Hindustani, the lingua franca of Northern India and Pakistan, has two standardised registers: Hindi and Urdu. Grammatical differences between the two standards are minor but each uses its own script: Hindi uses Devanagari while Urdu uses an extended form of the Perso-Arabic script, typically in the Nastaʿlīq style.
On this grammar page, Hindustani is written in the transcription outlined in . Being "primarily a system of transliteration from the Indian scripts, [and] based in turn upon Sanskrit" (cf. IAST), these are its salient features: subscript dots for retroflex consonants; macrons for etymologically, contrastively long vowels; h for aspirated plosives; and tildes for nasalised vowels.
See main article: Hindustani phonology. The sounds presented in parentheses in the tables below signify they are only found in loanwords from either Persian or Sanskrit. More information about phonology of Hindustani can be read on Hindustani phonology and IPA/Hindi and Urdu.
Hindustani natively possesses a symmetrical ten-vowel system. The vowels [ə], [ɪ], [ʊ] are always short in length, while the vowels [ɑː], [iː], [uː], [eː], [oː], [ɛː], [ɔː] are always considered long, in addition to an eleventh vowel /æː/ which is found in English loanwords.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| long | short | short | long | |||||||||||||||||
| IPA | script | IPA | script | IPA | script | IPA | script | IPA | script | |||||||||||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | ī | ई | اِیْ | pronounced as /link/ | i | इ | اِ | pronounced as /link/ | u | उ | اُ | pronounced as /link/ | ū | ऊ | اُوْ | ||||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | e | ए | اِےْ | pronounced as /link/ | o | ओ | اُوْ | ||||||||||||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | ai | ऐ | اَےْ | (pronounced as /link/) | ê | ऍ | اْ | pronounced as /link/ | a | अ | اَ | (pronounced as /link/) | ô | ऑ | pronounced as /link/ | au | औ | اَوْ | |
| Open | (pronounced as /link/) | æ | pronounced as /link/ | ā | आ | آ | ||||||||||||||
pronounced as /[ɛ]/ occurs as a conditional allophone of pronounced as //ə// (schwa) in proximity to pronounced as //ɦ//, if and only if the pronounced as //ɦ// is surrounded on both sides by two schwas. and is realised as separate vowel. For example, in pronounced as //kəɦ(ə)naː// (Hindi: कहना – Urdu: {{nastaliq|کَہنا 'to say'), the pronounced as //ɦ// is surrounded on both sides by schwa, hence both the schwas will become fronted to short pronounced as /[ɛ]/, giving the pronunciation pronounced as /[kɛɦɛnaː]/. Syncopation of phonemic middle schwa can further occur to give pronounced as /[kɛɦ.naː]/.
Similarly, pronounced as /[ɔ]/ occurs as a conditional allophone of pronounced as //ə// and pronounced as //ʊ// in proximity to pronounced as //ɦ//, specifically when they occur in the sequence pronounced as //əɦʊ//, pronounced pronounced as /[ɔɦɔ]/. For example, the word pronounced as //bəɦʊt// (Hindi: बहुत – Urdu: {{nastaliq|بہت 'many') is pronounced pronounced as /[bɔɦɔt]/.
Hindustani has a core set of 28 consonants inherited from earlier Indo-Aryan. Supplementing these are two consonants that are internal developments in specific word-medial contexts, and seven consonants originally found in loan words, whose expression is dependent on factors such as status (class, education, etc.) and cultural register (Modern Standard Hindi vs Urdu).
pronounced as /[v]/ and pronounced as /[w]/ are allophones in Hindustani. These are distinct phonemes in English, but both are allophones of the phoneme pronounced as //ʋ// in Hindustani (written (Hindi: व) in Hindi or (Urdu: {{nastaliq|و) in Urdu), including loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin. More specifically, they are conditional allophones, i.e. rules apply on whether (Hindi: व) is pronounced as pronounced as /[v]/ or pronounced as /[w]/ depending on context. Native Hindi speakers pronounce (Hindi: व) as pronounced as /[v]/ in (Hindi: व्रत – Urdu: {{nastaliq|ورت, 'vow') and pronounced as /[w]/ in (Hindi: पकवान – Urdu: {{nastaliq|پکوان 'food dish'), treating them as a single phoneme and without being aware of the allophonic distinctions, though these are apparent to native English speakers. The rule is that the consonant is pronounced as semivowel pronounced as /[w]/ in onglide position, i.e. between an onset consonant and a following vowel.
Consonants and vowels are outlined in the table below. Hovering the mouse cursor over them will reveal the appropriate IPA information, while in the rest of the article hovering the mouse cursor over forms will reveal the appropriate English translation.
| Labial | Dental / Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | script | IPA | script | IPA | script | IPA | script | IPA | script | IPA | script | IPA | script | |||||||||||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | m | म | م | pronounced as /link/ | n | न | ن | pronounced as /link/ | ṇ | ण | ݨ | (pronounced as /link/) | ñ | ञ | نیْ | pronounced as /link/ | ṅ | ङ | ن٘گ | ||||||||||
| Plosiveand | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | p | प | پ | pronounced as /link/ | t | त | ت | pronounced as /link/ | ṭ | ट | ٹ | pronounced as /link/ | c | च | چ | pronounced as /link/ | k | क | ک | (pronounced as /link/) | q | क़ | ق | |||||
| voiceless aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ | ph | फ | پھ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | th | थ | تھ | pronounced as /ʈʰ/ | ṭh | ठ | ٹھ | pronounced as /tʃʰ/ | ch | छ | چھ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | kh | ख | کھ | ||||||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | b | ब | ب | pronounced as /link/ | d | द | د | pronounced as /link/ | ḍ | ड | ڈ | pronounced as /link/ | j | ज | ج | pronounced as /link/ | g | ग | گ | ||||||||||
| voiced aspirated | pronounced as /bʱ/ | bh | भ | بھ | pronounced as /dʱ/ | dh | ध | دھ | pronounced as /ɖʱ/ | ḍh | ढ | ڈھ | pronounced as /dʒʱ/ | jh | झ | جھ | pronounced as /ɡʱ/ | gh | घ | گھ | ||||||||||
| Flapand | voiced trill | pronounced as /link/ | r / rr | र / र्र | ر/ رّ | pronounced as /link/ | ṛ | ड़ | ڑ | |||||||||||||||||||||
| voiced trill aspirated | pronounced as /ɽʱ/ | ṛh | ढ़ | ڑھ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| voiced tap[1] | pronounced as /ink/ | r | र | ر | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | f | फ़ | ف | pronounced as /link/ | s | स | س | (ʂ) | ṣ | ष | شؕ | pronounced as /link/ | ś | श | ش | (pronounced as /link/) | x | ख़ | خ | pronounced as /link/ | h | ह | ہ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | v / w | व | و | pronounced as /link/ | z | ज़ | ز | (pronounced as /link/) | zh | झ़ | ژ | (pronounced as /link/) | ġ | ग़ | غ | ||||||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | l | ल | ل | pronounced as /link/ | y | य | ی | ||||||||||||||||||||||
See also: Hindustani declension.
Hindustani distinguishes two genders (masculine and feminine), two noun types (count and non-count), two numbers (singular and plural), and three cases (nominative, oblique, and vocative).[2] Nouns may be further divided into two classes based on declension, called type-I, type-II, and type-III. The basic difference between the two categories is that the former two have characteristic terminations in the nominative singular while the latter does not.
The table below displays the suffix paradigms. A hyphen symbol (for the marked type-I) denotes change from the original termination to another (for example laṛkā to laṛke in the masculine singular oblique), whereas a plus sign (for the unmarked type-II) denotes an ending which should be added (seb to sebõ in the masculine plural oblique). -Ø denotes that no suffix is added to the noun stem. The next table of noun declensions shows the above noun case paradigms in action.
| Singular | Plural | Translation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Oblique | Vocative | Nominative | Oblique | Vocative | |||
| I | -ā laṛkā | -e laṛke | -e laṛke | -õ laṛkõ | -o laṛko | boy | ||
| II | -ī ādmī | -iyõ ādmiyõ | -iyo ādmiyo | man | ||||
| -ū cāqū | -uõ cāquõ | -uo cāquo | knife | |||||
| III | -Ø seb | +õ sebõ | +o sebo | apple | ||||
| I | -ī, -i, -iyā laṛkī | -iyā̃ laṛkīyā̃ | -iyõ laṛkīyõ | -iyo laṛkīyo | girl | |||
| II | -Ø bhāṣā | +ẽ bhāṣāẽ | +õ bhāṣāõ | +o bhāṣāo | language | |||
Notesː
Adjectives may be divided into declinable and indeclinable categories.[4] Declinables are marked, through termination, for the gender, number, case of the nouns they qualify. The set of declinable adjective terminations is similar but greatly simplified in comparison to that of noun terminations. Indeclinable adjectives are completely invariable, and can end in either consonants or vowels (including ā and ī ). A number of declinables display nasalisation of all terminations. Nominative masculine singular form (-ā) is the citation form.
All adjectives can be used either attributively, predicatively, or substantively. Substantively they are declined as nouns rather than adjectives. The semblative postposition sā is used with adjectives for modifying or lightening their meaning; giving them an "-ish", "-esque", "like", or "quite" sense. e.g. nīlā "blue" → nīlā sā "bluish". Its emphasis is rather ambiguous, sometimes enhancing, sometimes toning down, the sense of the adjective.
| Singular | Plural | Translation | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Oblique | Vocative | Nominative | Oblique | Vocative | |||||
| Declinable | I | -ā acchā | -e acche | good | ||||||
| -īacchī | ||||||||||
| II | -yā̃dāyā̃ | -yẽdāyẽ | right (direction) | |||||||
| -yī̃dāyī̃ | ||||||||||
| Indeclinable | -Ølāl | red | ||||||||
Comparisons are made by using the instrumental postposition se (see below) the noun takes the oblique case and the combination of "noun + postposition" gets the instrumental case, and words like aur, zyādā ("more") and kam ("less") are added for relative comparisons. The word for "more" (zyādā) is optional, while "less" (kam) is required, so that in the absence of either, "more" will be inferred.
In the absence of an object of comparison the word for "more" is now no longer optional:
Superlatives are made through comparisons with sab ("all") with the instrumental postposition se as the suffix. Comparisons using "least" are rare; it is more common to use an antonym.
In Sanskritised and Persianised registers of Hindustani, comparative and superlative adjectival forms using suffixes derived from those languages can be found.
| English | Sanskrit | Persian | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comparative | -er | -tar | ||
| Superlative | -est | -tam | -tarīn | |
See main article: Hindustani numerals. The numeral systems of several of the Indo-Aryan languages, including Hindustani and Nepali, are typical decimal systems, but contracted to the extent that nearly every number 1–99 is irregular. The first four, and sixth, ordinal numbers are also irregular. The suffix -vā̃ marks ordinals five and seven onwards. The ordinals decline in the same way as the declinable adjectives. The suffix -gunā (translates as "times" as in multiplying) marks the multipliers which for the first three multipliers changes the numeral root. The collective forms of numerals take the same form as the oblique plural case for masculine nouns. They are formed by adding the suffix -õ. There are two types of adverbials. The first type is formed using the suffix -bārā but only for the numerals 2, 3, and 4 (but it's rarely used for 3 and even more rarely for 4). The second type of adverbial is constructed periphrastically using the quantifier bār meaning "times" (as in turns). The adverbial "dobārā" could be translated as "again" or "for a second time", similarly "tibārā" and "caubārā" mean "for a third time" and "for a fourth time" respectively. However, the periphrasatic adverbial constructions "do bār", "tīn bār" etc. translate as "two times", "three times" etc. respectively.
| Numeral | English | Cardinals | Ordinals | Multipliers | Collective | Adverbial | Fractional | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | zero | śūnyaH, sifarU | śūnyavā̃H, sifarvā̃U | śūnyagunā | — | — | śūnya bār | — | |
| 1 | one | ek | pehlā, prathamH, avvalU | ekgunā | — | — | ek bār | pūrā | |
| 2 | two | do | dūsrā, domU | dugnā, dogunā | donõ | dobārā, dubārā | do bār | ādhā | |
| 3 | three | tīn | tīsrā, somU | tigunā, tīngunā | tīnõ | tibārā | tīn bār | tihāī | |
| 4 | four | cār | cauthā, cahāramU | caugunā, cārgunā | cārõ | caubārā | cār bār | cauthāī | |
| 5 | five | pā̃c | pā̃cvā̃, pãjamU | pā̃cgunā | pācõ | — | pā̃c bār | — | |
| 6 | six | cheh | chaṭhā, šašmU | chehgunā | cheõ | — | cheh bār | — | |
| 7 | seven | sāt | sātvā̃, haftamU | sātgunā | sātõ | — | sāt bār | — | |
| 8 | eight | āṭh | āṭhvā̃, haštamU | āṭhgunā | āṭhõ | — | āṭh bār | — | |
| 9 | nine | nau | nauvā̃, navā̃, nahamU | naugunā | nauõ | — | nau bār | — | |
| 10 | ten | das | dasvā̃, dahamU | dasgunā | dasõ | — | das bār | dašam | |
| 100 | hundred | sau | sauvā̃ | saugunā | sauõ | — | sau bār | — | |
| 1,000 | thousand | hazār | hazārvā̃ | hazārgunā | hazārõ | — | hazār bār | — | |
| 100,000 | hundred thousand | lākh | lākhvā̃ | lākhgunā | lākhõ | — | lākh bār | — | |
| 10,000,000 | ten million | karoṛ | karoṛvā̃ | karoṛguna | karoṛõ | — | karoṛ bār | — | |
The aforementioned inflectional case system only goes so far on its own, and rather serves as that upon which is built a system of agglutinative suffixes or particles known as postpositions, which parallel English's prepositions. It is their use with a noun or verb that necessitates the noun or verb taking the oblique case (though the bare oblique is also sometimes used adverbially), and it is with them that the locus of grammatical function or "case-marking" then lies. There are eight such "one-word" primary case-marking postpositions.
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| Compound Postpositions | Explanation | Compound Postpositions | Explanation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| kī taraf | orientative marker; "towards", | ke bāre | "concerning (something)" | |
| ke andar | inessive marker; "inside", | ke bād | antessive marker; "after" | |
| ke bāhar | elative marker "outside" | ke pās | adessive marker; "near" | |
| ke baġal | adessive marker "adjacent" | ke jaisā | semblative marker, "like" "similar to" | |
| ke āge | apudessive marker; "in front of, ahead of", | ke liye | benefactive marker; "for" | |
| ke ūpar | superessive marker; "on top of, above" | ke sāmne | postessive case "facing, opposite, in front", etc. | |
| ke nīce | subessive marker; "beneath, below" | ke pīche | pertingent marker; "behind" | |
| ke binā/baġair | abessive marker; "without" | ke dvārā/zariye | perlative marker; "via, through, by" |
Some other compound postpositions with two secondary postpositions (called tertiary postposition) can be constructed by adding primary postpositions to some of the compound postpositions shown above.
| CompoundPostpositions | Marker | Explanation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ke bāre mẽ | "about" | "regarding/concerning/about something" | |
| ke bād mẽ | antessive marker; "after (emphatic)" | "(in a sequence) something is after something" | |
| ke sāth mẽ | sociative marker; "with (emphatic)" | "something is along/together with something else" | |
| ke nīce mẽ | subessive marker; "beneath, below (emphatic)" | "location of something is below something else" | |
| kī vajah se | causal marker, "because of" | "something happens/ed because of (fault of) something else" | |
| ke pīche se | postelative marker; "from behind" | "motion/movement from behind something" | |
| ke andar se | inessive marker; "inside", | "motion/movement from inside something" | |
| ke āge se | "from in front" | "motion/movement from in front of something" | |
| ke pās se | adelative marker; "from near (something)" | "motion/movement near something" | |
| ke nīce se | subessive marker; "beneath, below" | "motion/movement from below something" | |
| ke ūpar se | delative marker; "from above" | "motion/movement from above something" | |
| ke ūpar ko | sublative marker; | "motion/movement onto a surface" | |
| kī taraf ko | "towards [a direction] (emphatic)" | "motion/movement towards a direction" |
Hindustani has personal pronouns for the first and second persons, while for the third person demonstratives are used, which can be categorised deictically as proximate and non-proximate. tū, tum, and āp are the three 2P pronouns, constituting a threefold scale of sociolinguistic formality: respectively, intimate, familiar, and formal. The 2P intimate conjugations are grammatically singular while the 2P familiar and formal conjugations are grammatically plural. For the non-personal pronouns (demonstrative, relative, and interrogative) the plural forms are also the formal forms.[6] Pronouns in Hindustani do not distinguish gender however they distinguish the nominative, oblique, and the common accusative/dative grammatical cases. The latter-most, often called a set of contracted forms, is used synonymously with the dative/accusative pronoun constructed from the oblique case by suffixing the dative/accusative postposition ko. So, for e.g., mujhe and mujhko are synonymous dative/accusative pronouns.
The 1P and 2P pronouns (except the formal 2P pronoun āp) have their own distinctive genitive forms merā, hamārā, terā, & tumhārā unlike the non-personal pronouns whose genitive forms are constructed employing the oblique case pronoun to which the genitive postposition kā is suffixed (OBL. + kā). The personal pronouns (except the formal 2P āp) colloquially can also take the genitive oblique case before primary postpositions. So, instead of mujhe or mujhko, the periphrastic construction mere ko is fairly commonly heard as a synonym to mujhe/mujhko in colloquial speech.
To construct the ergative case pronouns, the ergative postposition ne is suffixed to the nominative case forms rather than the oblique case forms for the personal pronouns, while the demonstrative, relative, and interrogative pronouns have unique ergative oblique case forms to which ne gets suffixed. So, rather than *mujh-ne and *tujh-ne, it's maĩ-ne and tū-ne, and for the non-personal pronouns (e.g., for demonstrative plural) it's inhõ-ne and unhõ-ne. The 1P plural and the 2P familiar pronouns also have an emphatic ergative case form which respectively are hamī̃ne and tumhī̃ne which are derived using the exclusive emphatic particle hī as ham + hī + ne and tum + hī + ne. For the rest of the personal pronouns, the inclusive emphatic particle hī must come after the pronoun in ergative case and never between the pronoun and the postposition ne. So, rather than *maĩ-hī-ne, it's periphrastically constructed as maĩne hī. As for the non-personal pronouns, both ways of constructing the emphatic forms are grammatically valid. So, for e.g. the demonstrative proximal singular emphatic pronoun isīne and isne hī are synonymous. The emphatic forms for the relative pronouns are constructed periphrastically as well, but they instead use the inclusive emphatic particle bhī. So, the emphatic form of the relative singular ergative pronoun jisne is jisne bhī meaning "whoever" and not *jis-bhī-ne, which not a valid construction.
Compound postpositions must be used with the genitive oblique cases when using them with the personal pronouns (except the 2P formal āp). So, when using the compound postposition ke andar – "inside", *mujh-ke andar and *mujh andar are grammatically invalid constructions and instead it should be mere andar – "inside me". The compound postpositions that have the primary postposition kī in place of kā must have the genitive oblique case declined to the feminine gender. So, when using the postposition kī taraf – "towards", it should be merī taraf and not *mere taraf.
| Case | Personal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | 2nd person | |||||
| & | ||||||
| Intimate | Familiar | Formal | ||||
| Nominative | maĩ | ham | tū | tum | āp | |
| Ergative | Regular | maĩne | hamne | tūne | tumne | āpne |
| Emphatic | — | hamī̃ne | — | tumhī̃ne | — | |
| Dative | mujhe | hamẽ | tujhe | tumhẽ | āpko | |
| Accusative | ||||||
| Oblique | Regular | mujh | ham | tujh | tum | āp |
| Emphatic | mujhī | hamī̃ | tujhī | tumhī̃ | — | |
| Case | Demonstrative | Relative | Interrogative | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd person | |||||||||
| Proximal | Non-proximal | ||||||||
| Nominative | Literary | yah[7] | ye | vah | ve | jo | kaun, kyā | ||
| Colloquial | ye | vo | |||||||
| Ergative | Regular | isne | inhõne | usne | unhõne | jisne | jinhõne | kisne | kinhõne |
| Emphatic | isīne | inhī̃ne | usīne | unhī̃ne | — | — | kisīne | kinhī̃ne | |
| Dative | ise | inhẽ | use | unhẽ | jise | jinhẽ | kise | kinhẽ | |
| Accusative | |||||||||
| Oblique | Regular | is | in | us | un | jis | jin | kis | kin |
| Emphatic | isī | inhī̃ | usī | unhī̃ | — | — | kisī | kinhī̃ | |
| Case | Possessive & Genitive | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Person | 2nd Person | |||||
| & | ||||||
| Intimate | Familiar | |||||
| Nominative | merā | hamārā | terā | tumhārā | ||
| mere | hamāre | tere | tumhāre | |||
| Oblique | & | |||||
| Nominative | & | merī | hamārī | terī | tumhārī | |
| Oblique | & | |||||
apnā is a (genitive) reflexive pronoun: "my/your/etc. (own)". Using non-reflexive and reflexive together gives emphasis; e.g. merā apnā "my (very) own". xud, āp, and svayam are some (nominative; non-genitive) others: "my/your/etc.-self". Bases for oblique usage are usually apne (self) or apne āp (automatically). The latter alone can also mean "of one's own accord"; āpas mẽ means "among/between oneselves".
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koī and kuch are indefinite pronouns/quantifiers. As pronouns, koī is used for animate singular ("someone") and kuch for animate plural and inanimates ("something"). As quantifiers/adjectives koī is used for singular count nouns and kuch for mass nouns and plural count nouns. koī takes the form kisī in the oblique. The form kaī is a paucal equivalent to koī, being used in the context of "several" or "a few" things. kuch can also act as an adverb, qualifying an adjective, meaning "rather". koī preceding a number takes the meaning of "about, approximately". In this usage it does not oblique to kisī.
| Indefinite quantifierpronouns | nominative | oblique | Translation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| animate | inanimate | animate | inanimate | |||
| singular | with noun | koī | kuch | kisī | kisī | someone,something |
| sans noun | — | — | ||||
| paucal | with noun | kuch | kuch | some | ||
| sans noun | kuchõ | — | ||||
| plural | with noun | kaī | kaī | several | ||
| sans noun | kaiyõ | — | ||||
| Interrogative | Relative | Demonstrative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proximal | Distant | ||||
| Undeclinable | Time | ||||
| Direction | |||||
| Place | |||||
| Manner | kaise | jaise | aise | vaise | |
| Declinable | Quantity | ||||
| Quality | kaisā | jaisā | aisā | vaisā | |
Emphatic pronouns of Hindustani are formed by combining the exclusive emphatic particle hī or the inclusive emphatic particle bhī (with the interrogatory and relative pronouns respectively) and the pronoun in their regular oblique and nominative case. Usually, combining the emphatic particles and the pronouns with end with the consonant -h form a new set of emphatic nominative case and emphatic oblique case pronouns. The rest of the pronouns can also be combined with the exclusive emphatic particle but they do not form true pronouns, but simply add the emphatic particle as an adposition after them. The Relative and Interrogatory pronouns can only take the inclusive emphatic particle bhī as an adposition and never the exclusive emphatic particle hī.
| Personal | Demonstrative | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person | ||||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Proximal | Non-proximal | |||||
| Intimate | Familiar | Formal | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||||
| Nominative | — | — | — | yahī | — | vahī | — | |||
| Oblique | Emphatic | unhī̃ | ||||||||
Hindustani has few underived forms. Adverbs may be derived in ways such as the following —
See main article: Hindustani verbs.
The Hindustani verbal system is largely structured around a combination of aspect and tense/mood. Like the nominal system, the Hindustani verb involves successive layers of (inflectional) elements to the right of the lexical base.
Hindustani has 3 aspects: perfective, habitual, and progressive, each having overt morphological correlates. These are participle forms, inflecting for gender and number by way of a vowel termination, like adjectives. The perfective, though displaying a "number of irregularities and morphophonemic adjustments", is the simplest, being just the verb stem followed by the agreement vowel. The habitual forms from the imperfective participle; verb stem, plus -t-, then vowel. The continuous forms periphrastically through compounding (see below) with the perfective of rahnā "to stay".
The copula honā "to be" can be put into five grammatical moods: indicative, presumptive, subjunctive, contrafactual, and imperative. Used both in basic predicative/existential sentences and as verbal auxiliaries to aspectual forms, these constitute the basis of tense and mood.
Non-aspectual forms include the infinitive, the imperative, and the conjunctive. Mentioned morphological conditions such as the subjunctive, "presumptive", etc. are applicable to both copula roots for auxiliary usage with aspectual forms and to non-copula roots directly for often unspecified (non-aspectual) finite forms.
Finite verbal agreement is with the nominative subject, except in the transitive perfective, where it is with the direct object, with the erstwhile subject taking the ergative construction -ne (see postpositions above). The perfective aspect thus displays split ergativity.
Tabled below on the left are the paradigms for adjectival concord (A), here only slightly different from that introduced previously: the f. pl. can nasalise under certain conditions. To the right are the paradigms for personal concord (P), used by the subjunctive.
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All the verbs in Hindustani except the verb honā (to be) are defective and cannot be conjugated into these following moods and tenses in their non-aspectual forms (or simple aspect):
The verb honā (to be) serves as the copula whose conjugations are used to form the three aspectual (or compound) forms of verbs (habitual, perfective, and progressive). In the tables below all the conjugations of the copula honā (to be) are shown on the left and all the conjugations of the verb karnā (to do) (like which all other verbs have conjugations) are shown on the right.
| mood | tense | singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1P – maĩ | 2P – tum1 | 3P – yah/ye, vah/vo | 1P – ham | ||||||
| 2P – āp1 | |||||||||
| 2P – tū | 3P – ye, ve/vo | ||||||||
| indicative | present | hū̃ | ho | hai | haĩ | ||||
| perfect | huā | huī | hue | huī | huā | huī | hue | huī̃ | |
| imperfect | thā | thī | the | thī | thā | thī | the | thī̃ | |
| future | hoū̃gā / hū̃gā | hoū̃gī / hū̃gī | hooge / hoge | hoogī / hogī | hoegā / hogā | hoegī / hogī | hoẽge / hõge | hoẽgī / hõgī | |
| presumptive | all | hū̃gā | hū̃gī | hoge | hogī | hogā | hogī | hõge | hõgī |
| subjunctive | present | hū̃ | ho | ho | hõ | ||||
| future | hoū̃ | hoo | hoe | hoẽ | |||||
| contrafactual2 | past | hotā | hotī | hote | hotī | hotā | hotī | hote | hotī̃ |
| imperative | present | — | hoo | ho | hoiye | ||||
| future | — | honā | hoiyo | hoiyegā | |||||
| mood | tense | singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1P – maĩ | 2P – tum1 | 3P – yah/ye, vah/vo | 1P – ham | ||||||
| 2P – āp1 | |||||||||
| 2P – tū | 3P – ye, ve/vo | ||||||||
| indicative | perfect | kiyā | kī | kiye | kī | kiyā | kī | kiye | kī̃ |
| future | karū̃gā | karū̃gī | karoge | karogī | karegā | karegī | karẽge | karẽgī | |
| subjunctive | future | karū̃ | karo | kare | karẽ | ||||
| contrafactual | past | kartā | kartī | karte | kartī | kartā | kartī | karte | kartī̃ |
| imperative | present | — | karo | kar | kariye / kījiye | ||||
| future | — | karnā | kariyo | kariyegā / kījiyegā | |||||
1 the pronouns tum and āp can be used in both singular and plural sense by adding plural indicator words
2 the contrafactual mood serves as both the past subjunctive and the past conditional mood.
Periphrastic Hindustani verb forms consist of two elements. The first of these two elements is the aspect marker. The second element (the copula) is the common tense-mood marker.
Hindustani has three aspects, Habitual aspect, Perfective Aspect and the Progressive Aspect. To construct the progressive aspect and forms, Hindustani makes use of the progressive participle rahā which is derived from the verb rahnā ("to stay" or "to remain"). Unlike English and many other Indo-European languages, Hindustani does differentiate between Continuous and the Progressive aspects. So, for e.g. the sentence "maĩ śarṭ pahan rahā hū̃" will always translate as "I am (in the process) of wearing a shirt." and it can never be used to mean "I am (already) wearing a shirt.". In English, however, "I am wearing a shirt." can be used to mean both the idea of progressive action and a continuous action. To convey the continuous state of an action the perfective adjectival participle is employed. So, "I am (already) wearing a shirt." translates into Hindustani as "maĩ śarṭ pahnā huā hū̃." All the personal compound forms of the verb karnā (to do) in all three aspects and all the grammatical moods are shown in the table below:
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| 1 the pronouns tum and āp can be used in both singular and plural sense, akin to the English pronoun you. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 the habitual aspect of Hindustani cannot be put into future tense. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 the perfective aspect behaves ergatively, agreeing with the object of the sentence. However, if the object is marked with the postposition ko, the noun is placed in the third-person masculine singular. As personal object pronouns are always marked with ko, there are no personal perfective forms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 unlike English in which both the continuous and the progressive aspect have the same forms, the progressive aspect of Hindustani cannot convey the continuous aspect. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The habitual, progressive, and imperfect aspectual participles can be used with copulas other than honā (to be) such as rahnā (to stay), ānā (to come), jānā (to go).[8] These copulas can be converted into their participle forms and can be conjugated to form personal compound aspectual forms. Each of the four copulas provides a unique nuance to the aspect.
| ASPECT | Translation | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | Perfective | Habitual | Progressive | ||||||||||
| honā | huā honā | huā karnā | huā rahnā | huā jānā | huā ānā | hotā honā | hotā rahnā | hotā ānā | hotā jānā | ho rahā honā | ho rahā rahnā | to happen | |
| karnā | kiyā honā | kiyā karnā | kiyā rahnā | kiyā janā | kiyā anā | kartā honā | kartā rahnā | kartā ānā | kartā jānā | kar rahā honā | kar rahā rahnā | to do | |
| marnā | marā honā | marā karnā | marā rahnā | marā jānā | marā ānā | martā honā | martā rahnā | martā ānā | martā jānā | mar rahā honā | mar rahā rahnā | to die | |
The participle forms of any verb is constructed by adding suffixes to the verb root. The participle forms of the verb karnā (to do) are shown in the tables below:
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A summary of all verb forms is given in the tables below. The sample verb is intransitive dauṛnā "to run", and the sample inflection is 3rd. masc. sg. (P = e, A = ā) where applicable.
| Non-aspectual | Aspectual | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-finite |
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| Finite |
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Notes
| Verb | Root | Perfective Stem | Perfective Forms | Imperative | Subjunctive. Stem | Subjunctive Forms | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intimate | Familiar | Formal | |||||||||||||||||
| Masculine | Feminine | Singular | Plural | ||||||||||||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | ||||||||||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | mãĩ | tū | ye/vo | tum | āp | ye/vo | ham | |||||||||
| honā "to happen" | ho- | hu- | huā | hue | huī | huī̃ | ho | hoo | hoiye | present subjunctive | h- | hū̃ | ho | ho | hõ | ||||
| future subjunctive | ho- | hoū̃ | hoe | ho'o | hoẽ | ||||||||||||||
| jānā "to go" | jā- | ga- | gayā | gaye | gayī | gayī̃ | jā | jāo | jāiye | jā | jāū̃ | jāe | jāo | jāẽ | |||||
| karnā "to do" | kar- | ki- | kiyā | kiye | kī | kī̃ | kar | karo | kījie | kar | karū̃ | kare | karo | karẽ | |||||
| denā "to give" | de- | di- | diyā | diye | dī | dī̃ | de | do | dījie | d- | dū̃ | de | do | dẽ | |||||
| lenā "to take" | le- | li- | liyā | liye | lī | lī̃ | le | lo | lījie | l- | lū̃ | le | lo | lẽ | |||||
| pīnā "to drink" | pī- | pi- | piyā | piye | pī | pī̃ | pī | piyo | pījie | pi- | piyū̃ | piye | piyo | piyẽ | |||||
Transitives are morphologically contrastive in Hindustani, leading to the existence of related verb sets divisible along such lines. While the derivation of such forms shows patterns, they do reach a level of variegation so as to make it somewhat difficult to outline all-encompassing rules. Furthermore, some sets may have as many as four to five distinct members; also, the meaning of certain members of given sets may be idiosyncratic.
These below are the verb forms that a verb in Hindi can have —
Starting from direct transitive verb forms, the other verb stems i.e., intransitive, causative, reflexive, indirect stems are produced according to these following (not exhaustive) assorted rules[12] [13] —
| Set of related verbs | |||||||||
| Englishverbs | Intransitive | Transitive | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| involitional | volitional | direct | indirect | reflexive | causative | ||||
| non-dative | dative | non-ergative | ergative | ||||||
| be, become | honā | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| happen, have | — | honā | hovānā | ||||||
| do | — | — | — | — | karnā | karānā | — | karvānā | |
| fall | girnā | — | — | — | — | girānā | — | girvānā | |
| prepare | bannā | — | — | — | — | banānā | — | banvānā | |
| send | bhijnā | — | — | — | bhejnā | — | bhejānā | bhijvānā | |
| dance | nacnā | — | — | nācnā | — | nacānā | — | nacvānā | |
| be found | milnā | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| unite, mix | — | milānā | milvānā | ||||||
| receive | — | milnā | — | dilvānā | |||||
| open | khulnā | — | — | — | kholnā | — | khulānā | khulvānā | |
| kholānā | kholvānā | ||||||||
| learn | — | — | — | — | sīkhnā | sikhānā | — | sikhvānā | |
| eat | — | — | — | — | khānā | khilānā | — | khilvānā | |
| come | — | — | anā | — | — | — | — | — | |
| to know how to | anā | — | |||||||
| drink | — | — | — | — | pīnā | pilānā | — | pilvānā | |
| sell | biknā | — | — | — | becnā | — | becānā | bikvānā | |
| see | — | dikhnā | — | — | dekhnā | dikhānā | — | dikhvānā | |
| appear, look like | dikhnā | — | — | — | — | ||||
| look like | lagnā | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| stick/put together | — | lagnā | lagānā | lagvānā | |||||
| feel, feel like | lagnā | — | |||||||
| tell, be called | — | — | — | kahnā | — | — | kahlānā | kahalvānā | |
| say, call | — | — | — | bolnā | — | bulānā | — | bulvānā | |
| sit | biṭhnā | — | baiṭhnā | — | — | baiṭhānā | — | baiṭhvānā | |
| break | ṭūṭnā | — | — | — | tor̥nā | — | tur̥ānā | tur̥vānā | |
| understand | — | — | — | samajhnā | — | samjhānā | — | samajhvānā | |
| tear | faṭnā | — | — | — | fār̥nā | — | far̥ānā | far̥vānā | |
| blast, shatter | fūṭnā, faṭnā | — | — | — | for̥nā | — | for̥ānā | for̥vānā | |
| beat | piṭnā | — | — | — | pīṭnā | — | piṭānā | piṭvānā | |
| bathe | — | — | — | nahānā | — | nahlānā | nahalnā | nahalvānā | |
| know | — | — | — | jānnā | — | — | — | janvānā | |
| laugh | — | — | hãsnā | — | — | hãsānā | — | hãsvānā | |
Compound verbs, a highly visible feature of Hindi–Urdu grammar, consist of a verbal stem plus a light verb. The light verb (also called "subsidiary", "explicator verb", and "vector") loses its own independent meaning and instead "lends a certain shade of meaning" to the main or stem verb, which "comprises the lexical core of the compound". While almost any verb can act as a main verb, there is a limited set of productive light verbs. Shown below are prominent such light verbs, with their independent meaning first outlined, followed by their semantic contribution as auxiliaries. Finally, having to do with the manner of an occurrence, compounds verbs are mostly used with completed actions and imperatives, and much less with negatives, conjunctives, and contexts continuous or speculative. This is because non-occurrences cannot be described to have occurred in a particular manner. The auxiliaries when combined with the main verb provides an aspectual sense to the main verb it modifies. Light verbs such as jānā "to go", ānā "to come", cuknā when combined with the main verb give the formed compound verb a perfective aspect, while retaining the original meaning of the main verb.
| jānā "to go" | Shows perfective aspect (completed action) of the main verb whichmeans gives a sense of completeness of the action, finality, or change of state. | 1. ānā "to come"2. khānā "to eat" 3. marnā "to die" 4. pīnā "to drink" 5. baiṭhnā "to sit" 6. honā "to happen" | 1. ā jānā "to arrive" " to have come"2. khā jānā "to eat up (all/everything/completely)" 3. mar jānā "to be dead" 4. pī jānā "to drink up (all/everything/completely)" "to gulp" 5. baiṭh jānā "to sit down" "to have sit down" 6. ho jānā "to have happened (completely)" "to have finished happening" | |
| lenā "to take" | Suggests that the (usually planned/expected) action is completed and the benefit of the action flows towards the doer. This auxiliary verb can also be used to soften down the tone of imperatives (commands) and usually is used to give suggestions. Nuance of planned/expected action is not present. | 1. paṛhnā 2. karnā 3. calnā 4. mārnā | 1. "to read (for oneself/for own's desire)"2. kar lenā "to do (something fully for oneself)" "to have finished doing something" 3. cal lenā "to have walked" 4. mār lenā "to (try to) kill (oneself)" | |
| denā "to give" | Suggests that the (usually planned/expected) action was completed and the benefit of the action flows away from the doer. This auxiliary verb can also be used to soften down the tone of imperatives (commands) and usually is used to ask for favours. Nuance of planned/expected action is not present. This can also mean "to let" in the imperative – to let someone do: karne denā (oblique) | 1. paṛhnā 2. mārnā 3. karnā | 1. "to read (for someone)" "to read out"2. mār denā "to kill", "to kill off", "to murder" 3. kār denā "to do (something completely for someone else and not oneself)" | |
| ānā "to come" | Shows perfective aspect of the main verb which means gives a sense of completeness of the action, finality, or change of state. The meaning conveyed is the doer went somewhere to do something and came back after completing the action. This can also mean "to know how to" in the indefinite/habitual present tense – to know how to do: karnā ānā | 1. karnā | 1. kar ānā "to finish (and come back)", "to do (and return)"; | |
| cuknā "to have (already) completed something" | Shows sense of completeness of an action in the past, that the actionwas already done/finished/completed by the doer sometime in the past. | 1. marnā 2. jītnā | 1. mar cuknā "to have already died"2. jīt cuknā "to have already won" |
The first three light verbs in the above table are the most common of auxiliaries, and the "least marked", or "lexically nearly colourless". The nuance conveyed by an auxiliary can often be very subtle, and need not always be expressed with different words in English translation. lenā and denā, transitive verbs, occur with transitives, while intransitive jānā occurs mostly with intransitives; a compound of a transitive and jānā will be grammatically intransitive as jānā is.
| Light Verb | Explanation | Examples | |
|---|---|---|---|
| "to throw, pour" | Indicates an action done vigorously, decisively, violently or recklessly; it is an intensifier, showing intensity, urgency, completeness, or violence. | 1. mārnā "to hit/ kill" → "to kill (violently)"2. pīnā "to drink" → "to drink (hastily)". | |
| "to sit" | Implies an action done foolishly or stubbornly; shows speaker disapproval or an impulsive or involuntary action. | 1. kahnā "to say" → "to say something (involuntarily or by mistake)"2. karnā "to do" → "to do (something as a blunder)" 3. "to fight" → "to quarrel (foolishly, or without giving it second thought)". | |
| "to suddenly fall" "to lie flat" | Connotes involuntary, sudden, or unavoidable occurrence.; This can also mean "to have to, must" in the perfect tenses – to have to do: karnā paṛnā | 1. uṭhnā "to get up" → uṭh "to suddenly get up"2. girnā "to fall down" → gir paṛnā "to collapse" | |
| "to rise" | Functions like an intensifier; suggests inception of action or feeling, with its independent/literal meaning sometimes showing through in a sense of upward movement. | 1. jalnā "to burn" → "to burst into flames"2. nācnā "to dance" → "to break into dance". | |
| "to be able to" | A modal verb that indicates the capability of performing an action. | 1. karnā "to do" → kar saknā "to be able to do"2. dekhnā "to see" → dekh saknā "to be able to see" | |
| rakhnā "to keep, maintain" | Implies a firmness of action, or one with possibly long-lasting results or implications; occurs with lenā and denā, meaning "to give/take (as a loan)", and with other appropriate verbs, showing an action performed beforehand. It usually works almost the same as cuknā the main difference being the nuance conveyed by rakhnā is that the action has either "continued effect till the present time" or "is more recent than the same action conveyed using the cuknā.". cuknā signifies distant past. | 1. dekhnā "to see" → dekh rakhnā "to have already seen." | |
| rahnā "to remain/stay" | The continuous aspect marker rahā apparently originated as a compound verb with rahnā ("remain"): thus maĩ bol rahā hū̃ = "I have remained speaking" → "I have continued speaking" → "I am speaking". However, it has lost the ability to take any form other than the imperfective, and is thus considered to have become grammaticalized. |
Another notable aspect of Hindi–Urdu grammar is that of "conjunct verbs", composed of a noun or adjective paired up with a general verbaliser, most commonly transitive karnā "to do" or intransitive honā "to be", "to happen", functioning in the place of what in English would be single unified verb. All conjunct verbs formed using karnā are transitive verbs and all conjunct verbs formed using the verb honā are intransitive verbs.
In the case of an adjective as the non-verbal element, it is often helps to think of karnā "to do" as supplementarily having the senses of "to cause to be", "to make", "to render", etc.
| Adjective | Conjunct | Literal | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sāf "clean" | sāf karnā | to do clean | to clean | |
| nyuktH / muqarrarU "appointed" | nyukt / muqarrar karnā | to do appointed | to appoint | |
| band "closed" | band honā | to be closed | to close (intransitive) | |
| xatam "finished" | xatam honā | to be finished | to finish (intransitive) |
In the case of a noun as the non-verbal element, it is treated syntactically as the verb's (direct) object (never taking the ko marker; governing agreement in perfective and infinitival constructions), and the semantic patient (or agent: see gālī khānā below) of the conjunct verbal expression is often expressed/marked syntactically as a genitive postposition (-kā ~ ke ~ kī) of the noun.
| Noun | Conjunct | Conjunct + patient | Literal | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| intezār "wait" | intezār karnā | kisī kā intezār karnā | to do somebody's wait | to wait for somebody | |
| istemāl "use" | istemāl karnā | fon kā istemāl karnā | to do a phone's use | to use a phone | |
| bāt "talk" | bāt karnā | samīr kī bāt karnā | to do Sameer's talk | to talk about Sameer | |
| gālī "cuss/bad word" | gālī khānā | sanam kī gālī khānā | to eat a lover's curse | to be cursed out by one's own lover | |
| tasvīr "picture" | tasvīr khīñcnā | Ibrāhīm kī tasvīr khīñcnā | to pull Ibrahim's picture | to take Ibrahim's picture |
With English it is the verb stems themselves that are used. All English loan words are used by forming compound verbs in Hindi by using either honā (intransitive) or karnā (transitive).
| English Verb | Hindi Verb Stem | Conjuncts | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| check | cêk | cêk honā | to be/get checked |
| cêk karnā | to check (someone/something) | ||
| bore | bor | bor honā | to be/get bored |
| bor karnā | to bore (someone) | ||
| apply | aplāi | aplāi honā | to be/get applied |
| aplāi karnā | to apply (for something) |
The passive construction is periphrastic. It is formed from the perfective participle by addition of the auxiliary jānā "to go"; i.e. likhnā "to write" → likhā jānā "to be written". The agent is marked by the instrumental postposition se. Furthermore, both intransitive and transitive verbs may be grammatically passivized to show physical/psychological incapacity, usually in negative sentences. Lastly, intransitives often have a passive sense, or convey unintentional action.
Hindustani generally has free word order, in the sense that word order does not usually signal grammatical functions in the language.[14] However, the default unmarked word order in Hindustani is SOV. It is neither purely left- nor right-branching, and phenomena of both types can be found. The order of constituents in sentences as a whole lacks governing "hard and fast rules", and frequent deviations can be found from normative word position, describable in terms of a small number of rules, accounting for facts beyond the pale of the label of "SOV".
In the example below, it is shown that all word orders make sense for simple sentences, which do not have adjectives, negations and adverbs. As a general rule, whatever information comes first in the sentence gets emphasised and the information which appears at the end of a sentence gets emphasised the least.[16] [17]
| [maĩ].1P.NOM.SG [baccā].kid.NOM.SG.MASC [hū̃].be.1P.SG | [mujhe].1P.DAT [karnā].INF.PTCP.MASC.SG [hai].be.3P.SG | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sentence | Literal | Translation | Sentence | Literal | Translation | ||
| 1. | maĩ baccā hū̃ | [I] [kid] [am] | I am a kid. | 2. | mujhe karnā hai | [to me] [to do] [is] | I have/want to do. |
| maĩ hū̃ baccā | [I] [am] [kid] | mujhe hai karnā | [to me] [is] [to do] | ||||
| baccā maĩ hū̃ | [kid] [I] [am] | karnā mujhe hai | [to do] [to me] [is] | ||||
| baccā hū̃ maĩ | [kid] [am] [I] | karnā hai mujhe | [to do] [is] [to me] | ||||
| hū̃ maĩ baccā | [am] [I] [kid] | hai mujhe karnā | [is] [to me] [to do] | ||||
| hū̃ baccā maĩ | [am] [kid] [I] | hai karnā mujhe | [is] [to do] [to me] | ||||
| [use].he/she.DEM.DAT [uspe].that.DEM.LOC [jānā].go.INF [hai].be.3P.SG | ||||
| use uspe jānā hai | uspe use jānā hai | jānā use uspe hai | hai use uspe jān̄ā | |
| use uspe hai jānā | uspe use hai jānā | jānā use hai uspe | hai use jān̄ā uspe | |
| use jānā hai uspe | uspe hai use jānā | jānā hai use uspe | hai jānā use uspe | |
| use jānā uspe hai | uspe hai jānā use | jānā hai uspe use | hai jānā uspe use | |
| use hai uspe jānā | uspe jānā hai use | jānā uspe use hai | hai uspe use jānā | |
| use hai jānā uspe | uspe jānā use hai | jānā uspe hai use | hai uspe jānā use | |
| Note: All word orders make sense but each has its own nuance and specific context of usage. | ||||
When noun and pronoun are used together in a sentence and one is in accusative case while the other is in the dative case, there is no way to differentiate which one is which just by looking at the sentence. Usually in such cases, owing to the default word order of Hindi (which is SOV) which noun/pronoun comes earlier in the sentence becomes the subject of the sentence and what comes later becomes the object of the sentence.
| 1. [use].DEM.ACC [kutte-ko].dog.DAT [do].give.IMP.2P | |
|---|---|
| 2. [use].DEM.DAT [kutte-ko].dog.ACC [do].give.IMP.2P | |
| use kutte-ko do | Either "Give it/him/her to the dog."or "Give the dog to it/him/her." (Prescriptively, what comes first becomes the subject of the sentence) |
| use do kutte-ko | |
| kutte-ko use do | |
| kutte-ko do use | |
| do kutte-ko use | |
| do use kutte-ko | |
Nouns in Hindi are put in the dative or accusative case first having the noun in the oblique case and then by adding the postposition ko after it. However, when two nouns are used in a sentence in which one of them is in the accusative case and the other in the dative case, the sentence becomes ambiguous and stops making sense, so, to make sense of the sentence, one of the noun (which is assumed to be in the accusative case) is put into the nominative case and the other one is left as it is (in the dative case). The noun which is put into the nominative case becomes the direct object of the sentence and the other one (which is now in the Accusative case) becomes the indirect object of the sentence.
When both the nouns use the ko marker, generally, all permutations in which the nouns with the same case marker are adjacent to one another become ambiguous or convey no sense.
| Sentence | Note | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ?sā̃p-ko sapere-ko do | with proper intonation it makes sense | give the snake to the snake-charmer. | |
| doesn't make sense | – | |
| ?sapere-ko sā̃p-ko do | with proper intonation it makes sense | give the snake-charmer to the snake. | |
| doesn't make sense | – | |
| doesn't make sense | – | |
| doesn't make sense | – |
| Sentence | Translation | Sentence | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| sā̃p sapere-ko do | Give the snake-charmer a snake | sā̃p-ko sapere do | Give the snake a snake-charmer |
| sā̃p do sapere-ko | sā̃p-ko do sapere | ||
| sapere-ko sā̃p do | sapere sā̃p-ko do | ||
| sapere-ko do sā̃p | sapere do sā̃p-ko | ||
| do sapere-ko sā̃p | do sapere sā̃p-ko | ||
| do sā̃p sapere-ko | do sā̃p-ko sapere |
When two pronouns are used in a sentence, all the sentences remain grammatically valid but the ambiguity of precisely telling the subject and the object of the sentence remains. However, just as we did above, converting one the pronoun into nominative case does not work for all pronouns but only for the 3rd person pronouns and doing that for any other pronoun will leave the sentence ungrammatical and without sense. The reason that this works only for the 3rd person pronoun because these are not really the "regular" 3rd person pronouns but are instead the demonstrative pronouns. Hindustani lacks the regular 3rd person pronouns and hence compensates for them by using the demonstrative pronouns.
So, the ambiguity cannot completely be removed in this case here, unless of course it is interpreted that what comes first becomes the subject of the sentence. The English translation becomes either "Give me to that/him/her/it." or "Give me that/him/her/it." depending on which pronoun appears first in the sentence.
| Sentence | Translation | Sentence | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| mujhe use do | Give me to that/him/her/it.or Give me that/him/her/it. | mujhe vo do | Give me that. |
| mujhe do use | mujhe do vo | ||
| do mujhe use | do mujhe vo | ||
| do use mujhe | do vo mujhe | ||
| use mujhe do | vo mujhe do | ||
| use do mujhe | vo do mujhe |
Unlike English and many other Indo-European languages, Hindustani does not have a verb which uniquely translate to "to have" of English. Possession is reflected in Hindustani by the genitive marker kā (inflected appropriately) or the postposition ke pās ("near") and the verb honā. Possible objects of possession fall into the following four main categories in Hindustani,
| 1. | means that your mother is still alive, and hence in a fundamental way you still possess her, as in, the relationship "she is your mother" is true. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | means that a person fundamentally/naturally has two eyes. The person was born like that. | ||
| 3. | means you are the parent of two kids. The relationship is permanent. | ||
| 4. | as vision is a fundamental property of a person and hence it cannot be owned and so the fundamental possession is used. |
| 1. | means the same as the fundamental possession, but with the nuance that you and your mother are physically together or close. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | means the same as the fundamental possession with an emphasis on the current ability of one's eyes (as opposed to blindness),but also has an additional meaning of possession of someone else's eye. [yes, creepy.] | ||
| 3. | means that you have kids of some other person, usually used in situations of school (teacher-student), kidnapping, etc. | ||
| 4. | means that you possess an idea. An idea occurred to you. |
| 1. | since problem is an abstract noun, the dative/abstract possession is used. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | dative/abstract possession is used to show number of children someone has (gave birth to, and not adopted). | ||
| 3. | since happiness is an abstract noun, the dative/abstract possession is used. |
Rather than using relative clauses after nouns, as in English, Hindustani uses correlative clauses. In Hindustani, a correlative clause can go before or after the entire clause, the adjective, the noun, the pronoun or the verb it relativises.[19]
| 1. | pre-noun relative clause[20] | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2. | post-noun relative clause | ||
| 3. | post-verb relative clause | ||
| 4. | pre-verb relative clause | ||
| 5. | pre-verb relative clause | ||
| 6. | post-pronoun relative clause | ||
| 7. | pre-pronoun relative clause | ||
| 8. | post-adjective relative clause | ||
| 9. | pre-adjective relative clause |
Hindustani has tripartite case-marking, which means that the subject in intransitive clauses, and the agent and the object in transitive clauses each can be marked by a distinct case form. The full set of case distinctions is however only realized in certain clause types.[21] [22]
In intransitive clauses, the subject is in nominative case. The verb displays agreement with the subject: depending on aspect and mood, the verb agrees in gender and number, and/or person and number.[21]
In transitive clauses, there are three patterns:[23]
The following table summarises the three basic case-marking and agreement types.
| Case marking | Verb agreement | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S* | A | O | transitive | intransitive | |||
| Perfective clauses | definite object | nominative | ergative | accusative | none | with S | |
| indefinite object | nominative | ergative | nominative | with O | |||
| Non-perfective clauses | nominative | nominative | nominative/accusative | with A | with S | ||
| |||||||
See also: Differential argument marking.
Hindustani, like other Indo-Aryan languages, displays differential case marking on both subjects (DSM) and objects (DOM).[24] Diachronically, differential argument marking developed very differently for subjects and objects, but became prevalent for both in the 17th century. For subjects, it is predicate-licensed and dependent on semantics, whereas for objects it is discourse-driven.[25]
For subjects, on top of the previously discussed split ergativity (in which perfective case verbs take the ergative ne on the subject, while other conjugations have an unmarked subject), certain modal auxiliary verbs take different case markers for their subjects.
The most notable instance of DSM is the experiencer dative subject (a type of quirky subject). Verbs indicating sensations (lagnā "to seem"), emotions (mahsūs honā "to feel"), and cognition (patā honā "to be known"), all license the dative case marker ko on their subjects. This is a cross-lingual phenomenon.
Passive subjects taking the modal auxiliary jānā 'to go', usually connoting reduced agentivity, take the instrumental se. This construction can also be used to indicate ability.
The dative ko indicates obligation or necessity. The modal honā 'to be' and paṛnā 'to fall' both take this on their subjects.
The accusative marker ko is only applied when the object is definite, similar to the distinction between the and a(n) in English.
ABBR1:meaning1ABBR2:meaning2