Hindi constructions, agreement and contextual vocabulary
Hindi structure practice connects grammatical forms with meaning. Identify the participants, tense, postpositions and intended relationship before choosing a form. Shared Prabodh and Praveen examples provide review for Pragya, not a claim of identical course difficulty or official examination marking.
लिंग (gender)
Hindi has two genders, and grammatical gender cannot be deduced from meaning.
- Words in -ा are usually masculine: लड़का, घोड़ा.
- Words in -ी are usually feminine: लड़की, नदी, रोटी.
- Masculine exceptions in -ी that examiners favour: पानी, माली, धोबी, आदमी, हाथी.
- Feminine words in -ा: हवा, दवा, दया, कृपा, आशा, परीक्षा, सभा.
- Suffix cues: -ता and -आई are feminine (ममता, भलाई); -पन is masculine (बचपन, अपनापन).
वचन (number)
- Masculine -ा → -े: लड़का → लड़के, कमरा → कमरे.
- Feminine -ी → -ियाँ: लड़की → लड़कियाँ, नदी → नदियाँ.
- Feminine -आ and consonant endings take -एँ: माता → माताएँ, आँख → आँखें, बात → बातें.
कारक और क्रिया-अन्वय
Traditional कारक analysis uses markers including: ने (कर्ता), को (कर्म, सम्प्रदान), से (करण, अपादान), के लिए (सम्प्रदान), का/की/के (सम्बन्ध), में/पर (अधिकरण), हे/अरे (सम्बोधन). In common agreement patterns, an unmarked subject can control the verb; with a ने-marked agent in a transitive perfective, an unmarked object can control agreement. If the relevant controller is marked, a default masculine singular form can occur. Analyse the actual construction rather than impose one rule on all auxiliaries and verb classes.
Worked example
“लड़कियों ने मीठी रोटियाँ खाईं।” The कर्ता carries ने, so the verb cannot agree with लड़कियों; it agrees with रोटियाँ, feminine plural, giving खाईं. Replace the object with खाना, masculine singular, and the same frame becomes “लड़कियों ने खाना खाया।” Now add को - “उसने बच्चों को बुलाया।” - and the verb falls back to the default masculine singular बुलाया. Knowing which noun controls the verb is worth more than memorising paradigms.
Traps
- Adding ने mechanically: the ordinary sentence is वह गया, not वह ने गया. This example does not establish that every verb classified as intransitive has identical behavior in every construction.
- Feminising every -ी word; पानी and माली are masculine.
- Spelling plurals as लड़कीयाँ or मातायें; the standard forms are लड़कियाँ and माताएँ.
- Choosing का/की/के without checking the possessed noun: राम का घर but राम की किताब.
- Treating a compound verb (खा लेना, भेज देना) as two separate verbs in agreement.