Hindustani grammar

Urdu and Modern Standard Hindi are the respective national languages of Pakistan and India. The two are often held as separate languages on the bases' of higher vocabulary choice (and thus mutual intelligibility) as well as cultural orientation; however on a linguistic basis they are two standardized registers of a single subdialect, that being the Khari boli dialect of Delhi. Their grammatical differences are minimal, and keeping in line with such a linguistic analysis, Hindu and Urdu (or Khari boli; also singularly called Hindustani) occupy a single grammar page.

Script

In matters of script, Hindi uses Devanagari while Urdu uses Nasta`liq. On this grammar page Hindi-Urdu is written in "standard orientalist" transcription as outlined in Masica (1991:xv), and used throughout Masica (1991), Shapiro (2003), and Schmidt (2003). Based primarily on a system of transliteration of Indian scripts (see IAST, ISO 15919, etc.), these are its salient features: subscript dots for retroflex consonants; macrons for etymologically, contrastively long vowels; h denoting aspirated stops.

Vowel values are the following: a = [ə], ā = [aː], i = [ɪ], ī = [iː], u = [ʊ], ū = [uː], e = [eː], o = [oː], ai = [ɛː], au = [ɔː]. A proceeding ṃ denotes nasalized vowels. Consonants are outlined in the table below; see Hindi-Urdu phonology for further clarification.

	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Dental		Alveolar		Retroflex		Post-alveolar/ Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Stop	p ph	b bh			t th	d dh			ṭ ṭh	ḍ ḍh			k kh	g gh	q
Affricate											c ch	j jh
Nasal	m						n		ṇ		ñ		ṅ
Fricative			f				s	z			ṣ, ś		x	ġ			h
Tap or Flap							r		ṛ ṛh
Approximant			v								y
Lateral approximant							l

Morphology

Nouns

Hindi-Urdu has two genders, two numbers, and three cases (direct, oblique, and vocative). Nouns may be further divided into declensional subtypes, type-I and type-II, with the basic difference being that the former has characteristic terminations in the direct singular while the latter does not. An alternative naming scheme of this division would be that of respectively "marked and unmarked" nouns.

The below table displays the suffix paradigms. It should be noted that a hyphen symbol (for the marked) denotes change amongst terminations, whereas a plus sign (for the unmarked) denotes termination addition.

		Sg.		Pl.
		Dir.	Obl.	Dir.	Obl.	Voc.
Masc.	I	-ā	-e		-oṃ	-o
	II				+oṃ	+o
Fem.	I	-ī, -i, -iyā		-iyāṃ	-iyoṃ	-iyo
	II			+eṃ	+oṃ	+o

The next table of noun declensions, mostly adapted from Shapiro (2003:263), shows the above suffix paradigms in action. Words: laṛkā "boy", kuāṃ "well", baccā "boy-child", seb "apple", pitā "father", cākū "penknife", ādmī "man" , mitra "friend", laṛkī "girl", śakti "power", ciṛiyā "bird", kitāb "book", aurat "woman", bhāṣā "language".

		Sg.		Pl.
		Dir.	Obl.	Dir.	Obl.	Voc.
Masc.	I	laṛkā kuāṃ[1] baccā[2]	laṛke[3] kueṃ bacce		laṛkoṃ kuoṃ baccoṃ	laṛko bacco
	II	seb pitā[4] cākū ādmī mitra			seboṃ pitāoṃ cākuoṃ[5] ādmiyoṃ[6] mitroṃ	pitāo ādmiyo mitro
Fem.	I	laṛkī śakti ciṛiyā		laṛkiyāṃ śaktiyāṃ ciṛiyāṃ	laṛkiyoṃ śaktiyoṃ ciṛiyoṃ	laṛkiyo
	II	kitāb bhāṣā[7] aurat		kitābeṃ bhāṣāeṃ aurteṃ	kitāboṃ bhāṣāoṃ aurtoṃ	aurto

• A noun's dir. sg. form is the form in which it is normally listed in dictionnaries and by which it is generally cited.
• ^ Also the voc. sg.
• ^ A small number of marked masculines display nasalization of all terminations.
• ^ Perso-Arabic loans ending in final unpronounced h are handled as masculine marked nouns. Hence bacca(h) → baccā. The former is the Urdu spelling, the latter the Hindi.
• ^ Unmarked nouns ending in ū and ī generally shorten this to u and i before the oblique (and vocative) plural termination(s), with the latter also inserting the semivowel y.
• ^ Some masculines ending in ā don't change in the direct plural and fall in the unmarked category. i.e. pitā "father", cācā "uncle", rājā "king".
• ^ Many feminine Sanskrit loanwords end in ā. i.e. bhāṣā "language", āśā "hope", icchā "intention".
• Some Perso-Arabic loans may use their original dual and plural markings. i.e. vālid "father" → vālidain "parents".

Adjectives

Adjectives may be divided into declinable and indeclinable categories. Declinables are marked, through termination, for the gender, number, case of the nouns they qualify. The set of declinable adjective terminations is greatly simplified in comparison to that of noun terminations —

		Dir. sg.	All else
Decl.	Masc.	-ā	-e
	Fem.	-ī
Indecl.

Indeclinable adjectives are completely invariable, and can end in either consonants or vowels (including ā and ī ). A number of declinables display nasalization of all terminations. When alone and not qualifying a noun (i.e. in a dictionary; being cited) declinable adjectivals rest in their m. dir. sg. form (ending in ā).

• Examples of declinable adjectives: baṛā "big", choṭā "small", moṭā "fat", acchā "good", burā "bad", kālā "black", ṭhaṇḍā "cold".
• Examples of indeclinable adjectives: xarāb "bad", sāf "clean", bhārī "heavy", murdā "dead", sundar "beatiful", pāgal "crazy", lāl "red".

Declinable adjective baṛā "big" in use Sg. Pl. D O D O V M I baṛā laṛkā baṛā kuāṃ baṛā baccā baṛe laṛke baṛe kueṃ baṛe bacce baṛe laṛkoṃ baṛe kuoṃ baṛe baccoṃ baṛe laṛko baṛe bacco II baṛā seb baṛā pitā baṛā cākū baṛā ādmī baṛā mitra baṛe seb baṛe pitā baṛe cākū baṛe ādmī baṛe mitra baṛe seboṃ baṛe pitāoṃ baṛe cākuoṃ baṛe ādmiyoṃ baṛe mitroṃ baṛe pitāo baṛe ādmiyo baṛe mitro F I baṛī laṛkī baṛī śakti baṛī ciṛiyā baṛī laṛkiyāṃ baṛī śaktiyāṃ baṛī ciṛiyāṃ baṛī laṛkiyoṃ baṛī śaktiyoṃ baṛī ciṛiyoṃ baṛī laṛkiyo II baṛī kitāb baṛī bhāṣā baṛī aurat baṛī kitābeṃ baṛī bhāṣāeṃ baṛī aurteṃ baṛī kitāboṃ baṛī bhāṣāoṃ baṛī aurtoṃ baṛī aurto

Indeclinable adjective xarāb "bad" in use Sg. Pl. D O D O V M I xarāb laṛkā xarāb kuāṃ xarāb baccā xarāb laṛke xarāb kueṃ xarāb bacce xarāb laṛkoṃ xarāb kuoṃ xarāb baccoṃ xarāb laṛko xarāb bacco II xarāb seb xarāb pitā xarāb cākū xarāb ādmī xarāb mitra xarāb seboṃ xarāb pitāoṃ xarāb cākuoṃ xarāb ādmiyoṃ xarāb mitroṃ xarāb pitāo xarāb ādmiyo xarāb mitro F I xarāb laṛkī xarāb śakti xarāb ciṛiyā xarāb laṛkiyāṃ xarāb śaktiyāṃ xarāb ciṛiyāṃ xarāb laṛkiyoṃ xarāb śaktiyoṃ xarāb ciṛiyoṃ xarāb laṛkiyo II xarāb kitāb xarāb bhāṣā xarāb aurat xarāb kitābeṃ xarāb bhāṣāeṃ xarāb aurteṃ xarāb kitāboṃ xarāb bhāṣāoṃ xarāb aurtoṃ xarāb aurto

All adjectives can be used either attributively, predicatively, or substantively. Substantively they are of course declined as nouns rather than adjectives.

sā (~ se ~ sī) is a suffix for adjectives, modifying or lightening their meaning; giving them an "-ish" or "quite" sense. e.g. nīlā "blue" → nīlā-sā "bluish". Its emphasis is rather ambiguous, sometimes enhancing, sometimes downing down, the sense of the adjective.Snell & Weightman (1989:117)

Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparisons are made by using "than" (the postposition se; see below), "more" (aur, zyādā), and "less" (kam). The word for "more" is optional, while "less" is required, denoting that in the absence of either it's "more" than will be inferred.

Hindi-Urdu	Literal	Meaning
Gītā Gautam se lambī hai	Gita is tall than Gautam	Gita is taller than Gautam
Gītā Gautam se aur lambī hai	Gita is more tall than Gautam
Gītā Gautam se kam lambī hai	Gita is less tall than Gautam

In the absence of an object of comparison ("more" of course is now no longer optional):

Hindi-Urdu	Literal	Meaning
zyādā baṛā chokrā	The more big lad	The bigger lad
chokrā zyādā baṛā hai	The lad is more big	The lad is bigger

Superlatives are made through comparisons with "all" (sab).

Hindi-Urdu	Literal	Meaning
sabse sāf kamrā	The clean than all room	The cleanest room
kamrā sabse sāf hai	The room is clean than all	The room is the cleanest

In Sanskritized and Persianized registers of Hindi-Urdu, comparative and superlative adjectival forms using suffixes derived from those languages can be found.

	Sanskrit	Persian
Comp. ("-er")	-tar
Sup. ("-est")	-tam	-tarīn

Postpositions

Hindi-Urdu makes use of postpositions, which parallel English's prepositions. It is their use with a noun that is what necessitates the use of the oblique case (though the oblique is also minorly used adverbially). There are six, one-word primary postpositions:

• kā – genitive marker; variably declinable in the manner of an adjective. X kā/ke/kī Y has the sense "X's Y", with kā/ke/kī agreeing with Y.
• ko – marks the indirect object and, if definite, the direct object.
• ne – ergative marker; applied to subjects of transitive perfective verbs.
• se – has a very wide range of uses and meanings:
  • "from"; dilli se "from Delhi.
  • "since"; budhvār se "since Wednesday".
  • "by, with"; instrumental marker.
  • "by, with, -ly"; adverbial marker.
  • "than"; for comparatives.
  • a minority of verbs use se rather than ko to mark their "objects".
• par – "on".
• meṃ – "in".
• tak – "until, up to".

Beyond this are compound postpositions, composed of the genitive primary postposition kā plus a noun, adjective, or adverb.

• kī taraf "towards", ke andar "inside", ke āge "in front of, ahead of", ke ūpar "on top of, above", ke nīce "beneath, below", ke pīche "behind", ke bād "after", ke bāre meṃ "about", ke bāhar "outside", ke liye "for", ke sāmne "facing, opposite", etc.

Pronouns

Personal

Hindi-Urdu has personal pronouns for the first and second persons, while for the third person demonstratives are used, which can be categorized deictically as proximate and non-proximate. Pronouns distinguish person, number, and case, though not gender.

tū, tum, and āp are the three second person pronouns ("you"), constituting a three-fold scale of sociolinguistic formality: respectively "intimate", "familiar", and "polite". The "intimate" is grammatically singular while the "familiar" and "polite" are grammatically plural. When being referred to in the third person however, those of the "familiar" level of formality are grammatically singular rather than plural. The following table is adapted from Shapiro (2003:265).

	Personal					Demonstrative				Relative		Interrogative
	1st pn.		2nd pn.			3rd pn.
	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.		Prox.		Non-prox.		Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.
			Int.	Fam.	Pol.	Sg.	Pl./Pol.	Sg.	Pl./Pol.
Direct	mai	ham	tū	tum	āp	yah	ye	vah	ve	jo		kaun, kyā who, what
						yih		vuh
Oblique	mujh		tujh			is	in	us	un	jis	jin	kis	kin
Obl. + ko[8]	mujhe	hameṃ	tujhe	tumheṃ	āp ko	ise	inheṃ	use	unheṃ	jise	jinheṃ	kise	kinheṃ
Genitive	merā	hamārā	terā	tumhārā	āp kā	is kā	in kā	us kā	un kā	jis kā	jin kā	kis kā	kin kā
+ ne (Erg.)[9]	mai ne	ham ne	tū ne	tum ne	āp ne	is ne	inhoṃ ne	us ne	unhoṃ ne	jis ne	jinhoṃ ne	kis ne	kinhoṃ ne

• Postpositions are treated as bound morphemes after pronouns in Hindi, but as separate words in Urdu. Followed here is the example of Urdu, for easier reference.
• The varying forms for the 3rd pn. dir. constitute one of the small number of grammatical differences between Hindi and Urdu. The top set/row is Hindi: yah "this", ye "these", vah "that", ve "those"; the bottom set/row is Urdu: yih "this, these", vuh "that, those". The latter are pronounced vo and ye, and are the spoken (and also often written) colloquial standard of Hindi as well.
• The above section on postpositions noted that ko marks direct objects if definite. As "the most specific thing of all is an individual", persons (or their pronouns) nearly always take ko.
• Things to keep in mind about the pronominal oblique:
  • Rather than directly taking genitive kā for mujh kā "my", ham kā "our", tujh kā "your", tum kā "your", these 1st and 2nd person pronominals have their own distinctive, bound, genitive forms: merā "my", hamārā "our", terā "your", tumhārā "your".
  • ^ In addition to regular mujh ko, ham ko, tujh ko, etc. there is an optional set of contracted forms: mujhe, hameṃ, tujhe, tumheṃ, ise, inheṃ, use, unheṃ.
  • ^ The ergative postposition ne does not straightforwardly suffix the oblique set. Rather than mujh ne and tujh ne, direct bases are used for mai ne and tū ne; rather than in ne and un ne, novel bases are used for inhoṃ ne and unhoṃ ne.
• Some speakers prefer plural ham over singular mai. This is not quite the same as the "royal we"; it is rather colloquial.
• koī and kuch are indefinite pronouns/quantifiers. As pronouns koī is used for animates ("someone") and kuch for 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 "several" is partially a plural equivalent to koī. 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.
• 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 (direct; non-genitive) others: "my/your/etc.-self". Bases for oblique usage are usually apne or apne āp. The latter alone can also mean "of one's own accord"; āpas meṃ means "among/between themselves".

Derivates

Interrogative	Relative	Demonstrative
		Prox.	Non-prox.
kyā what?	jo	ye	vo
kaun who?
kab when?	jab when	ab now	tab then
kahāṃ where?	jahāṃ where	yahāṃ here	vahāṃ there
kidhar	jidhar	idhar	udhar
kitnā how much?	jitnā as much	itnā this much	utnā that much
kaisā	jaisā	aisā	vaisā
kaise	jaise	aise	vaise

Adverbs

Hindi-Urdu has few underived forms. Adverbs may be derived in the following ways —

• Simply obliquing some nouns and adjectives: nīcā "low" → nīce "down", sīdhā "straight" → sīdhe "straight", dhīrā "slow" → dhīre "slowly", saverā "morning" → savere "in the morning", ye taraf "this direction" → is taraf "in this direction", kalkattā "Calcutta" → kalkatte "to Calcutta".
• Nouns using a postposition such as se "by, with": zor "force" → zor se "forcefully" (lit. "with force"), dhyān "attention" → dhyān se "attentively" (lit. "with attention").
• Adjectives using postpositional phrases involving "way, manner": acchā "good" → acchī tarah se "well" (lit. "by/in a good way"), xās "special" → xās taur par "especially" (lit. "on a special way").
• Verbs in conjunctive form: haṃs- "laugh" → haṃs kar "laughingly" (lit. "having laughed"), mehrbānī kar- "do kindness" → mehrbānī kar ke "kindly, please" (lit. "having done kindness").

Verbs

The Hindi-Urdu verbal system is largely structured around a combination of aspect and tense/mood. Like the nominal system, the Hindi-Urdu verb involves successive layers of (inflectional) elements to the right of the lexical base.

Hindi-Urdu has 3 aspects: perfective, habitual, and progressive. These forms inflect 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 "so-called imperfective participle"; verb stem, plus -t-, then vowel. The progressive is built up of two words: the bare verb stem, proceeded specifically by the perfective of rahnā "to stay".

Derived from honā "to be" are five copula forms: present, past, subjunctive, presumptive, and irrealis (as named in Schmidt (2003:325); also called "past conditional" and "contrafactive"). Used both in basic predicative/existential sentences and as verbal auxiliaries following aspectual forms, these constitute the basis of tense and mood.

Non-aspectual forms include the infinitive, the imperative, the root subjunctive (as opposed to the auxiliary subjunctive used with aspectual forms), the (definite) future, the agentive noun, the present and past participles, and more.

Tabled below on the left are the paradigms for the major Gender and Number termination (GN), which is only slightly different from that introduced in the adjectives section: the f. pl. can nasalize under certain conditions. To the right are the paradigms for the Person and Number termination (PN), used by the subjunctive.

(GN) Sg. Pl. Masc. -ā -e Fem. -ī -ī(ṃ)

(PN) 1st. 2nd. 3rd. Sg. -ūṃ -e Pl. Fam. -eṃ -o -eṃ Pol. -eṃ

Displayed in the next two sections are the 3. m. sg. verb forms (thus GN = ā and PN = e) of the regular verb bolnā with its root bol. They are presented in non-aspectual and aspectual categories in the manner of Shapiro (2003:267-268).

Non-Aspectual

The future tense is formed by adding the suffix gā (~ ge ~ gī) to the subjunctive, which is a contraction of gaā (= gāya, perfective participle of jānā "to go"). The future suffix, conjunctive participle, and suffix vālā are treated as bound morphemes in written Hindi, but as separate words in written Urdu. Again followed here is the example of Urdu, for easier reference.

Root	*	bol
Infinitive	*-n-GN	bolnā to speak
Conjunctive	* kar	bol kar having spoken
Agentive	*-ne vāl-GN	bolne vālā speaker
Subjunctive	*-PN	bole
Future	*-PN g-GN	bole gā will speak

Imperatives
Intimate	*	bol
Familiar	*-o	bolo
Polite	*-iye	boliye
Deferred	*-nā	bolnā
Deferential	*-iye gā	boliye gā

Shapiro (2003:268) lists the polite imperative ending as -iye, while Schmidt (2003:330) lists it as -ie but -iye after ā, o, ū.

Aspectual

The following tables derive from Shapiro (2003:267), Schmidt (2003:324–325), and Masica (1991:292–294).

All forms of the copula honā "to be"
			Pronoun	Present	Past		Subjunctive	Presumptive		Irrealis
					M.	F.		M.	F.	M.	F.
Sg.	1st.		mai	hūṃ	thā	thī	hūṃ	hūṃ gā	hūṃ gī	hotā	hotī
	2nd. Int.		tū	hai			ho	ho gā	ho gī
	3rd.		vah
Pl.	1st.		ham	haiṃ	the	thīṃ	hoṃ	hoṃ ge	hoṃ gī	hote	hotīṃ
	2nd.	Fam.	tum	ho			ho	ho ge	ho gī
		Pol.	āp	haiṃ			hoṃ	hoṃ ge	hoṃ gī
	3rd.		ve

Aspectual forms with copulas
		Present	Past	Subjunctive	Presumptive	Irrealis	Unspecified
Perfective	*-GN	bolā hai has spoken	bolā thā had spoken	bolā ho	bolā ho gā must have spoken	bolā hotā	bolā spoke
Habitual	*-t-GN	boltā hai speaks	boltā thā spoke	boltā ho	boltā ho gā must have spoken	boltā hotā	boltā
Progressive	* rah-GN	bol rahā hai is speaking	bol rahā thā was speaking	bol rahā ho	bol rahā ho gā must be speaking	bol rahā hotā

• For the 1. subj. sg. copula Schmidt (2003:324) and Snell & Weightman (1989:113, 125) list hūṃ while Shapiro (2003:267) lists hoūṃ.
• The euphonic glide y is inserted in perfective participles between prohibited vowel clusters. It is historically the remnant of the old perfective marker. The clusters are a + ā, ā + ā, o + ā, and ī + ā, resulting in āyā, ayā, oyā, iyā. e.g. khāyā/khāye/khāī/khāīṃ (khā- "eat").
• In addition, the combinations ī + ī and i + ī give ī. e.g. piyā/piye/pī/pīṃ (pī- "drink").
• Agreement is with the subject, except in the transitive perfective, where agreement is with the direct object, with the erstwhile subject taking the ergative postposition ne; the perfective aspect thus displays split ergativity. If however the direct object takes the postposition (ko), or if no direct object is expressed, then agreement neutralizes to default m. sg..
• Is this regard, there are a small number of verbs that while perhaps logically transitive are still grammatically intransitive, thus not taking ne and continuing to agree with the subject, in the perfective. e.g. lānā "to bring", bhūlnā "to forget", milnā "to meet", etc.

Irregular

Hindi-Urdu displays a small number of irregular forms. Blank cells in the table denote regular forms.

Root	Perf. Stem	Imperative		Subj. Stem
		Fam.	Pol.
ho- "be"	hū-
jā- "go"	ga-
kar- "do"	ki-		kījie
de- "give"	di-	do	dījie	d-
le- "take"	li-	lo	lījie	l-
pī- "drink"			pījie

Passive

The passive construction is periphrastic. It is formed from the perfective participle by addition of the auxiliary jānā "to go"; i.e. bolnā "to speak" → bolā jānā "to be spoken". The agent is marked by the postposition se. Furthermore, both intransitive and transitive may be grammatically passivized to show physical/psychological incapacity, usually in negative sentences. Lastly, intransitives often have a passive sense, or convey unintentional action.

Causatives

Transitives or causatives are morphologically contrastive in Hindi-Urdu, leading to the existence of morphologically 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.

It is from starting intransitive or transitive verb stems that further transitive/causative stems are produced. Here are the assorted rules —

1a. Root vowel change: a → ā, u/ū → o, i/ī → e. Sometimes accompanied by root final consonant change: k → c, ṭ → ṛ, l → Ø.

1b. Suffixation of -ā. Often accompanied by:

Root vowel change: ū/o → u, e/ai/ā/ī → i.

Insertion of semivowel l between such vowel-terminating stems.

2. Suffixation of -vā (in place of -ā if and where it'd occur) for a "causitive".

The following are sets culled from Shapiro (2003:270) and Snell & Weightman (1989:243–244). The lack of third members displayed for the ghūmnā to dhulnā sets does not imply that they do not exist but that they were simply not listed in the source literature (Snell & Weightman 1989:243). Intransitive verbs are coloured brown while transitives remain the usual black.

• girnā "to fall", girānā "to fell", girvānā "to cause to be felled".
• banna "to become", banānā "to make", banvānā "to cause to be made".
• khulnā "to open", kholnā "to open", khulvānā "to caused to be opened".
• sīkhnā "to learn", sikhānā "to teach", sikhvānā "to cause to be taught".
• khānā "to eat", khilānā "to feed", khilvānā "to cause to be fed".
• biknā "to sell", becnā "to sell", bikvānā "to cause to be sold".
• dikhnā/dīkhnā "to seem", dekhnā "to see", dikhānā "to show", dikhvānā "to cause to be shown".
• kahnā "to say", kahlānā "to be called".
• ghūmnā "to go round", ghumānā "to make go round".
• leṭnā "to lie down", liṭānā "to lay down".
• baiṭhnā "to sit", biṭhānā "to seat".
• sonā "to sleep", sulānā "to make sleep".
• dhulnā "to wash", dhonā "to wash".
• ṭūṭnā "to break", toṛnā "to break", tuṛānā "to cause to be broken".

In the causative model of "to cause to be Xed", the agent takes the postposition se. Thus Y se Z banvānā "to cause Z to be made by Y" = "to cause Y to make Z" = "to have Z made by Y" = "to have Y make Z", etc.

Compound verbs

Compound verbs, a highly visible feature of Hindi-Urdu grammar, consist of a verbal stem plus an auxiliary verb. The auxiliary (variously called "subsidiary", "explicator verb", and "vector") loses its own independent meaning and instead "lends a certain shade of meaning" to the main verb, which "comprises the lexical core of the compound". While most any verb can act as a main verb, there is a limited set of productive auxiliaries. Shown below are prominent such auxiliaries, with their independent meaning first outlined, followed by their semantic contribution as auxiliaries.

• jānā "to go"; gives a sense of completeness, finality, or change of state. e.g. ānā "to come" → ā jānā "to come, arrive", khānā "to eat" → khā jānā "to eat up", pīnā "to drink" → pī jānā "to drink up", baiṭhnā "to sit" → baiṭh jānā "to sit down", samajhnā "to understand" → samajh jānā "to realise", sonā "to sleep" → so jānā "to go to sleep", honā "to be" → ho jānā "to become".
• lenā "to take"; suggests that the benefit of the action flows towards the doer. e.g. paṛh lenā "to read (to/for oneself)".
• denā "to take"; suggests that the benefit of the action flows away from the doer. e.g. paṛh denā "to read (out)".

The above three are the most common of auxiliaries, and the "least marked", or "lexically nearly colourless". The nuance laden by an auxiliary can often be very subtle and as well is not necessarily grounds for a rendering in different words upon translation to English as the examples here might conveniently show. lenā and denā, transitive verbs, occur with transitives, while intransitive jānā occurs mostly with intransitives; a compound of a transitive and jānā will be intransitive as jānā is.

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.

• ḍālnā "to throw, pour"; indicates an action done vigorously, decisively, violently or recklessly; it is an intensifier, showing intensity, urgency, completeness, or violence. e.g. mārnā "to strike" → mār ḍālnā "to kill", pīnā "to drink" → pī ḍālnā "to drink down".
• baiṭhnā "to sit"; implies an action done foolishly or stubbornly; shows speaker disapproval or an implusive or involuntary action. kahnā "to say" → kah baiṭhnā "to blurt out", karnā "to do" → kar baiṭhnā "to do (as a blunder)", laṛnā "to fight" → laṛ baiṭhnā "to quarrel (foolishly)".
• paṛnā "to fall"; connotes involuntary, sudden, or unavoidable occurrence; adds a sense of suddenness or change of state, with its independent/literal meaning sometimes showing through in a sense of downward movement.
• uṭhnā "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. e.g. jalnā "to burn" → jal uṭhnā "to burst into flames", nacnā "to dance" → nac uṭhnā "to break into dance".
• 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.

Conjunct verbs

Another notable aspect of Hindi-Urdu grammar is that of "conjunct verbs", comprised of a noun or adjective paired up with a general verbalizer, most commonly transitive karnā "to do" or intransitive honā "to be", functioning in the place of what in English would be single unified verb. 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 transitive perfective and in infinitival constructions), and the semantic patient of the conjunct verbal expression is often expressed/marked syntactically as a genitive adjunct (-kā ~ ke ~ kī) of the noun.

Syntax

Word order

The neutral order of the words in a sentence is SOV (i.e., Subject Object Verb). However, if the postpositions are properly attached with the nouns, the word order in Hindustani becomes freer than in English, but not as free as in Latin or Sanskrit. Altering the word order serves (in conjunction with tone of speaking) to shift the emphasis of the sentence elsewhere. If the subject is a noun, the adjective may come before the noun (in the attributive position) or between the noun and the verb (in the predicative position — but only if the main verb is होना /hoː.naː/ to be). If the subject is a pronoun, the adjective comes in the predicative position. The space between the subject and the verb may be filled by adverbs, instrumental phrase, dative phrase, locative phrase, etc. The interrogative particles normally come right before the word it is asking about. The word order, unlike in English, need not be reversed in a question. Yes/no questions can be formed by placing the interrogative pronoun क्या /kjaː/ at the very beginning of the sentence. Question tags can be formed by placing the negative particle न /nə/ at the end of the sentence. This often indicates a polite request (without explicitly using please). The negative particle otherwise normally comes before the verb. Certain particles stress the word that follows them immediately. E.g., ही /hiː/ (only, as a particle of emphasis), भी /bʱiː/ (also), तक /t̪ək/, तो /t̪oː/, भर /bʱəɾ/, etc. For meaningful sentences, the various units of the sentence must have proximity with each other; otherwise the sentence would become ludicrous. E.g., if the noun is a genitive phrase, the attributive adjective must come immediately before that component it wishes to quality, and not necessarily before the entire phrase.

Noun/adjective/adverb phrases are common in Hindustani. The head of the phrase normally comes after the phrase’s complement. In a noun phrase, the possessed item comes after the possessor. Embedded clauses are also common. For adjective clauses whether the clause is restrictive or non-restrictive, the embedded clause is joined with the main clause by j-beginning relative pronouns (E.g., jo, jahān, jaise, etc.) and never by the corresponding interrogative pronouns (as it happens in English). Subordinate noun clauses are often linked by the conjunction कि /ki/ (lit., that, of Persian origin).

Compound sentences (those with two or more equally important simple clauses) are usually linked by conjunctions such as और /ɔːɾ/ — and, या /jaː/ — or, लेकिन /leː.kin/ — but, इसलिये /is.li.jeː/ — therefore, वरना /vəɾ.naː/ — otherwise, etc. Sometimes double conjunctions are also used wherever needed. E.g., न … न /nə/ … /nə/ — neither … nor.

Ellipsis

• Hindustani is a Pro-drop language, i.e., it allows a null pronoun as its subject. Its absence is fulfilled by the properly conjugated verb. E.g., सोच रहा हूँ कि उससे ये बात कहूँ या नहीं । (मैं omitted).
• Unlike English, an explicit dummy pronoun like it, there (It is raining. There was a King.) is not allowed. The theme of the sentence becomes the explicit subject. बारिश हो रही है । (lit., Rain is occurring).

Bibliography

• Template:Harvard reference.
• Template:Harvard reference.
• Template:Harvard reference.
• Template:Harvard reference.

Further Reading

• Template:Harvard reference.

See also

• Hindi
• Urdu
• Hindustani
• Hindustani orthography
• Hindi-Urdu phonology