Grammar (Qawaid): Morphology, Syntax and Usage
What Qawaid tests
The grammar paper tests kalma classification (ism, fail, harf), gender and number, verb forms and agreement, and applied usage: muhawara, zarab-ul-masal, mutradif and mutazad.
Core rules
- Ism subtypes: ism-e-khas (proper), ism-e-aam (common), ism-e-zameer (pronoun), ism-e-ishara (yeh, woh), ism-e-mausool (jo), ism-e-istifham (kaun, kya).
- Fail subtypes: mazi (past), haal (present), mustaqbil (future), amr (imperative), nahi (prohibitive), and the pair mutaaddi (transitive) and ghair-mutaaddi (intransitive).
- Huroof: jarr (se, tak, mein, par, ka/ki/ke, ne), ataf (aur, ya, lekin, magar), nida (ae, ai, o), istifham (kya, kaun).
- Gender and number drive agreement. Note the ergative ne: in transitive mazi the subject takes ne and the verb agrees with the object, not the subject.
Worked example
Sentence: larke ne kitaabein padhi.
Reasoning: ne marks a transitive past, so larke is oblique and does not control the verb. Kitaabein is muannas jama, so the verb must be padhi, feminine plural. Larke ne kitaab padha is wrong twice over: kitaab is muannas, so the verb should be padhi, and a plural object would require kitaabein padhi. Test agreement by asking which noun the verb is answering to.
Traps
- Inserting ne into intransitive past sentences: woh gaya, never us ne gaya.
- Matching the verb to the subject automatically in ne-sentences.
- Supplying a mutradif when the question demands a mutazad.
- Explaining a muhawara literally instead of idiomatically.