Hindi Grammar Basics

• Hindi grammar is generally more regular and consistent than that of many Indo-European languages.
• Hindi word order is generally subject–object–verb (SOV)
• Hindi is a head-final language, meaning that in most phrases the head comes last.
• Hindi has postpositions rather than prepositions; these follow the noun they govern.
• Adjectives and adjectival phrases precede the nouns they modify.
• Relative clauses precede the nouns they modify.
• Hindi is a morphologically rich language.
• Grammatical relations are marked synthetically, through inflections.
• Nouns and adjectives inflect for gender and number, and nouns also inflect for case.
• Verbs inflect for tense, aspect, mood, gender, number, and person.
• Agreement is pervasive in Hindi.
• Verbs agree with their subjects in gender, number, and person.
• Adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.

Noun Morphology

• Hindi nouns are classified as either masculine or feminine.
• Gender is grammatical, and does not always correspond to natural gender.
• Some nouns have fixed gender, while others change depending on context or meaning.
• Nouns inflect for number (singular or plural) and case (direct or oblique).
• The direct case is used for subjects and direct objects when they are definite and have no postposition.
• The oblique case is used in all other instances, including when a noun is followed by a postposition.
• Noun declension varies depending on the noun's gender and ending.
• Masculine nouns ending in -ā change to -e in the oblique singular and -e in the plural (both direct and oblique).
• Masculine nouns ending in consonants remain unchanged in the direct singular, but take the oblique singular ending -e. In the plural, they add -oṃ in both direct and oblique cases.
• Feminine nouns ending in -ī change to -iyā in the direct plural and -iyoṃ in the oblique plural.
• Other feminine nouns add -ẽ in the direct plural and -oṃ in the oblique plural.

Pronouns

• Hindi pronouns are inflected for number, gender (in the third person), and case.
• Hindi has personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.
• Personal pronouns have different forms for different levels of politeness or formality.
• The main personal pronouns are:
  • maiṃ (मैं) - I
  • tū (तू) - you (informal)
  • āp (आप) - you (formal)
  • vah (वह) - he/she/it (distant)
  • yah (यह) - he/she/it (near)
  • ham (हम) - we
  • tum (तुम) - you (familiar)
  • ve (वे) - they (distant)
  • ye (ये) - they (near)

Verb Morphology

• Hindi verbs are highly inflected.
• They inflect for tense, aspect, mood, gender, number, and person.
• The basic form of the verb is the root, from which other forms are derived.
• Hindi has three main tenses: past, present, and future.
• Aspect refers to the way in which the action of the verb is viewed in time (e.g., perfective, imperfective, habitual).
• Mood indicates the speaker's attitude toward the action of the verb (e.g., indicative, subjunctive, imperative).
• Verb agreement is important: verbs must agree with their subjects in gender, number, and person.
• Auxiliary verbs are often used to create compound verb forms, indicating aspect and mood.

Tense, Aspect, and Mood

• Present Tense:
  • Formed using the verb root + -tā/tī/te + hū̃/hai/ho/haiṃ
  • tā is used for masculine singular subjects, tī for feminine singular, and te for plural subjects.
  • hū̃ is used with maiṃ, hai with tū, ho with tum and āp, and haiṃ with ham, ve, and ye.
  • Indicates habitual or continuous actions.
• Past Tense:
  • Formed differently depending on the transitivity of the verb.
  • Intransitive verbs: verb root + -ā/ī/e + thā/thī/the/theṃ (agreeing with the subject)
  • Transitive verbs: verb root + -ā/ī/e (agreeing with the object if present and definite, otherwise masculine singular) + ne (postposition with the subject)
  • Indicates completed actions.
• Future Tense:
  • Formed using the verb root + -egā/egī/ege + hū̃/hai/ho/haiṃ (agreeing with the subject)
  • egā is used for masculine singular subjects, egī for feminine singular, and ege for plural subjects.
  • Indicates actions that will happen in the future.
• Habitual Aspect:
  • Indicates actions that occur regularly or habitually.
  • Often formed using the present indefinite tense.
• Perfective Aspect:
  • Indicates actions that are completed.
  • Often formed using the past tense.
• Imperfective Aspect:
  • Indicates actions that are ongoing or incomplete.
  • Requires auxiliary verbs.
• Subjunctive Mood:
  • Used to express wishes, doubts, or hypothetical situations.
  • Formed differently depending on the context.
• Imperative Mood:
  • Used to give commands or make requests.
  • The form varies depending on the level of formality.

Postpositions

• Postpositions function similarly to prepositions in English, but they follow the noun or pronoun they govern.
• Common Hindi postpositions include:
  • ko (को) - to, for, at (marks the direct object or dative case)
  • se (से) - from, with, by (marks the ablative or instrumental case)
  • meṃ (में) - in, on, at (marks the locative case)
  • par (पर) - on, at, upon (marks the locative case)
  • kā/kī/ke (का/की/के) - of (marks the genitive case or possession; agrees with the noun it modifies)
• Postpositions are crucial for indicating grammatical relations in Hindi.
• They often determine the case marking of the noun or pronoun.

Adjectives

• Hindi adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.
• Adjectives typically precede the nouns they modify.
• There are two main types of adjectives: qualitative and quantitative.
  • Qualitative adjectives describe the quality or characteristic of a noun (e.g., achchā - good, burā - bad).
  • Quantitative adjectives indicate the quantity or amount of a noun (e.g., ek - one, do - two, kam - less).
• Adjectives ending in -ā change to -ī and -e to agree with feminine and plural nouns, respectively.
• Adjectives can be used attributively (before the noun) or predicatively (after a linking verb).

Adverbs

• Hindi adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
• They provide information about how, when, where, or to what extent an action is performed.
• Many Hindi adverbs are derived from adjectives by adding the suffix -se or -tā.
• Common types of adverbs include:
  • Adverbs of manner (e.g., dhīre - slowly, tezi se - quickly)
  • Adverbs of time (e.g., ab - now, kal - yesterday/tomorrow)
  • Adverbs of place (e.g., yahā̃ - here, vahā̃ - there)
  • Adverbs of degree (e.g., bahut - very, kam - little)
• Adverb placement is relatively flexible in Hindi sentences.

Syntax

• The basic word order in Hindi is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV).
• However, word order can be flexible for emphasis or stylistic reasons.
• Agreement is a key aspect of Hindi syntax.
• Verbs must agree with their subjects in gender, number, and person.
• Adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in gender, number, and case.
• The use of postpositions is essential for indicating grammatical relations between words in a sentence.
• Compound verbs, formed with auxiliary verbs, are common and convey various aspects and moods.
• Relative clauses precede the nouns they modify, and are typically introduced by relative pronouns.