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Hindi Course Guide - Section 2 Part 1: Nouns

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Austin.Vheissu
United States of America

Hindi Course Guide - Section 2 Part 1: Nouns

Post by Austin.Vheissu »

Hi all! I'll be getting back to finishing up the Spelling and Pronunciation section soon, but this week I was reviewing my notes on grammar topics, so I'll add them here now.

Hindi Course Guide

Section 2 Part 1: Nouns

  • In Hindi all nouns have gender: either masculine or feminine. Many masculine nouns end in -aa (-ा) and many feminine nouns end in -ii (ी), but there are many exceptions also.

  • Hindi nouns also are marked for number: either singular or plural.

  • Hindi nouns have a third category which is case: either direct (sometimes called nominative or subject case) or oblique. I will have a separate post on the oblique case, but for now just recognize that nouns have a case.

  • The importance of these categories is that many nouns change their endings depending on gender, number, and case.

  • Not all nouns change endings, but it is still important to remember what categories they are in because it can affect other parts of the sentence such as adjectives.

Below are tables describing the word ending changes based on gender and number in the direct case. I will list the oblique forms in a separate post on the oblique case.

Masculine with -aa endingMasculine with other endingFeminine with -ii, -i, or -iya endingFeminine with other ending
singular-aa (-ा)--ii (ी), -i (ि), -iya (िया)-
plural-e (े)--iyan (ियां)-en ( ें)
  • Explanations:

  • For the masculine the most common singular ending is -aa (-ा), which changes to -e (े) in the plural.

    • For example: लड़का (boy) --> लड़के (boys)

  • Masculine nouns that do not end in -aa (-ा) in the singular (as well as some exceptions that do end in -aa (-ा)) do not change their ending in the plural.

    • For example: मकान (house) --> मकान (houses)

  • Feminine nouns that end in -ii (ी), -i (ि), -iya (िया) in the singular (with -ii (ी) being the most common) change their ending in the plural to -iyan (ियां)

    • For example: लड़की (girl) --> लड़कियां (girls)

  • Feminine nouns that do not end in the above in the singular change their ending in the plural to -en ( ें)

    • For example: मेज़ (table) --> मेज़ें (tables)


  • If that's a lot at once then the most important highlights are:

    • Many masculine singular nouns end -aa (-ा) and change to -e (े) in the plural

    • Many feminine singular nouns end in -ii (ी) and change to -iyan (ियां) in the plural

    • Nouns also have case

    • Gender, number, and case can all affect the endings of adjectives too

    One final thing since we are talking about nouns:

    • Hindi doesn't have articles (a/an/the) so you don't need to worry about matching them with gender, number, and case. In a future post I'll explain how Hindi can specify a general thing or the specific thing if it is necessary, but most of the time you'll do just fine without any articles!


    • In the Duolingo course, nouns and gender start to be introduced in Unit 3 "Form basic sentences" (Basics 1)

    • Plurals start to be introduced in Unit 4 "Form the plural" (Plurals)

    References:

    • Duolingo course Tips and Notes
      On my version of the app and browser versions these are no longer available (instead they just show some example sentences with no explanation). However, they are still available on DuoMe; you can access them in the main menu bar “Tips and Notes” or by clicking on “Hindi” in your profile, for example, for me this directs me to https://duome.eu/Austin.Vheissu/en/hi and below my profile information is a tab for “Tips and Notes”).

    • Wikipedia pages for Hindustani grammar, and pronouns

    • Textbooks:

      • Snell, R., Weightman, S. Teach Yourself Hindi. Hodder Headline, 2003.

      • Bhatia, T.K., Colloquial Hindi. Routledge. 2002.

      • Bhardwaj, M., Wells, G. Hindi Urdu Bol Chaal. BBC Books, 1989.

      • McGregor, R.S. Outline of Hindi Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1972.

      • Agnihotri, R.K. Hindi An Essential Grammar. Routledge, 2007.

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