Where would songs be without compound verb expressions like दिल ले गया, प्यार हो गया, and so on? Nowhere, certainly, and compound verbs are quite common in regular conversation, too, which makes it quite essential to have a firm grasp on their usage.

आना and जाना are commonly used in compound verbal expressions. Not surprisingly, they imply a sense of coming towards or going away, respectively. They are often used with verbs of direction. For example, लौट आना means "to come back," where लौट जाना instead means "to go back." Here are some other verbs of direction:

• चढ़ना = to ascend
  • चढ़ आना = to come up
  • चढ़ जाना = to go up
• उतरना = to descend
  • उतर आना = to come down
  • उतर जाना = to go down
• निकलना = to be taken out, to emerge
  • निकल आना = to come out
  • निकल जाना = to go out

Also take note of ले आना, "to bring," and ले जाना, "to take away." It is this ले जाना from which the ले गया in the title of the article was derived.

Other expressions make use of जाना in a more figurative sense of "going away," in that they refer to a sense of change of state, completing a task, or a transition. For example:

हो जाना	To become
पी जाना	To drink up
खा जाना	To eat up
मिल जाना	To meet up, to find
समझ जाना	To realize
बैठ जाना	To sit down

As can be seen from the table, the adding the word "up" to the verb in English often conveys an approximate sense of the Hindi meaning. This not a hard and fast rule, but it may be useful in understanding these expressions.

Oddly enough, आना can even be used with जाना, giving आ जाना, with the connotations of "to turn up, to arrive."

Another pair of verbs used to convey a sense of directionality, much like आना and जाना, are लेना and देना. In this case, adding लेना gives a sense of directing an action inward and/or doing it for one's own benefit, where देना conveys a message of directing an action outward and/or doing it for someone else's benefit.

ने is rarely used in constructions like these, only being required when both elements of the compound verb expression require its use. Thus, it is never used with आना and जाना, and only used with लेना and देना when joined with a verb that also requires ने.