Telugu

Verb

ఉండు • ‎(uṅḍu)

1. to be

   వాడు అందంగా ఉన్నాడు.‎

   vāḍu aṃdaṃgā unnāḍu.

   He is beautiful.

2. to be alive

   వాడు ఇంకా ఉన్నాడా?‎

   vāḍu iṃkā unnāḍā?

   Is he still alive?

3. to reside, dwell

   వారు హైదరాబాద్లో ఉంటారు.‎

   vāru haidarābādlō uṃṭāru.

   They live in Hyderabad.

4. to stay, to remain somewhere

   అక్కడే ఉండు!‎

   akkaḍē uṃḍu!

   Stay there!

Usage notes

The usage of ఉండు does not map exactly to English to be. Telugu is a zero-copula language for sentences whose predicate is a noun, so the translation of the English sentence "My name is John" would not use ఉండు. However, for sentences that in English have adjectives as predicates (like He is beautiful.), Telugu would treat the adjective as an adverb modifying ఉండు, so that the sentence is predicate-less and consists of a subject and a verb phrase.

Conjugation

References

“ఉండు” in Charles Philip Brown (1903) A Telugu-English dictionary, Madras: Promoting Christian Knowledge, page 148