Seven marks lost in the grammar block: samasa labels, a sন্ধি label and a defective voice item
Sagar's grammar block is worth 20 marks as twenty one-mark items, and he budgets 22 minutes for it. In the mock he loses 7 marks. Three of the losses are সমাস classifications. Asked to name the সমাস in কমলনয়ন he writes কর্মধারয় and is marked wrong; the key says বহুব্রীহি. He got নীলপদ্ম right as কর্মধারয়, and he now believes the two compounds are 'the same type' and that the key is arbitrary. Two more marks go on সন্ধি: he splits হিমালয় correctly as হিম + আলয় but labels it ব্যঞ্জনসন্ধি where the key wants স্বরসন্ধি, and he mislabels a second item the same way. The last loss is a voice (বাচ্য) item asking for the কর্মবাচ্য of শিশুটি ঘুমিয়ে পড়েছে, where he crossed out his answer and left it blank. The block also contains one শব্দার্থ/অনুবাদ item worth 1 mark, which he answered correctly.
1. Using a vigraha test, show why কমলনয়ন is বহুব্রীহি while নীলপদ্ম is কর্মধারয়, and give Sagar a one-line decision rule.
Read the worked answer
The key is not arbitrary; it follows the vigraha, and the vigraha is written before the label.
- নীলপদ্ম → নীল যে পদ্ম. The compound still names the lotus; the first member is an adjective qualifying the second. That is কর্মধারয় (বিশেষণ-পূর্বপদ).
- কমলনয়ন → কমল নয়নের অধিকারী / কমল-চিহ্নিত নয়ন যার. The compound no longer names the eye; it names the person who possesses such eyes. That is বহুব্রীহি.
One-line rule: expand the compound - if the head word of the expansion is the second member itself, it is কর্মধারয়; if the expansion ends in …যার / …অধিকারী / …বিশিষ্ট and the compound names the possessor, it is বহুব্রীহি.
Practical habit: write the vigraha in the margin first. Even where a label is disputed, a correct vigraha usually keeps the mark, and it makes the label obvious instead of a guess based on how the word sounds.
2. The বাচ্য item asks for the কর্মবাচ্য of শিশুটি ঘুমিয়ে পড়েছে and Sagar left it blank. Decide whether the item is defective and say exactly what he should write.
Read the worked answer
The item is defective. কর্মবাচ্য works by promoting an object to subject position, which requires a transitive verb with an object. ঘুমিয়ে পড়া is অকর্মক - there is no object to promote - so a true কর্মবাচ্য does not exist.
The only available transformation is ভাববাচ্য, e.g. শিশুটির ঘুমিয়ে পড়া হয়েছে / শিশুটির ঘুম এসেছে.
What he should write, in about twenty seconds:
শিশুটির ঘুমিয়ে পড়া হয়েছে। (অকর্মক ক্রিয়া - কর্মবাচ্য অসম্ভব, ভাববাচ্য দেখানো হলো।)
A blank is a guaranteed zero; a transformation plus a one-line reason is either full or partial credit, and examiners do reward correct reasoning on a flawed item. Two rules follow: (a) never blank a grammar item - write the nearest valid transformation and name the reason; (b) leave defective-looking items for the end, so they cannot eat the time belonging to five other items.
3. He has 22 minutes for 20 one-mark items and keeps over-investing in the disputed ones. Set a time rule and an order of attack, and say where the শব্দার্থ/অনুবাদ item belongs.
Read the worked answer
Time rule: 1 mark = 60 seconds, hard cap. Total 20 items = 20 minutes, leaving 2 minutes' buffer. Anything still uncertain at 60 seconds gets a dot in the margin and is revisited only with the buffer.
Order of attack:
- সন্ধি, সমাস and বাচ্য first - they are rule-driven and the vigraha/expansion test can be executed in seconds.
- Sentence-level items (সংযোজন, বাক্য পরিবর্তন) next - quick but easy to over-polish.
- শব্দার্থ/অনুবাদ last. Vocabulary cannot be reasoned into existence; either the word is known or it is a 60-second loss. Doing it last means a guess costs nothing, whereas doing it first spends prime thinking time on a coin-flip.
On the disputed items: commit to the vigraha-based answer rather than the label that merely sounds familiar. A wrong-but-reasoned answer is sometimes credited; a rewritten, half-erased answer never is - and the crossing-out is what made him slow.