General Hindi: Applied Grammar for UPSSSC AGTA
What the General Hindi section tests
UPSSSC AGTA's General Hindi paper checks applied grammar rather than literary history alone: संधि, समास, उपसर्ग–प्रत्यय, कारक, वाच्य, वाक्य-शुद्धि, मुहावरे and लोकोक्तियाँ. Questions usually ask for a विच्छेद, a समास name, or the correct sentence.
Core rules
- संधि: स्वर संधि (दीर्घ, गुण, वृद्धि, यण, अयादि), व्यंजन संधि, विसर्ग संधि. Identify the final vowel of the first word and the first vowel of the second.
- समास: अव्ययीभाव (प्रति, अनु, यथा), तत्पुरुष (case relation), कर्मधारय (विशेषण–विशेष्य), द्विगु (number), द्वंद्व (and), बहुव्रीहि (the whole denotes another object).
- वाक्य-शुद्धि: check लिंग, वचन, कारक-चिह्न, क्रिया-काल and pronoun agreement.
Worked example
विद्यार्थी = विद्या + अर्थी. The first word ends in आ and the second begins with अ; आ + अ = आ (दीर्घ संधि). Contrast नीलकंठ = नील + कंठ, which is बहुव्रीहि because it names Shiva (whose throat is blue), not a blue throat.
Traps
Do not label every समास as तत्पुरुष by seeing a case; दशानन is बहुव्रीहि. In संधि, यण् (इ/उ/ऋ + dissimilar vowel → य/व/र) is often mistaken for गुण. For मुहावरे, answer the idiomatic meaning, not the literal words. In वाक्य-शुद्धि, 'सभी लड़के अपने-अपने घर गए' is correct; avoid changing correct plural forms.