An Illustrated Guide to Compound Verbs in Pashto

About 70% of verbs in Pashto are compound verbs. Although they’re incredibly common, they can also be very confusing for language learners. This article aims to clear up some of the confusion by explaining compound verbs visually, as two kinds of simple machines.

What is a compound verb?

A compound verb is a verb that’s made by combining a verb and something else (a complement).

Here are a few of examples:

What’s confusing about compound verbs?

As soon as someone starts hearing or using these verbs, a number of questions come up.

• Why do some of the verbs get glued together into one word, and some stay as two seperate words?
• Why do some verbs with کول - kawul take a و - óo prefix and some don’t?
• In the past tense, why does the conjugation on some verbs never change?
• Why do some verbs take objects, and others only take indirect objects?

It can seem like these are just unexplainable idiosyncracies that have to be memorized for each verb, but that’s not the case!

All of these confusing questions melt away once we realize that there are basically two kinds of compound verbs.

If you find this article helpful you can find much more in the LingDocs Pashto Grammar and LingDocs Pashto Dictionary.

The two types of compound verbs

1. Stative Compounds

Stative compounds are about “making” something something. You can think of these verbs as transformer machines. They take an object and do something that transforms it, or puts it in a different state.

For example, the verb پخول - pakhawul (to cook):

2. Dynamic Compounds

Dynamic compounds are about “doing” something. Think of these as an action machines. They have a built-in object which is an action or activity that they do.

For example, the verb کار کول - kaar kawul (to work):

There are also intransitive versions of these, but we’ll get to that later.

Stative Compound	Dynamic Compound
"Making" Compound	"Doing" Compound
Transformer Machine	Action Machine

From the diagrams and examples we can see that these two kinds of compounds behave quite differently. The most obvious difference is that:

• stative compounds take an outside object
• dynamic compounds have an object included inside them

We will see more differences when we look at each kind of compound in detail. Once we understand the unique behaviors of each type of machine, all the confusion about different compound verbs behaving differently will disappear.

How do the two kinds of compounds work?

1. Stative compounds

Stative compounds take the complement part of the verb and apply it to an object so that the object is changed or put in a different state.

Always use کول - kawul (to make)

Transitive stative compounds always use use the word کول - kawul (to make) to change an object, or put it in a different state. In other words, they take an object and “make it ____“.

The کول - kawul verb used by these compounds will never, ever, ever take a و - óo prefix.

The complement is often an adjective, as in the following example: خفه کول - khufa kawúl (to upset)

If the adjective is inflectable, it will inflect based on the object

Let’s take a look at the verb ستړی کول - stúRey kawúl (to tire).

If we’re using a feminine object هغه - haghá (her), we need to inflect the complement/adjective ستړی - stúRey (tired) to ستړې - stúRe.

When the complement ends in a consonant, it often fuses together with کول

Let’s have a look at the verb بندول - bandawúl (to close).

The adjective/complement بند - band (closed) ends in a consonant, so in the imperfective aspect, the ک - k from کول - kawul gets dropped and the two words get fused together.

Notice how when the words are stuck together, it’s impossible to inflect the adjective.

In the perfective aspect and in the perfect tense however, the words always break apart and stay seperate. Then the adjective must be inflected according to the object if possible.

Some adjectives will get crunched when fusing with کول

Many adjectives get crunched into a shorter version when they fuse together with کول - kawúl (to make) in the imperfective forms.

For example if we use the irregular adjective پوخ - pokh (cooked), we know that the inflections are:

And when we combine this inflectable adjective with the verb they get fused together like this:

If we are cooking الوګان - aloogaan (potatoes), then پوخ - pokh will inflect to پاخه - paakhu because potatoes are masculine plural.

The complement can also be an noun or adverb

It seems weird, but the complement in stative compounds can also be a noun or an adverb, and when it is it’s used sort of like an adjective.

For example the verb “to explain” is a combonation of:

It might seem illogical for us to say, “I made my story explanation,” but that’s exactly what Pashto does.

Note that when the complement is not an adjective, it doesn’t inflect.

Reviewing stative compounds

So far we’ve learned the inner workings of one type of machine: the “transformer machine” aka stative compound.

To review all the behaviours of the stative compounds, we know that they:

• Always use کول - kawul (to make) as the verb
• The complement can be an adjective, noun, or adverb
• If the complement is an adjective, it will inflect according to the object
• Infinitive/imperfective forms (almost always) fuse together when the complement ends in a consonant

2. Dynamic compounds

Dynamic compounds are actually a lot easier. These “action machines” are much simpler, because they have less moving parts.

The object is included in the compound

The most important thing to know about these verbs is that they don’t take any outside object. The object of the sentence is already included in the compound. The object will always be a noun, which will be some sort of action or activity to be done.

For instance, if you have a sentence or a clause with the verb کار کول - kaar kawúl (to work) then کار - kaar (work) will always be the object, and the only object. This makes things simpler especially when it comes to past tense.

They use کول - kawul (to do)

While stative compounds used کول - kawul (to make), dynamic compounds use کول - kawul (to do). These may look like the same verb, but they’re not! They mean different things, behave differently, and in the perfective forms they diverge.

Stative compounds "transformer machines"	Dynamic compounds "action machines"
use only کول kawúl "to make ____ ____"	use کول kawúl "to do ____" and other verbs too
کول - kawúl (to make) never takes a و - óo (perfective prefix)	کول - kawúl (to do) always takes a و - óo (perfective prefix)

Unlike کول - kawúl (to make), کول - kawúl (to do) does take a و - óo (perfective prefix) in the perfective forms.

Let’s look at the verb کار کول - kaar kawul (to work):

The words always stay seperate

With dynamic compounds, the complement and verb never ever get fused together. For example کار کول - kaar kawul can never get squished together to become کارول - kaarawul. In fact, کارول - kaarawul (to use) is actually a completely different non-compound verb.

There can’t be any other objects!

It’s important to remember that with dynamic compounds the object is inside the compound, so you can’t have a direct object anywhere else in the sentence or clause. But “indirect objects” are often exrpessed through words connected with prepositional phrases (sandwiches).

For example, in English we might say “I am serving my father.” Father is the direct object. But in Pashto we can say:

Here خدمت - khidmat (service) is the direct object and پلار - plaar (father) is like an indirect object, related to the verb through a prepositional phrase د ... - du ....

Other verbs can be used

With dynamic compounds other verbs like وهل - wahul (to hit) or خوړل - khoRúl (to eat) can also be used as the verb in the “action machine”.

For example, the verb منډې وهل - múnDe wahúl (to run):

The object / complement in this verb is منډې - múnDe (runs), which is feminine plural. So, in the past tense the verb will always be conjugated 3rd person feminine plural.

If you find this article helpful you can find much more in the LingDocs Pashto Grammar and LingDocs Pashto Dictionary.

Reviewing stative and dynamic compounds

Remember all those weird different behaviours that we mentioned at the beginning? Once we realize there are these two different types of compound verbs, represented by two different kinds of “machines,” we can see that each of the two has a distinct set of behaviours.

Stative Compound	Dynamic Compound
Transformer Machine	Action Machine
Takes an outside object	Includes the object in the compound
Uses کول (to make), which never takes a و - óo (perfective prefix)	Uses کول (to do), which does take a و - óo (perfective prefix), or other verbs
The complement can be an adjective, noun, or adverb	The complement can only be a noun
The complement gets applied to the object	The complement is the object
Does something that changes the object	Does an action or activity, which is the object
Often joins the two words together if the complement ends in a consonant	The two words never get joined together
If the complement is an adjective, it inflects according to the object	The complement is the object, so it doesn't inflect

Some verbs can be both!

Some verbs can be used either as stative or dynamic compounds. For example, with استري کول - istree kawul (to iron), you could either use it as:

• a stative compound
  • as in “to iron ____” (to make something ironed)
• a dynamic compound
  • as in “to do ironing” (to do the activity of ironing)

Ironing with the stative version

If we say we are ironing a shirt (object):

In these sentences قمیس - qamees (shirt) is the object, so in the past tense the verb agrees with it (3rd person masc. singular). Also notice that the و - óo (perfective prefix) is not used.

Ironing with the dynamic version

If we just wanted to say that we did ironing (object):

In these sentences استري - istree (ironing) is the object, so in the past tense the verb agrees with it (3rd person fem. singular).

Also notice that the و - óo (perfective prefix) is used. It would be wrong to wrong to say ما استري کړه - maa istree kRa (I did ironing) ❌.

قتل کول - qátil kawul is another example of a verb that can be used either statively or dynamically. (with or without an outside object)

A few weird exceptions

There are a few verbs like:

• چيغه کول - cheegha kawul (to scream)
• منډه کول - múnDa kawul (to run)
• نارې کول - naare kawul (to cry out)
• غږ کول - ghuG kawul (to call out)

That can either be used as dynamic compounds or as stative compounds as if there was an implied complement.

To think of it differently, they can basically function as dynamic compounds with or without the و - óo prefix. Well, it was almost all perfectly logical, sorry. Language can get weird. 🤷‍♂️

EDIT: Actually, I think I figured out what's happening here and it's very logical! 🤓 Will write more here soon!

Intransitive versions

So far we’ve only talked about the tranisitive version of these two types of compounds/machines.

There is also an intransitive version of these machines, for when you are just talking about:

• something being transformed/changed (stative)
• some action happening (dynamic)

…but are not mentioning the person or thing that’s doing the action.

Instransitive stative compounds

These follow all the same rules and behaviours as the transitive versions, except that there’s only a subject, and no object.

These verbs use the intranisitive equivalent to کول - kawúl (to make) which is کېدل - kedúl (to become).

Notice how with this verb, just as with کول - kawúl (to make), there is no و - óo (perfective prefix).

All these compounds will have the same characteristics as the transitive “transformer machines” that we saw earlier. The only difference is that there’s no subject pressing the button and doing the action of transforming. There’s just a subject that goes through and is changed.

For these intransitive transformer machines all the other behaviours apply:

• There’s no و - óo (perfective prefix) used
• If the complement is an adjective it will inflect (for the subject now)
• Complements ending in a consonant will get joined together with the verb
• Adjectives, nouns, and adverbs can be used as complements

Here are the intransitive versions of all the other examples above:

NOTE: These are not “passive forms” of verbs. That’s whole other form that we won’t deal with in this article.

Intransitive dynamic compounds

If a dynamic compound is made with کول - kawul (to do) then you can also make an intransitive version of it with کېدل - kedúl (to happen). This way you will be talking about an action happening, without mentioning who was doing it.

The verb used is کېدل - kedúl (to happen), which is the intransitive equivalent of کول - kawul (to do). It *does* take a و - óo (perfective prefix)

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