When to use it
Use it to check whether guests or relatives you were expecting arrived.
“Did they arrive last night?” — The sentence in English
In “Did they arrive last night?” ‘Did’ carries the past and ‘arrive’ stays in base form.
- Did
- auxiliary verbdo · tense: past · auxiliary that makes a question in the past
- they
- pronounpersonal pronoun, third person plural
- arrive
- verbarrive · form: base form (infinitive without "to") · after "did" the verb stays in its base form
- last
- adjectiveadjective; "last night" means the night before today
- night
- nounnoun
“ते काल रात्री पोहोचले का?” — The sentence in Marathi
In “ते काल रात्री पोहोचले का?” the past is in the verb ‘पोहोचले’ (arrived), whose ‘-ले’ is plural. ‘काल रात्री’ (yesterday night) is last night.
- ते
- pronoun'they'
- काल
- adverb'yesterday'
- रात्री
- noun'at night'; kāl rātrī = last night
- पोहोचले
- verbpohocṇe · tense: past · number: plural · 'arrived', plural for te
- का
- particlequestion particle
English × Marathi: What changes from one language to the other
English needs ‘did’; Marathi changes the verb, and puts the time before it.
Example conversation
— ते काल रात्री पोहोचले का?
— Did they arrive last night?
— हो, मध्यरात्रीच्या सुमारास; गाडी उशिरा आली.
— Yes, around midnight; the train was late.