Helper Verbs (کول / کېدل)

Pashto uses a number of helper verbs (auxillary verbs) to form compounds.

The most important ones are these four:

• Intransitive
  • کېدل - kedúl (to happen)
  • کېدل - kedúl (to become ___)
• Transitive
  • کول - kawúl (to do ___)
  • کول - kawúl (to make ___ ___)

Wait, how are these four verbs, and not two?? 🤔🤔 Don't the pairs look exactly the same? When you look at this you may feel like this lady does in this video.

Yes, there really are four separate verbs. You're not seeing double, and this is not a trick. The verbs behave differently and have different meanings. And once we see them in the perfective form we will see that they really do look different too.

Think of these four verbs as four strange friends that you will need to get to know very well. They seem kind of weird at first, but once you get to know them, you won't be able to live without them.

کېدل vs. کېدل

There's a big difference between کېدل - kedúl (to happen) and کېدل - kedúl (to become)!

کېدل - to happen

We use this verb when we're talking about an action/event happening. Notice that the roots and stems are pretty irregular.

Here are some example phrases uses this verb. Try to identify the which roots/stems the examples use and figure out the tense. You can click on the to see the tense and what formula was used. Try playing around with these phrases, and watch how they work with the blocks.

To summarize about this verb کېدل - kedúl (to happen):

• It's intransitive, and only takes a subject (something that happens/occurs)
• It has a و - oo prefix as a perfective head
• We will use it for dynamic compounds, because it talks about an action happening/occuring

کېدل - to become

Here's another verb that looks exactly the same at first, but we'll soon find out that it is quite different. First of all, we'll notice that the roots and stems are different. On the perfective side, there's no و - oo prefix, no perfective head!

And this verb has a completely different meaning as well. We're not talking about something happening, we're talking about something becoming ____. The subject is changed into a state of being ____. And that ____ is what we'll call a complement. For example, in the phrase:

We have:

• A subject: زه - zu (I)
• A complement: خفه - khufa (sad)

So with this verb we add a complement - something that the subject is becoming.

Notice how the if the complement is an adjective in will inflect according to the subject.

Also notice how the complement actually gets welded together with the verb when we're not using the perfective . Check out the blocks .

When we get start using the perfective aspect of this verb, we notice that it starts looking really different from کېدل - kedúl (to happen).

Notice how now there's no و - óo prefix! Instead the complement stays seperate from the verb and fills in an holds the same place as a perfective head would in a different verb. Have a look at the blocks .

To summarize about this verb کېدل - kedúl (to become)

• It's intransitive and takes:
  • a subject (something this is changed)
  • a complement (a word that describes the change)
• The complement is welded together with the verb کېدل - kedúl (to happen) when we're not using the perfective .
• The verb doesn't take an و - óo prefix in the perfective, instead, the complement splits off and is used just like a perfective head

کول vs. کول

کول - to do

The verb کول - kawúl (to do) is like the transitive brother of کېدل - kedúl (to happen). It's also used to talk about actions happening but this one takes a subject and an object.

• a subject - the doer of the action
• an object - the action/activity the subject does

Like its brother کېدل - kedúl (to happen), this verb also has an و - oo prefix as a perfective head.

To summarize about this verb کېدل - kedúl (to happen):

• It's transitive, so it takes:
  • a subject (the doer of the action)
  • an object (the action/activity the subject does)
• It has a و - oo prefix as a perfective head
• We will use it for dynamic compounds, because it talks about doing an action/activity

کول - to make

The verb کول - kawúl (to make) is like the transitive brother of کېدل - kedúl (to become). It's also used to talk about actions something changing state, but this time it's transitive so we have an object as well.

• a subject - the actor who changes/affects the object
• an object - the thing that gets changed/transformed
• a complement - a word that describes the change done to the object

For example with the phrase "You're making me hungry" we have these three parts:

• subject - "You"
• object - "Me"
• complement - "Hungry"

The subject "you" put the object "me" into a new state: "hungry"

Have a look at the roots and stems for کول - kawúl (to make)

Like its brother کېدل - kedúl (to become), this verb also has no و - oo prefix. Instead we will use the complement in the exact same way.

• with the imperfective / past participle
  • 👨🏻‍🏭 weld the complementtogether with the verb in one block
• with the perfective
  • keep the complementseparate, sitting as a perfective head in front of the verb

Notice how if the complement is an adjective it will inflect according the object.

Notice how with the imperfective/past participle the complementis welded together with the verb, but with the perfective it's separate.

To summarize about this verb کول - kawúl (to make):

• It's intransitive and takes:
  • a subject (something that is acting on the object)
  • an object (something that is changed)
  • a complement (a word that describes the change)
• The complement is welded together with the verb کول - kawúl (to make) when we're not using the perfective .
• The verb doesn't take an و - óo prefix in the perfective, instead, the complement splits off and is used just like a perfective head

Summary Chart

We learned a lot about these four special verbs. Let's summarize it all in a neat little chart that shows how they're related...