Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Hindi
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Intro |
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| Alisha: Is it common to omit the subject in Hindi sentences? |
| Shakti: And why? |
| Alisha: At HindiPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Consider the following situation. Sharmila Sharma is in a bookstore with her friend, Sasha Lee. She points at a book and says, |
| "[Did] [you] see this book?" |
| शर्मिला: यह किताब देखी? (yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| Dialogue |
| शर्मिला: यह किताब देखी? (yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| साशा: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| शर्मिला: यह किताब देखी? (yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| Alisha: "Did [you] see this book?" |
| साशा: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Alisha: "Is [it] interesting?" |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: Today's grammar point is whether it is common to omit the subject in Hindi. The answer is: sometimes and mostly in conversations. You definitely cannot omit the subject all the time, but there are quite a few occasions where you can and the conversation can still be perfectly understandable. |
| In our dialogue, we heard |
| Shakti: यह किताब देखी? (yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| Alisha: The literal translation of this Hindi sentence is "This book see." In contrast to the English sentence, meaning "Did you see the book?," the pronoun "you" is omitted in the Hindi sentence. This is a common way of speaking in Hindi. |
| Shakti: Just by saying "this book see," you can get your point across to the other person and they will easily understand it. |
| Alisha: Alternatively, if you actually translate the English sentence into Hindi, it will be |
| Shakti: क्या तुमने यह किताब देखी? (kyaa TumaNe yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| Alisha: This is literally, "What you this book see?" So, we are actually omitting the words "what," |
| Shakti: क्या (kyaa), |
| Alisha: and "you," |
| Shakti: तुमने (TumaNe). |
| Alisha: And yet the sentence still makes perfect sense! Now, let's look at the second sentence in today's dialogue... |
| Shakti: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Alisha: Its literal meaning is "Interesting is?," while, in English, it means "Is it interesting?." If we omit "it" here in English, the sentence will not be understandable, but, in Hindi, this is perfectly fine. If we translate the English sentence into Hindi with proper grammar, it will be |
| Shakti: क्या यह दिलचस्प है? (kyaa yah DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Alisha: That is, "What this interesting is?" But it's natural to say it by omitting "what" and "this," |
| Shakti: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Alisha: And the sentence is still perfectly understandable. The omission of "what" and "this" also allows you to change it from a sentence to a question, and vice versa. It all depends on the tone of your voice. For example, |
| Shakti: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Alisha: Here, the tone of the voice indicates that you are asking the person whether they think something is interesting or not. And the other way is... |
| Shakti: दिलचस्प है। (DiLacaSp hai.) |
| Alisha: Here, you are not asking, you are expressing your opinion. That is, you think something is interesting. |
| Alisha: How about we take a few more examples where omitting the subject doesn't have a negative impact on the understandability of the sentence? |
| Imagine a situation where you are eagerly waiting for your friend and he or she hasn't yet arrived. You decide to make a call to your friend and you ask, |
| Shakti: कहाँ हो? (kahaan ho?) |
| Alisha: In English this means, "Where are you? But the literal translation of the Hindi sentence is "Where are?" So, there is no subject here. |
| Now, what's the response of your friend? |
| Shakti: बस पहुँच रहा हूँ। (baS pahunc rahaa huun.) |
| Alisha: In English, this means "I am just about to reach there." But the literal translation of the Hindi sentence is "Just reaching am." So, again, there is no subject here. |
| Now, let's hear your reply. |
| Shakti: जल्दी आओ। कब से इंतज़ार कर रही हूँ। (jaLDii aao. kab Se iNTazaar kar rahii huun.) |
| Alisha: In English, this means, "Come soon. I have been waiting so long." But the literal translation of the Hindi response is, "Soon come. When from wait doing am." That is, no subject again! Notice that the English "Come soon" also doesn't have a subject, but the next sentence, "I have been waiting so long" needs to have a subject. |
| Shakti: But the Hindi just works fine without the subject in both sentences! |
| Alisha: That's absolutely right. |
| Now, let's continue the conversation. Here is the response of your friend. |
| Shakti: बस कुछ ही वक़्त लगेगा। थोड़ा सा और इंतज़ार कर लो। (baS kuch hi vaqT Lagegaa. THodaa Saa aur iNTazaar kar Lo.) |
| Alisha: In English, this means, "It will only take a few minutes. Please wait a little bit more." However, the literal translation of the Hindi sentence is "Just some only time take. Little only more wait do take." Notice that the English sentence, "Please wait a little bit more" also doesn't need the subject here. |
| Shakti: And, of course, the Hindi doesn't need the subject too and yet is completely understandable. |
| Alisha: That's right! |
| Now, let's repeat our initial conversation and this one once more. Do you remember how to say "Did you see this book?" |
| Shakti: यह किताब देखी? (yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| Alisha: Now, let's say "Is it interesting?" |
| Shakti: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Alisha: Now, let's take a look at our imaginary conversation with the friend you are waiting for. Do you remember how to say, "Where are you?" |
| Shakti: कहाँ हो? (kahaan ho?) |
| Alisha: Now, let's hear the response. |
| Shakti: बस पहुँच रहा हूँ। (baS pahunc rahaa huun.) |
| Alisha: This means, "I am just about to reach there." Now, what's your response? |
| Shakti: जल्दी आओ। कब से इंतज़ार कर रही हूँ। (jaLDii aao. kab Se iNTazaar kar rahii huun.) |
| Alisha: This means, "Come soon. I have been waiting so long." Here is the response of your friend. |
| Shakti: बस कुछ ही वक़्त लगेगा। थोड़ा सा और इंतज़ार कर लो। (baS kuch hi vaqT Lagegaa. THodaa Saa aur iNTazaar kar Lo.) |
| Alisha: This means "It will take only a few minutes. Please wait a little bit more." |
| Practice Section |
| Alisha: Let's review the sentences we've heard in this lesson. I'll say the sentence in English, and then I want you to try and reply in Hindi. Shakti will then model the correct answer—listen to him carefully and repeat, with emphasis on your pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "Did [you] see this book?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti: यह किताब देखी? (yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| Alisha: Did you get it right? Listen again and repeat. |
| Shakti यह किताब देखी? (yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti: यह किताब देखी? (yah kiTaab Dekhii?) |
| Alisha: Now for our next sentence. Do you remember how to say "Is [it] interesting?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Alisha: Listen again and repeat. |
| Shakti: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti: दिलचस्प है? (DiLacaSp hai?) |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Alisha: Omission of the subject is possible in what are called pro-drop languages. Here, pro-drop means "pronoun dropping," that is, you can omit the pronoun and yet carry out an understandable conversation. Hindi is one of these languages. As we noticed in the imaginary conversation we just had with a friend, in conversations, it is possible to omit the subject quite a few times. For example, let's take the English greeting "See you again!" How do you say this in Hindi? |
| Shakti: फिर मिलेंगे! (phir miLenge!) |
| Alisha: That is, "again meet." In English, we would generally not omit the pronoun "you" here. But, in Hindi, you don't have to include it. This doesn't mean that you can always drop the pronoun or noun in spoken Hindi. For example, you can omit the pronoun here: |
| Shakti: खाना खाया? (khaaNaa khaayaa?) |
| Alisha: This means "Did you eat?" or, in Hindi, "food eat?" In the English sentence, we won't omit the pronoun here because it will lose its meaning. But, the Hindi sentence will be understood. However, this only works in the second person, that is, if you want to ask the person you are speaking to whether they have eaten. It doesn't work in the third person. That is, if you want to ask "Has he eaten?" |
| Shakti: उसने खाना खाया? (uSaNe khaaNaa khaayaa?) |
| Alisha: This is literally, "He food eat?" Here, if you omit the third person pronoun, |
| Shakti: उसने (uSaNe), |
| Alisha: the sentence will not be understood. You can also drop the pronoun in the imperative mood. This is also possible in English. For example, "go away!," "get out!," "leave me alone!" or "shut up!." You don't need the pronoun "you" in these examples. This is true for Hindi too. For example, how do you say "get out!" in Hindi? |
| Shakti: निकल जाओ! (NikaL jaao!) |
| Alisha: That is, "out go." Here, the subject is implied and it is clear that the command is directed towards the second person. So, you can skip the subject here. |
Outro |
| Alisha: Today we learned that the subject can be dropped in conversational Hindi in some cases, without losing the meaning, but this doesn't always work. In some cases, the use of pronoun or noun is necessary. Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Shakti: फिर मिलेंगे! (phir miLenge!) |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
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