Grammar (Vyakaran): Morphology, Syntax and Applied Grammar
What the Vyakaran section tests
Grammar questions cover morphology (noun gender and number, case forms, pronouns, adjectives, verb stems), syntax (word order, agreement, postpositions, sentence types) and applied grammar (correction, transformation, fill-in-the-blank).
Core rules
- Punjabi nouns are masculine or feminine; gender controls adjective and verb agreement.
- Postpositions follow the noun or pronoun: ਘਰ ਵਿੱਚ, ਕੁੜੀ ਲਈ. Do not place them before, as English "in the house" might tempt you to do.
- In perfective transitive sentences the subject takes ਨੇ: ਕੁੜੀ ਨੇ ਚਿੱਠੀ ਲਿਖੀ. The verb agrees with the object, not the subject.
- Basic order is Subject–Object–Verb.
- Respect register: ਤੂੰ is intimate, ਤੁਸੀਂ polite or plural.
- For transformation, change only the requested feature and keep the meaning.
Worked example
Correct: ਕੁੜੀ ਨੇ ਚਿੱਠੀ ਲਿਖੀ ("The girl wrote a letter"). Reasoning: ਲਿਖਣਾ is transitive and perfective, so the subject takes ਨੇ. ਚਿੱਠੀ is feminine singular, so the verb is ਲਿਖੀ, not ਲਿਖਿਆ. The common error ਕੁੜੀ ਚਿੱਠੀ ਲਿਖੀ is missing the ergative marker; ਕੁੜੀ ਨੇ ਚਿੱਠੀ ਲਿਖਿਆ has wrong agreement.
Traps
- Omitting ਨੇ with a perfective transitive verb.
- Making the verb agree with the subject when it should agree with the object.
- Putting postpositions before nouns.
- Using ਤੂੰ in a formal letter.
- Changing more than the question asks in a transformation.