Anonymous asked: Namaste! Aap kaise hain? I have a little question. Lots of times when I read Hindi articles, I come across the word "लिए", or some conjugation of it. What does it mean exactly and what is it's purpose? For example: माता पिता अपने बेटे के लिए खुश हैं. What does "Liye" mean here?

Thank you :D!

नमस्ते मैं अच्छा हूँ, धन्यवाद. और आप? namaste main acchaa hoon, dhayavaad. aur aap? Thank you for the question, I’d love to help! 

We usually use the word लिए lie together with the word के ke, as in your example, to give us - के लिए ke lie. This is a Compound Postposition (just like the ones we learnt in Lesson #96) and it means ‘for’! So going back to your example…

                     माता पिता अपने बेटे के लिए खुश हैं
                              maataa pitaa apne bete ke lie khush hain

What does this mean? Well let’s break it down; माता पिता maataa pitaa - Mother and Father (or the parents), अपने बेटे apne bete - Their son, के लिए ke lie - for (as we’ve just learnt!) and the finally खुश हैं khush hain - are happy. Or if we put it all together - The Mother and Father are happy for their son. 

However लिए lie can have another meaning! It’s also the Plural Masculine Past Tense conjugation of the verb लेना lenaa - To take. Or more simply, लिए lie  can also mean ‘took’! So for example we might say…

            मैंने दो केले लिए mainne do kele lie - I took two bananas.

For more Information on this use and for a few more examples please see Lesson #88! 

So how do you know which is which? Well it just takes a bit of getting used to! If you see the word के before ie, you have के लिए ke lie then it’s for! Otherwise it might be either depending on a few other things. I can explain this in more detail if you would like me to. But I don’t want to bore you now! I really hope that helps and please feel fee to ask me any other questions if you have them!

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