• An introduction to Bengali
  • Colloquial Bengali
  • Bengali Proverbs and Idioms
  • Bengali Writing Test
  • Bengali Speaking Courses

Course Outline
  1. Introduction
    1. Bengali? The actual Definition
    2. Bengali speakers
    3. Romanisation
    4. Learning Bengali
    5. Dictionaries and HandBooks
    6. Linguistic literature on Bengali
  2. Chapter 1: Pronunciation
    1. Consonants
    2. Vowels and diphthongs
    3. Tones
    4. Stress
  3. Chapter 2 The writing system
    1. 2.1 Consonants 11
    2. 2.2 Consonants by class 14
    3. 2.3 Vowels 14
    4. 2.4 Live syllables and dead syllables 15
    5. 2.5 Tone rules 16
    6. 2.6 Miscellaneous 19
  4. Chapter 3 Nouns, classifiers and noun phrases 23
    1. 3.1 Proper nouns 23
    2. 3.2 Common nouns 
    3. 3.3 Making new nouns 25
    4. 3.4 Noun phrases and classifiers 31
    5. 3.5 Word order in noun phrases 33
  5. Chapter 4 Pronouns 39
    1. 4.1 Personal pronouns: basics 39
    2. 4.2 Reflexive pronouns 47
    3. 4.3 Emphatic pronoun 48
    4. 4.4 Reciprocal: ‘each other’ 49
    5. 4.5 Possessive pronouns 50
    6. 4.6 Demonstrative pronouns 50
    7. 4.7 Interrogative pronouns 51
    8. 4.8 Indefinite pronouns 51
    9. 4.9 Relative pronouns 54
  6. Chapter 5 Verbs 56
    1. 5.1 The verb ‘to be’ 56
    2. 5.2 Stative verbs 59
    3. 5.3 Verb compounds 59
    4. 5.4 Resultative verbs 60
    5. 5.5 Directional verbs 61
    6. 5.6 Modal verbs 63
    7. 5.7 Time and aspect 67
    8. 5.8 Passives 74
    9. 5.9 Verbs of utterance, mental activity and perception  with wâa 7
    10. 5.10 Verbs of emotion with thîi 77
    11. 5.11 Causatives 77
    12. 5.12 ‘To give’: direct and indirect objects 80
    13. 5.13 Verb serialization 81
  7. Chapter 6 Adjectives (stative verbs) and adjectival constructions 83
    1. 6.1 Compound adjectives 84
    2. 6.2 Modification of adjectives 85
    3. 6.3 Special intensifiers 87
    4. 6.4 Reduplication 89
    5. 6.5 Comparison of adjectives 
  9. Chapter 7 Adverbs and adverbial constructions 
    1. 7.1 Adverbs of manner 96
    2. 7.2 Modification of adverbs 100
    3. 7.3 Comparison of adverbs 101
    4. 7.4 Adverbs of time 103
    5. 7.5 Adverbs of frequency 104
    6. 7.6 Adverbs of degree 105
  10. Chapter 8 Location markers and other prepositions 108
    1. 8.1 Location: thîi and yùu 108
    2. 8.2 ‘To’ 111
    3. 8.3 ‘For’ 111
    4. 8.4 ‘By’ 113
    5. 8.5 ‘With’ 114
    6. 8.6 ‘From’ 115
    7. Chapter 9 Clauses and sentences 116
    8. 9.1 Word order and topicalisation 116
    9. 9.2 Subordinate clauses 118
    10. 9.3 Direct and indirect speech 123
    11. 9.4 Imperatives 123
    12. 9.5 Exemplification 124
    13. 9.6 Exclamatory particles 125
    14. Chapter 10 Sentence particles 126
    15. 10.1 Question particles 126
    16. 10.2 Polite particles 126
    17. 10.3 Mood particles 129
    18. Chapter 11 Negation 138
    19. 11.1 Negating main verbs 138
    20. 11.2 Negating resultative verbs 139
    21. 11.3 Negating auxiliary verbs 140
    22. 11.4 mây dây + VERB (PHRASE) 142
    23. 11.5 mây chây + NOUN 143
    24. 11.6 mây mii 144
    25. 11.7 Modifying negatives: intensifying and softening 144