Two Drafts of a School Notice
In a school composition class, 26 students must turn a notice into Sanskrit: Students should bring their own Sanskrit dictionary on Wednesday. Two drafts are on the board. Draft A: छात्राः स्वकीयां संस्कृतशब्दकोशं बुधवारे आनयन्तु। Draft B: छात्रैः स्वकीयः संस्कृतशब्दकोशः बुधवारे आनेतव्यः। The teacher says both are understandable but only one is fully acceptable for a notice. A student protests that Sanskrit has free word order, so the difference is only style. Another asks whether स्वकीय should agree with छात्राः or with शब्दकोश. The class has to choose a draft, correct it, and then translate a second sentence: The teacher will explain the rule to the students tomorrow. The constraint is that the Sanskrit must be grammatical, gender-consistent, and suitable for a school notice.
1. Choose the better draft, correct all agreement errors, and explain the case and gender decisions.
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Draft B is already grammatical: छात्रैः is instrumental plural with the passive participle आनेतव्यः, and स्वकीयः agrees with the masculine शब्दकोशः. Draft A is not fully acceptable as written because स्वकीयां is feminine accusative; it should agree with शब्दकोश, giving स्वकीयं. Corrected, Draft A reads: छात्राः स्वकीयं संस्कृतशब्दकोशं बुधवारे आनयन्तु. For a school notice, the corrected A is direct and clear; B is formal and impersonal. The choice depends on tone, but the agreement error in A must be fixed. स्वकीय agrees with the thing possessed, not with the possessor, so it cannot be feminine merely because छात्राः refers to students.
2. Translate the second sentence and justify the case of students and the tense.
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Translation: श्वः शिक्षकः छात्रेभ्यः नियमं व्याख्यास्यति. छात्रेभ्यः is dative plural because the teacher explains to the students; नियमम् is accusative singular as the object; व्याख्यास्यति is future third singular, matching श्वः. Word order is flexible, but the default order places the time word first and the verb last. If the school prefers a more formal register, बोधयिष्यति can replace व्याख्यास्यति, but the cases remain the same.
3. A student says free word order means any order is correct. Give a short example from the corrected notice where changing order changes emphasis, not grammar.
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Free word order does not mean free emphasis. In बुधवारे छात्राः स्वकीयं शब्दकोशं आनयन्तु, the first word highlights the day; in छात्राः स्वकीयं शब्दकोशं बुधवारे आनयन्तु, the day is less prominent and the students' action is foregrounded. Both are grammatical, but a notice writer chooses order to guide attention. The same logic explains why the teacher's correction of स्वकीयं is not a matter of style: agreement is grammatical, while order is largely pragmatic.