Punjab PSEB Matric Sanskrit key terms

A noun: a word that names a person, place, thing, or quality, such as राम, नगरम्, or सुखम्. It takes case endings and is classified by gender and number.

A pronoun: a word standing in place of a noun, such as अहम्, त्वम्, सः, एषः, or कः. Its forms change for person, gender, number, and case.

A verb: a word expressing action or state, such as पठति, गच्छति, or अस्ति. It agrees with its subject in person and number and carries tense and mood.

An adjective: a word describing a noun and matching it in gender, number, and case, as in रामः बलवान् अस्ति. It narrows or qualifies the meaning of the noun it modifies.

An indeclinable: a word whose form never changes with case, gender, or number, such as च, अपि, एव, and उप. Adverbs, conjunctions, and many prepositions fall in this class.

Grammatical gender: the category that sorts nouns and adjectives as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Gender decides which endings a word takes and which adjective forms agree with it.

Grammatical number: singular, dual, or plural. Sanskrit marks all three, so एकवचन, द्विवचन, and बहुवचन each have distinct endings on nouns, pronouns, and verbs.

A case ending showing a noun's grammatical role in a sentence, such as subject, object, or possessor. Sanskrit has eight cases, from प्रथमा (nominative) through सम्बोधन (vocative).

The semantic role a noun plays in relation to a verb, such as doer (कर्ता), object (कर्म), or instrument (करण). Case endings are chosen according to these roles.

A verb root: the basic meaningful element from which verb forms are built, such as पठ् (read) or गम् (go). Roots are listed in the traditional gaṇa system.

A tense or mood category of the verb, named by the letter written in traditional paradigms, such as लट् (present), लङ् (past imperfect), and लृट् (future). Each has its own set of endings.

Grammatical person: first (speaker, as अहम्), second (addressee, as त्वम्), or third (other, as सः). Verb endings change to match the person of the subject.

One of ten traditional classes of verb roots, each with its own pattern for forming the present stem. Knowing a root's gaṇa tells you how to conjugate it.

A prefix added to a verb root to change its meaning, such as प्र in प्रगच्छति or अनु in अनुगच्छति. Prefixes modify sense but are not separate words.

The sound change that occurs where two words or word elements meet, as अ + इ becomes ए in सूर्य + उदयः = सूर्योदयः. Rules govern which sounds combine and how.

A compound: two or more words joined into a single word, such as राजपुत्र (king's son). The compound's meaning depends on its type, e.g. तत्पुरुष or द्वन्द्व.

Voice of a verb: whether the subject does the action (कर्तरि), receives it (कर्मणि), or is described impersonally (भावे). Voice changes both verb form and case usage.

A suffix attached to a root or stem to form a new word, such as क्त्वा in गत्वा or तव्य in कर्तव्य. Suffixes build participles, infinitives, and derived nouns.

A word formed from a verb root plus a kṛt suffix, such as पठित्वा, गन्तुम्, or पठन्. These forms act partly like verbs and partly like nouns or adjectives.

A noun, pronoun, or adjective form ending in a case suffix (sub). Such words decline through the eight cases in three numbers and are the main subject of noun tables.

Translation: rendering a passage from Sanskrit into Punjabi, Hindi, or English. In exams it tests comprehension of vocabulary, compounds, and sentence structure together.

Prose: connected text written without fixed metre, such as a story or an essay. Prose passages in the syllabus are read for meaning, grammar, and comprehension questions.

Verse: text composed in measured lines with a fixed metre, such as a śloka. Verses are studied for meaning, metre, and poetic figures.

Metre: the fixed pattern of syllables in a verse, such as अनुष्टुभ्. Each metre specifies syllable count and placement of light and heavy syllables.

A poetic figure: a deliberate device that beautifies expression, such as उपमा (simile) or रूपक (metaphor). Identifying figures is a common question type in verse questions.

Simile: a comparison of two things using words such as इव, वत्, or सदृश, as in मुखम् इव चन्द्रः. The comparison is stated openly rather than implied.

Metaphor: an implied comparison in which one thing is described as another without words like इव, as in राजा चन्द्रः. Unlike उपमा, the identification is direct.

A stanza, most often in the अनुष्टुभ् metre of four eight-syllable quarters. It is the standard verse unit in epics and in school textbooks.

A well-turned, morally instructive verse, often collected in anthologies. Such verses appear in the syllabus for translation and for discussion of their ethical message.

Drama: a play written for performance, with dialogue, stage directions, and characters. Sanskrit drama typically mixes prose dialogue with verse passages.

Narration: the telling of events in a story, whether in prose or verse. Narration questions ask who did what, in what order, and with what result.

Summarising: giving the main points of a passage briefly in your own words. Exam tasks often ask for a short summary of a story or verse passage.

Grammar: the system of rules governing word formation, inflection, and sentence construction. In this exam it covers declension, conjugation, compounds, and sandhi.

A noun declension table: the full set of case and number forms of a noun, such as राम, रामौ, रामाः. Candidates are expected to reproduce and recognise these forms.

A verb conjugation table: the forms of a root across persons, numbers, and tenses, such as पठति, पठतः, पठन्ति. Memorising these patterns is core to the syllabus.

A numeral: a number word such as एक, द्वौ, त्रयः, or दश. Numerals decline like adjectives and agree with the noun counted in gender, number, and case.

The vocative case, used when addressing someone directly, as हे राम! Its forms often differ from the nominative and are listed last in the declension table.

The natural order of words in a sentence, or the reordering of a verse into prose order to make its meaning clear. Explaining anvaya is a standard exercise on verse passages.

Meaning: the sense conveyed by a word, sentence, or passage. Questions frequently ask for the meaning of a word in context or the overall sense of a verse.