लगना in Hindi: “seem”, “feel”, “take” and six other jobs

लगना (lagna) is one of the most common verbs in Hindi and it has no single English translation. Its core sense is “to be applied to” or “to attach”, and from that it covers seeming (मुझे लगता है, “it seems to me”), feeling (भूख लगी है, “I’m hungry”), taking time (दो घंटे लगेंगे, “it’ll take two hours”), costing, getting hurt, liking, and starting to do something.

The thread running through all of them is that something happens to you rather than being done by you. That is why the person is almost always marked with को — मुझे, तुम्हें, उसे — and never appears as a plain subject. It is the pattern under most of the phrases for illness and pain, where the symptom does the acting and you are on the receiving end.

The rule that unlocks all of them

In a लगना sentence, the verb does not agree with the person. It agrees with the thing being felt, seemed or taken. This is the same dative pattern behind चाहिए and it trips up every learner at least once.

मुझे लगती हूँ is never correct. The speaker is not the subject of लगना, so the verb can never take a हूँ ending in agreement with मैं. If you find yourself reaching for a first-person ending, the sentence has gone wrong.

1. To think, to seem

मुझे लगता है is how Hindi says “I think” in the sense of “it seems to me”. It is softer than सोचना, which is thinking as a deliberate activity, and it is what people actually use to offer an opinion.

• मुझे लगता है कि वह नहीं आएगा — I think he won’t come.
• आपको क्या लगता है? — what do you think?
• ऐसा लगता है कि बारिश होगी — it looks like it’ll rain.

Without को it means “to seem” about a thing rather than to a person: वह बीमार लगता है, “he looks ill”. यह अच्छा लगता है, “this looks good”.

2. Hunger, thirst, fear, cold

Physical and emotional states are things that happen to you in Hindi, and लगना is the verb that delivers them. मैं भूखा हूँ is the classic learner error — the natural sentence is मुझे भूख लगी है.

This is one of the seven errors listed in common Hindi mistakes, and it belongs to the same family as the possession patterns in Hindi has no verb “to have” — states arrive at you, they are not things you are.

3. To like

अच्छा लगना means “to feel good to someone”, which is how Hindi says you like something. It sits alongside पसंद होना, and the difference is real: अच्छा लगना is the momentary feeling, पसंद है is the settled preference.

अच्छा agrees with the thing liked, not with you — मुझे यह किताब अच्छी लगती है, because किताब is feminine.

4. To take time

For duration, लगना is the only natural verb. There is no Hindi equivalent of “it takes” using करना.

• कितना समय लगेगा? — how long will it take?
• दो घंटे लगेंगे — it’ll take two hours.
• मुझे आने में देर लगी — it took me a while to get here.

5. To cost

पैसे लगना is what something costs you in effort or money, distinct from asking a price. कितने पैसे लगेंगे? means “how much will it come to?”, while कितने का है? asks what an item is priced at.

6. To get hurt

चोट लगना is the standard way to say someone was injured. The person takes को and the injury does the arriving: उसे चोट लग गई, “he got hurt”. There is no way to say it that makes the person the agent, which is arguably more accurate about how injuries work.

7. To begin — the one that changes the grammar

Put an oblique infinitive in front of लगना and it stops meaning anything about feeling and means “started to”. जाना becomes जाने, so वह जाने लगा means “he started to go”. This is the same oblique-infinitive shape that वाला takes.

In this use there is no को on the person, because the subject really is doing the action — वह रोने लगा, not उसे रोने लगा. It is the one लगना construction that behaves like an ordinary verb.

The short version

• The person takes को; the verb agrees with the thing, never with the person.
• मुझे लगता है — I think, it seems to me.
• मुझे भूख लगी है — I’m hungry. Not मैं भूखा हूँ.
• मुझे अच्छा लगता है — I like it.
• दो घंटे लगेंगे — it’ll take two hours.
• चोट लगना — to get hurt.
• Oblique infinitive plus लगना — started to: वह जाने लगा.