is unmistakably habitual, so the past habitual: পড়তাম. Every morning is রোজ সকালে. A newspaper takes no article in Bengali but does take a classifier if singular and specific; here it is generic, so খবরের কাগজ পড়তাম is right and একটা খবরের কাগজ পড়তাম would wrongly specify one particular paper.
The contrastive clause
Had never read is an experience up to a point in the past, which is the past perfect: পড়িনি carries the negative perfect, and for the past perfect negative Bengali uses the same নি form with a time marker: কখনও বাংলা উপন্যাস পড়িনি. কখনও, ever, plus the negative gives never.
The until clause
Until my aunt gave me one is a simple completed event: দিলেন, from দেওয়া, in the honorific third person because an aunt is an elder. Until is যতক্ষণ না or, more idiomatically here, the sequence is inverted: আমার খালা একটা না দেওয়া পর্যন্ত. The cleaner exam solution is to reorder into two coordinated clauses, which Bengali prefers.
Assemble
আমি যখন ঢাকায় ছাত্র ছিলাম, তখন রোজ সকালে খবরের কাগজ পড়তাম, কিন্তু আমার খালা একটা বাংলা উপন্যাস না দেওয়া পর্যন্ত আমি কখনও বাংলা উপন্যাস পড়িনি।
Check
Four verbs, four decisions: ছিলাম past of the zero verb, পড়তাম past habitual, দেওয়া in a non-finite until-construction, পড়িনি negative perfect. The honorific colouring on খালা is carried by the noun and by দেওয়া if you finitise it. Reading the sentence back once for tense alone is the single highest-value check in this paper.

Result: আমি যখন ঢাকায় ছাত্র ছিলাম, তখন রোজ সকালে খবরের কাগজ পড়তাম, কিন্তু আমার খালা একটা বাংলা উপন্যাস না দেওয়া পর্যন্ত আমি কখনও বাংলা উপন্যাস পড়িনি। The English gives you the tense in words - used to, had never, gave - and the discipline is to translate the tense marker rather than the verb.

Exam focus

The four past tenses are the most reliable place to lose translation marks in both directions. Practise them as a set, not one at a time.
Conditionals appear in both essay tasks: non-hypothetical যদি … তাহলে with a future or present, and hypothetical using the past habitual in its conditional sense, যদি সময় থাকত, তাহলে আমি যেতাম.
The conditional participle -লে is the compact alternative and reads well in an essay: সরকার উদ্যোগ নিলে পরিস্থিতি বদলাবে.
Conjunct verbs with করা are the fastest route to an academic register: বিশ্লেষণ করা, মূল্যায়ন করা, তুলনা করা, উল্লেখ করা.
Remember that the perfect negates with নি and nothing else; আমি করেছি না is not Bengali.

Typical mistakes

Using the simple past where the past habitual is meant, so that used to go becomes গেল instead of যেত.
Placing না before the verb on the English pattern, giving আমি না করি.
Negating আছে with না instead of using নেই.
Making the subject of an obligation nominative: আমি যেতে হবে instead of আমাকে যেতে হবে.
Treating the compound verb as decoration and adding ফেলা or যাওয়া where no aspectual meaning is intended.
Forgetting that তুমি করবে and সে করবে are the same form, and then mis-assigning the subject in a translation into English.

Active revision

নিচের ইংরেজি বাক্যগুলোর প্রত্যেকটির জন্য সঠিক বাংলা কাল বেছে নিন এবং এক বাক্যে কারণ লিখুন: (১) He came yesterday. (২) He was coming when I phoned. (৩) He used to come every Friday. (৪) He had come before the meeting began. (৫) He has not come. তারপর পাঁচটি বাক্যই তিনি রূপে আবার লিখুন।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Bengali (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7637 specification (AQA)

গণক, বিশেষণ ও পদান্বয়ী: classifiers, adjectives, postpositions and numbers#

StandardAQA 7637 - 3.3.2 Articles: singular and plural; diminutivesAQA 7637 - 3.3.7 Adjectives: gender; comparison; comparative constructions; interrogative, indefinite, adjectival and demonstrative adjectivesAQA 7637 - 3.3.8 Postpositions: with possessive case; without possessive case; double postpositions; adjectival postpositionsAQA 7637 - 3.3.11 Numbers: cardinal with and without article; ordinal up to tenth; dates on the Western calendar

The classifiers of 3.3.2

Fig. 5Bengali has no articles; it has classifiers, and a counted noun cannot appear without one. The general classifier is set in heavier ink because it also does the work of the definite article and is therefore the one whose absence changes the meaning rather than merely the register.

What section 3.3.2 calls articles are Bengali's classifiers, and they are the feature that most reliably marks a learner's sentence as foreign when they are missing. A classifier is an enclitic attached to the end of a noun or a numeral, and Bengali will not let a counted noun stand without one. -টা is the general one and -টি the more refined and slightly diminutive alternative: বইটা, the book; ছেলেটি, the boy, with a shade of care or affection. -খানা and its diminutive -খানি attach to flat things: কাগজখানা, the sheet of paper. -জন counts people: তিনজন ছাত্র, three students. -টুকু measures a small quantity or a portion: একটুকু পানি, a little water. The plural is -গুলো, or the softer -গুলি: বইগুলো, the books. Attached to a bare noun, -টা also does the work of the definite article - বই is a book or books in general, বইটা is the book - so leaving it off does not merely sound odd; it removes the definiteness the sentence needed.

Adjectives do almost nothing in Bengali, which is a relief after European languages: they never agree, they never decline, and they stand before their noun. ভালো ছাত্র, ভালো ছাত্রী, ভালো ছাত্ররা - one form throughout. The exception 3.3.7 names is a small set of Sanskrit-derived pairs that do mark a feminine: সুন্দর and সুন্দরী, ছাত্র and ছাত্রী, শিক্ষক and শিক্ষিকা. Comparison is done with a postposition, not an ending: the standard of comparison goes into the genitive and takes চেয়ে or থেকে, and the adjective itself does not change. রামের চেয়ে শ্যাম লম্বা, Shyam is taller than Ram. The superlative is সবচেয়ে, than all: সবচেয়ে বড় শহর, the biggest city. Alongside these, Bengali keeps the inherited Sanskrit comparative and superlative in -তর and -তম, which the specification cites with বৃহৎ, বৃহত্তর, বৃহত্তম - formal, useful in an essay, and never combined with চেয়ে.

Postpositions come after their noun, and they divide into two classes that must be kept apart. The larger class takes the genitive: আমার জন্য, for me; বাড়ির সামনে, in front of the house; তার সঙ্গে or তার সাথে, with him; সভার পরে, after the meeting; বিষয়টির সম্পর্কে, about the matter; সরকারের বিরুদ্ধে, against the government. The smaller class takes the bare or locative noun: ঢাকা থেকে, from Dhaka; হাত দিয়ে, by hand; সন্ধ্যা পর্যন্ত, until evening; তুমি ছাড়া, except you. Two can be stacked, which is what 3.3.8 means by double postpositions: ঘরের ভিতর থেকে, from inside the room. And any postposition can be turned into an adjective by adding the genitive -র: টেবিলের সামনের চেয়ার, the chair in front of the table. The same genitive that governs postpositions also carries the experiencer in Bengali's impersonal constructions - আমার ভালো লাগে, I like it; আমার মনে হয়, it seems to me; আমার সাহায্য দরকার, I need help - which is why the genitive is the case to learn first.

Numbers are prescribed only as far as tenth in the ordinals, but they are needed constantly. The cardinals are এক, দুই, তিন, চার, পাঁচ, ছয়, সাত, আট, নয়, দশ, and each takes a classifier when it counts: একটা বই, দুটো বই, তিনজন লোক. The ordinals to tenth are প্রথম, দ্বিতীয়, তৃতীয়, চতুর্থ, পঞ্চম, ষষ্ঠ, সপ্তম, অষ্টম, নবম, দশম. Dates on the Western calendar are written with a day-suffix that is unlike anything in English: ১লা, ২রা, ৩রা, ৪ঠা and then -ই or -শে for the rest - ৫ই, ১৮ই, ২১শে, ২৬শে. This is not a curiosity: ২১শে ফেব্রুয়ারি and ২৬শে মার্চ are how the two dates that matter most in Bangladeshi public life are written and said, and a student who cannot write them cannot write about them. A full date runs ২০২৬ সালের ১৪ই এপ্রিল, on the fourteenth of April 2026, or simply ১৪ই এপ্রিল ২০২৬. Word order, finally, is subject-object-verb, and the verb goes last in every clause; adverbs of time come early, and the postposition follows its noun.

Worked example

Building a numbered, compared, located sentence from English

Translate into Bengali and justify every choice: Of the four newspapers on the table, the second is much older than the first, and I like it more than the others.

Locate the noun phrase and choose its classifier
Newspapers is a counted non-personal noun, so -টা in the singular and -গুলো in the plural. Of the four newspapers is টেবিলের উপরের চারটি খবরের কাগজের মধ্যে - note চারটি rather than চার, and note that মধ্যে, among, takes the genitive.
Turn the location into an adjective
On the table modifies newspapers, not the verb, so it becomes an adjectival postposition with the genitive: টেবিলের উপরের, of-the-table's-upper, which sits before the noun exactly as an adjective would. This is the construction 3.3.8 calls an adjectival postposition.
Handle the ordinals
The second and the first are দ্বিতীয়টি and প্রথমটি - ordinal plus the -টি classifier, which is what supplies the definiteness English gets from the.
Build the comparison
Older than the first puts the standard into the genitive and adds চেয়ে: প্রথমটির চেয়ে অনেক পুরনো. Much is অনেক and stands before the adjective; পুরনো does not change form. Never add -তর here, because that would be the other comparative system.
Build the second comparison as an impersonal
I like it more is not a transitive verb in Bengali. It is impersonal with a genitive experiencer: আমার … ভালো লাগে. More than the others is অন্যগুলোর চেয়ে বেশি. So আমার ওটা অন্যগুলোর চেয়ে বেশি ভালো লাগে.
Assemble with the verb last in each clause
টেবিলের উপরের চারটি খবরের কাগজের মধ্যে দ্বিতীয়টি প্রথমটির চেয়ে অনেক পুরনো, আর আমার ওটা অন্যগুলোর চেয়ে বেশি ভালো লাগে।
Check
Three classifiers present, all genitives before their postpositions, one comparative system only, the impersonal experiencer in the genitive rather than the nominative, and the verb final in both clauses. Those are five separate checks and each takes a few seconds.

Result: টেবিলের উপরের চারটি খবরের কাগজের মধ্যে দ্বিতীয়টি প্রথমটির চেয়ে অনেক পুরনো, আর আমার ওটা অন্যগুলোর চেয়ে বেশি ভালো লাগে। The sentence is not difficult; it simply requires four small systems - classifier, adjectival postposition, comparison, impersonal - to be handled in the right order.

Typical mistakes

Writing তিন ছাত্র for three students instead of তিনজন ছাত্র.
Making the adjective agree - সুন্দরী বই - on a European pattern.
Combining the two comparative systems, as in রামের চেয়ে বৃহত্তর.
Putting the postposition before its noun, as in সঙ্গে আমার.
Dropping the genitive before a genitive-governing postposition: বাড়ি সামনে instead of বাড়ির সামনে.
Writing a date as ২১ ফেব্রুয়ারি in a context that calls for ২১শে ফেব্রুয়ারি, or mixing Western and Bengali digits in the same date.

Active revision

নিচের বাক্যগুলো বাংলায় লিখুন এবং প্রতিটি গণক ও পদান্বয়ী অব্যয় চিহ্নিত করুন: (১) There are three students in front of the school. (২) This book is bigger than that one. (৩) I need a little water. (৪) The meeting is on the twenty-first of February. (৫) I do not like the second film. প্রতিটি বাক্যের শেষে এক বাক্যে লিখুন কোন গণক কেন বেছে নিলেন।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Bengali (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7637 specification (AQA)

অনুবাদ: two translations in two papers, testing two different things#

AdvancedAQA 7637 - 4.4.3 Translation from the target language: at least 100 words, Bengali into English, 10 marks, Paper 1, no dictionaryAQA 7637 - 4.6.3 Translation into Bengali: at least 100 words, English into Bengali, 10 marks, Paper 3, with a supporting text in Bengali giving some of the vocabulary and structures neededAQA 7637 - 4.2 Assessment objectives: across AO1 and AO2 no more than 10 per cent of the qualification's marks may be used for responses in English, including translation into English

The order in which a translation into Bengali is decided

Fig. 6Every decision in the chain constrains the ones after it, which is why taking them in the wrong order costs time. The first node is set in heavier ink because the honorific level fixes every verb ending and every possessive in the passage, and changing it later means rewriting the lot.

The two translations look like one skill and are not. The Paper 1 translation runs from Bengali into English and is marked as comprehension: what the examiner wants to know is whether you understood the Bengali, and the English is the evidence. Its content is drawn from the specification's themes, so the vocabulary will be the vocabulary of migration, education, festivals, digital life and politics that you have been building all year. The Paper 3 translation runs from English into Bengali and is marked as production: what the examiner wants to know is whether you can manipulate the language accurately. That is why the English-into-Bengali translation counts toward AO3 while the Bengali-into-English one counts toward AO2, and it is also why the ceiling on English responses matters - across AO1 and AO2 together, no more than ten per cent of the qualification's marks may come from responses in English, which is precisely why the into-English translation is only 10 of Paper 1's 85 marks and no more.

Bengali into English has a fixed method, and its first step is not reading for meaning. Read the passage once for shape: find the finite verb at the end of each clause, because Bengali is verb-final and the verb tells you the tense and the person before the subject does. Then unpack the constructions English does not have. A genitive experiencer - আমার মনে হয়, তার ভালো লাগে না, তাদের অনেক কষ্ট হয়েছিল - has to become an English subject: it seems to me, he does not like it, they suffered a great deal. Honorific colouring - তিনি, তাঁর, করলেন - has no English equivalent at all and should not be forced into one; a translation that writes the respected gentleman for তিনি has invented a word that is not in the Bengali. Classifiers usually vanish into the or a. And a compound verb translates as an aspect, not as two verbs: পড়ে ফেলল is read right through, not read and threw.

English into Bengali has a different first step: read the supporting text before you read the passage. AQA provides, in Paper 3 and only in Paper 3, a supporting text in Bengali that supplies some of the vocabulary and structures the translation needs. It is not a glossary and it will not sit in the same order as the passage; it is a piece of Bengali on the same subject in which the words you are about to need already appear, correctly spelled, in real constructions. Mining it is legitimate and expected. Two minutes spent underlining the nouns and the verb forms in the supporting text will save you five minutes of guessing at spellings later, and it will also show you which register the passage expects - whether it uses পানি or জল, চাচা or কাকা, and whether the third person is সে or তিনি.

Every translation into Bengali should be decided in a fixed order, and the order is what makes it fast. First, who is speaking to whom - the honorific level, which fixes every verb ending and every possessive in the passage. Second, the tense and aspect of each finite verb, taken from the English tense marker rather than from the English verb. Third, case and postposition for each noun phrase, remembering that the genitive governs most postpositions and carries the experiencer of the impersonals. Fourth, the classifier on every counted or definite noun. Fifth, word order: the verb goes last in its clause, the postposition after its noun, the adjective before its noun. Sixth, a check pass that reads only for one thing at a time - one pass for person, one for tense, one for the চন্দ্রবিন্দু and the নুক্তা, one for classifiers. Six passes over 100 words takes less time than one anxious re-reading, and it catches errors that a single sweep never sees.

Worked example

Bengali into English, phrase by phrase (Paper 1, 10 marks)

Translate: শহরে কাজ পাওয়া সহজ নয়, তবু প্রতি বছর হাজার হাজার তরুণ গ্রাম ছেড়ে ঢাকায় আসে। তাদের অনেকেরই থাকার জায়গা নেই, আর যারা কাজ পায়, তাদেরও বেতন খুব কম। তবু কেউ ফিরে যেতে চায় না।

Find the finite verbs first
নয়, আসে, নেই, পায়, চায় না. Five clauses, and the tenses are: negative zero verb, present, negative existential, present, negative present. Everything is present tense, which tells you at once that this is a general statement about how things are, not a narrative.
Clause one
শহরে কাজ পাওয়া সহজ নয় - literally in-the-city work getting easy is-not. কাজ পাওয়া is a verbal noun phrase, getting work, functioning as the subject. English: It is not easy to find work in the city. Note that নয় is the negative of the zero verb and translates as is not.
Clause two
তবু প্রতি বছর হাজার হাজার তরুণ গ্রাম ছেড়ে ঢাকায় আসে - তবু is nevertheless; হাজার হাজার is the reduplication Bengali uses for thousands upon thousands; গ্রাম ছেড়ে is a perfective participle, having left the village, which English will fold into a main verb. English: Nevertheless, every year thousands of young people leave their villages and come to Dhaka.
Clause three
তাদের অনেকেরই থাকার জায়গা নেই - a genitive-plus-নেই possession construction with the emphatic -ই. Literally of-many-of-them indeed staying's place is-not. English: Many of them have nowhere to live. Do not render নেই as does not exist; English says have no.
Clause four
আর যারা কাজ পায়, তাদেরও বেতন খুব কম - a relative and correlative pair, যারা … তাদের, with -ও, also. English: and even those who do find work are paid very little. Note that the correlative pronoun is in the genitive because বেতন, wage, is the grammatical subject.
Clause five
তবু কেউ ফিরে যেতে চায় না - কেউ … না is nobody; ফিরে যাওয়া is a compound verb, to go back. English: And still nobody wants to go back.
Write it as English
It is not easy to find work in the city, yet every year thousands of young people leave their villages and come to Dhaka. Many of them have nowhere to live, and even those who do find work are paid very little. Still, nobody wants to go back.

Result: The finished English reads as English, which is the point: the marks are for showing you understood the Bengali, and four constructions carried all the meaning - the verbal noun as subject, the negative zero verb, the genitive-plus-নেই possession, and the relative-correlative pair.

Worked example

English into Bengali, using the supporting text (Paper 3, 10 marks)

Translate into Bengali: Many families now depend on money sent home from abroad. If that money stopped, thousands of children would have to leave school. The government says the problem is being addressed, but many parents do not believe it. Assume the supporting text supplies প্রবাসী, রেমিট্যান্স, নির্ভর করা, পড়াশোনা ছেড়ে দেওয়া and সমাধান.

Mine the supporting text before writing anything
Five gifts are sitting there. প্রবাসী is the standard word for a person living abroad and gives you প্রবাসীদের পাঠানো টাকা, money sent by expatriates. রেমিট্যান্স is the everyday loanword. নির্ভর করা is a conjunct verb, to depend, and takes উপর with the genitive. পড়াশোনা ছেড়ে দেওয়া is a compound verb, to give up studying. সমাধান is solution. Underlining these first fixes both spelling and register.
Decide the person
There is no addressee: this is expository prose. So the only person decisions are third-person ones, and the government and parents both take the plain third person as institutions and groups, not তিনি.
Sentence one
Depend on takes নির্ভর করা with the genitive plus উপর: এখন অনেক পরিবার বিদেশ থেকে পাঠানো টাকার উপর নির্ভর করে। পাঠানো is the verbal adjective from পাঠানো, sent; বিদেশ থেকে is from abroad with থেকে, which takes no genitive.
Sentence two: the hypothetical
If that money stopped … would have to leave is a hypothetical condition, and 3.3.9 names the construction: the past habitual used in its conditional sense. যদি ওই টাকা বন্ধ হয়ে যেত, তাহলে হাজার হাজার শিশুকে পড়াশোনা ছেড়ে দিতে হতো। Note শিশুকে in the objective, because obligation with -তে হয় puts its person in the objective, not the nominative.
Sentence three: reported claim and denial
The government says … is being addressed: সরকার বলছে যে সমস্যার সমাধান করা হচ্ছে। The passive is handled by করা হচ্ছে, an impersonal present continuous. But many parents do not believe it: কিন্তু অনেক অভিভাবক তা বিশ্বাস করেন না। অভিভাবক, guardian or parent, is the register word here; বিশ্বাস করা is another conjunct verb, and করেন না keeps the polite ending because parents are being spoken of respectfully.
Assemble and check
এখন অনেক পরিবার বিদেশ থেকে পাঠানো টাকার উপর নির্ভর করে। যদি ওই টাকা বন্ধ হয়ে যেত, তাহলে হাজার হাজার শিশুকে পড়াশোনা ছেড়ে দিতে হতো। সরকার বলছে যে সমস্যার সমাধান করা হচ্ছে, কিন্তু অনেক অভিভাবক তা বিশ্বাস করেন না। Check passes: person consistent, one hypothetical conditional correctly built on the past habitual, genitives before উপর and সমাধান, নুক্তা present in পড়াশোনা and ছেড়ে.

Result: এখন অনেক পরিবার বিদেশ থেকে পাঠানো টাকার উপর নির্ভর করে। যদি ওই টাকা বন্ধ হয়ে যেত, তাহলে হাজার হাজার শিশুকে পড়াশোনা ছেড়ে দিতে হতো। সরকার বলছে যে সমস্যার সমাধান করা হচ্ছে, কিন্তু অনেক অভিভাবক তা বিশ্বাস করেন না। Every one of the five supplied items was used, and the only construction that had to be built from scratch was the hypothetical conditional - which is exactly the kind of thing the supporting text will never give you and the grammar list always does.

Typical mistakes

Translating a Bengali honorific into an English honorific and inventing a politeness the source did not state.
Leaving a genitive experiencer as an English possessive, so that আমার মনে হয় becomes my mind happens.
Ignoring the supporting text and then misspelling a word that was printed correctly two inches away.
Deciding the honorific level halfway through the Bengali translation, so that the first half is আপনি and the second তুমি.
Rendering an English continuous with a Bengali simple present, or an English used to with a Bengali simple past.
Running out of time because the translation was left until last; it is 10 marks in each paper and it is the most predictable task in either.

Active revision

নিচের অনুচ্ছেদটি ইংরেজিতে অনুবাদ করুন, তারপর আপনার অনুবাদ থেকে আবার বাংলায় ফিরে লিখুন এবং দুই বাংলা সংস্করণের পার্থক্য চিহ্নিত করুন: গত দশ বছরে গ্রামের অনেক তরুণ শহরে চলে গেছে। তাদের অনেকের ভালো লাগে না, তবু তারা ফেরে না, কারণ কাজ নেই। যদি গ্রামে কাজ থাকত, তাহলে তারা থেকে যেত।

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Bengali (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7637 specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

AQA A-level Bengali (Listening, Reading, Writing) 7637 specification

ব্যাকরণ ও অনুবাদ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

Key points

Turning a সাধু sentence into চলিত, and why the exam makes you do it

Key points

Choosing a person, and following the choice through a sentence

Key points

Reading an English past and choosing the Bengali tense

Key points

Building a numbered, compared, located sentence from English

Key points

Bengali into English, phrase by phrase (Paper 1, 10 marks)

English into Bengali, using the supporting text (Paper 3, 10 marks)

Sources

ব্যাকরণ ও অনুবাদ: the prescribed grammar and the two translations

Key points

Turning a সাধু sentence into চলিত, and why the exam makes you do it

Key points

Choosing a person, and following the choice through a sentence

Key points

Reading an English past and choosing the Bengali tense

Key points

Building a numbered, compared, located sentence from English

Key points

Bengali into English, phrase by phrase (Paper 1, 10 marks)

English into Bengali, using the supporting text (Paper 3, 10 marks)

Sources