Maharashtra HSC Punjabi (MSBSHSE) key terms

The prose section of the prescribed Punjabi textbook, containing essays, short stories and biographical sketches studied for theme, character and author's purpose in the HSC paper.

The poetry section of the prescribed textbook; candidates analyse stanza meaning, poetic devices, tone and the poet's message rather than memorising paraphrase alone.

A short story in the prose section, examined through plot, setting, characters and the central idea or moral the writer conveys.

A prose essay in the textbook that presents the writer's reasoned view on a topic; questions ask for the main argument and supporting points.

A character in a prescribed story or play; answers must describe traits with evidence from events rather than listing adjectives only.

Character sketch: a structured answer describing a character's appearance, behaviour, speech and role, each point supported by an incident from the text.

The theme or central subject of a prose piece or poem; identifying it correctly is the first step in most long-answer questions.

A summary of a text's content in the candidate's own words, keeping the main ideas in order and omitting illustrative detail.

The aesthetic sentiment a poem or passage evokes in the reader, such as veer ras (heroism), shringar ras (love) or karun ras (pathos).

A poetic figure of speech such as upma (simile), rupak (metaphor) or anupras (alliteration); candidates must name the figure and quote the line containing it.

Simile: an explicit comparison using words like 'ਵਾਂਗ', 'ਜਿਵੇਂ' or 'ਸਮਾਨ', where the compared objects remain distinct and the point of likeness is stated.

Metaphor: an implied comparison in which one thing is identified with another without a comparing word, so the two are fused into a single image.

The feeling or emotional import of a line or poem, distinct from its literal meaning; questions often ask candidates to explain the underlying sentiment.

Metre: the patterned arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem; naming the metre may be required when analysing a prescribed verse.

Rhyme at the end of lines; noting the rhyme scheme helps candidates describe the musical structure of a poem in appreciation answers.

The supplementary or rapid-reading book prescribed alongside the main text, tested through short questions on plot, characters and moral lessons.

Précis writing: condensing a passage to roughly one-third of its length while preserving the central argument and avoiding personal comment or examples.

Letter writing, formal or informal; the format requires sender's address, date, salutation, body paragraphs and closing, with tone suited to the recipient.

Report writing on an event or issue; it needs a headline, dateline, lead paragraph answering what, when, where and who, then factual detail in past tense.

An essay in the writing section, organised as introduction, developed body paragraphs and conclusion, with a clear stand and relevant examples.

Noun: a word naming a person, place, thing or idea; classified as proper, common, collective, material or abstract in Punjabi grammar questions.

Pronoun: a word used in place of a noun, such as ਮੈਂ, ਤੂੰ, ਉਹ or ਆਪਣਾ; agreement with the replaced noun matters in correction exercises.

Adjective: a word that qualifies a noun or pronoun by describing quality, quantity, number or demonstrative reference, agreeing with the noun it modifies.

Verb: a word expressing an action or state; candidates identify tense, person, number and whether the verb is transitive or intransitive.

Grammatical tense: present, past and future forms, including habitual and continuous aspects, tested through fill-in and transformation items.

Grammatical gender in Punjabi, masculine or feminine; correct gender affects verb and adjective endings and is a frequent error in composition.

Grammatical number, singular or plural; Punjabi marks plurality through noun endings and matching verb forms, so agreement must be checked in every sentence.

Grammatical case relation between a noun and the verb, marked by postpositions such as ਨੇ, ਨੂੰ, ਤੋਂ and ਦਾ; identifying the karak guides correct sentence construction.

Postposition: a word placed after a noun to show its relation to another element, for example ਦਾ, ਵਿੱਚ, ਉੱਤੇ or ਲਈ.

Sentence structure; candidates rearrange jumbled words into a grammatical sentence and identify subject, object and predicate in the given order.

An idiom whose meaning cannot be derived from its individual words; it must be used in a sentence in a way that shows the figurative sense.

A proverb or traditional saying carrying folk wisdom; exam items ask for its meaning and an appropriate context of use.

Synonym: a word with a meaning close to another, such as ਸੂਰਜ and ਰਵੀ; matching items test breadth of vocabulary.

Antonym: a word opposite in meaning to another, such as ਉੱਚਾ and ਨੀਵਾਂ; candidates supply the opposite in vocabulary exercises.

The script used for Punjabi, written left to right; its alphabet is arranged in rows of related consonant shapes, with vowel signs attached to consonants.

Vowel signs written above, below, before or after a consonant to indicate a vowel sound; placing them wrongly changes the word and loses marks in dictation.

The mark placed under a consonant to show that it carries no inherent vowel, so two consonants can be joined without an intervening 'a' sound.

A subscript form of the letter ਹ placed under certain consonants to show a doubled or aspirated sound, as in the spelling of some prescribed words.

The sign ੱ written above a consonant to double it, as in ਪੱਕਾ; omitting or misplacing it is a common spelling error in the writing section.