Learn the oblique forms of pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Maya: Namaste, I'm Maya. Welcome back to HindiPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 14 - Learning the Oblique Forms of Hindi Pronouns. |
| Udita: Namaste, मैं उदिता हूँ। (main uDiTaa huun.). I'm Udita. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to change pronouns into their oblique forms. |
| Maya: The conversation takes place on the road. |
| Udita: It's between Kate and an autorickshaw driver |
| Maya: Since they are strangers, they will be using formal Hindi. |
| Udita: Let's listen to their conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| केट (ket): भैया, मैं लाजपत नगर जाना चाहती हूँ। (bhaiyaa, main LaajapaT Nagar jaaNaa caahaTii huun.) |
| ऑटो चालक (auto caaLak): बैठिये, लेकिन मुझे रास्ता नहीं पता। (baithiye, LekiN mujhe raaSTaa Nahiin paTaa.) |
| केट (ket): मैं बता दूंगी। (main baTaa Duungii.) |
| ऑटो चालक (auto caaLak): ठीक है। (thiik hai.) |
| Maya: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| केट (ket): भैया, मैं लाजपत नगर जाना चाहती हूँ। (bhaiyaa, main LaajapaT Nagar jaaNaa caahaTii huun.) |
| ऑटो चालक (auto caaLak): बैठिये, लेकिन मुझे रास्ता नहीं पता। (baithiye, LekiN mujhe raaSTaa Nahiin paTaa.) |
| केट (ket): मैं बता दूंगी। (main baTaa Duungii.) |
| ऑटो चालक (auto caaLak): ठीक है। (thiik hai.) |
| Maya: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| केट (ket): भैया, मैं लाजपत नगर जाना चाहती हूँ। (bhaiyaa, main LaajapaT Nagar jaaNaa caahaTii huun.) |
| kate: Excuse me, I want to go to Lajpat Nagar. |
| ऑटो चालक (auto caaLak): बैठिये, लेकिन मुझे रास्ता नहीं पता। (baithiye, LekiN mujhe raaSTaa Nahiin paTaa.) |
| Auto Driver: Please take a seat, but I don't know the way. |
| केट (ket): मैं बता दूंगी। (main baTaa Duungii.) |
| kate: Let’s go, I will tell you. |
| ऑटो चालक (auto caaLak): ठीक है। (thiik hai.) |
| Auto Driver: Okay. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Maya: Okay, let’s talk about transportation in India. Public transport in India is limited to local buses, metros, taxis, auto rickshaws, and cycle rickshaws. |
| Udita: Of these, the most convenient way to travel around the city is the auto rickshaw. |
| Maya: In case the listeners are wondering, what is an auto rickshaw? |
| Udita: Well, it’s a three-wheeler cabin cycle. You may think of it as a motorized version of the traditional pulled cycle rickshaw. |
| Udita: Auto rickshaws are convenient because they provide door to door service, and you don’t have to rely on a car! |
| Maya: Even the prices are reasonable, as long as you make sure you pay according to the meter of the rickshaw. |
| Udita: In small cities the metered rickshaws are a little rare, so you may need to bargain on the price before getting on it. |
| Maya: So keep those tips in mind! Okay, now let’s move onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Maya: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is... |
| Udita: भैया (bhaiyaa). |
| Maya: "brother." |
| Udita: भैया (bhaiyaa), भैया (bhaiyaa). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: जाना (jaaNaa). |
| Maya: "to go." |
| Udita: जाना (jaaNaa), जाना (jaaNaa). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: चाहती (caahaTii). |
| Maya: "want." |
| Udita: चाहती (caahaTii), चाहती (caahaTii). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: बैठिये (baithiye). |
| Maya: "please sit." |
| Udita: बैठिये (baithiye), बैठिये (baithiye). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: लेकिन (LekiN). |
| Maya: "but." |
| Udita: लेकिन (LekiN), लेकिन (LekiN). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: रास्ता (raaSTaa). |
| Maya: "way." |
| Udita: रास्ता (raaSTaa), रास्ता (raaSTaa). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: पता (paTaa). |
| Maya: "know." |
| Udita: पता (paTaa), पता (paTaa). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: बता (baTaa). |
| Maya: "tell." |
| Udita: बता (baTaa), बता (baTaa). |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Maya: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Udita: First, we have चाहती (caahaTii). |
| Maya: It comes from the verb चाहना (caahaNaa) which means "to want." चाहती (caahaTii) is used by feminine subjects, it becomes चाहता (caahaTaa) for masculine singular subjects and chahte for masculine plural subjects. |
| Udita: हूँ (huun) is the verb "to be," and is used for first person singular subjects. |
| Maya: So together, it becomes चाहती हूँ (caahaTii huun) said by a female speaker, and चाहता हूँ (caahaTaa huun) said by a male speaker. |
| Udita: Next is another verb. बैठिये (baithiye) comes from the verb बैठना (baithaNaa) which means "to sit." Do you remember the lesson on making requests and commands? बैठना (baithaNaa) becomes बैठिये (baithiye) when making a request. |
| Maya: So, बैठिये (baithiye) means "please sit." |
| Udita: Next, we have मुझको (mujhako), meaning "to me." |
| Maya: Whenever we use a postposition after a pronoun, generally the pronouns change into their oblique forms. |
| Udita: Here, मुझ (mujh) is the oblique form of the pronoun मैं (main) as we are using the postposition को (ko). So, together it becomes मुझको (mujhako). People often say मुझे (mujhe) instead of मुझको (mujhako). |
| Maya: Next, बता (baTaa) comes from the verb बताना (baTaaNaa) which means "to tell." दूँगी (Duungii) comes from the verb देना (DeNaa) which means "to give." |
| Udita: But in this context it does not literally translate as giving something. When it follows a verb in the second person or third person form, it means doing that thing for somebody. |
| Maya: For example, if we say मैं तुम्हें खिला दूँगी। (main Tumhen khiLaa Duungii), it means "I will make you eat." |
| Udita: So in our conversation, we have मैं तुम्हें बता दूँगी। (main Tumhen baTaa Duungii.) which means "I will make you tell." and translates as "I will tell you." |
| Maya: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Maya: In this lesson, you’re going to learn the oblique form of the Hindi pronouns. |
| Udita: There are situations when we must change the pronouns into a different form. These are called oblique forms of pronouns. One situation is when we are using a postposition. |
| Maya: Remember that postpositions are like prepositions in English: "in," "at," "to" etc. In Hindi, they’re called postpositions because they come after the noun or pronoun. |
| Udita: So, when we need to use a postposition after a pronoun, the pronoun changes to the oblique form. |
| Maya: That’s right. Some of the pronouns are joined to the postposition, while other pronouns change so that the oblique form incorporates the postposition. |
| Udita: Let’s go over them, starting with first person singular, "I." First person singular is मैं (main) and it changes into मुझे (mujhe) in its oblique form. |
| Maya: First person plural, "we," is हम (ham) and it becomes हमें (hamen) in its oblique form. |
| Udita: Next is second person singular, "you," which is तुम (Tum) in its casual form. It changes to तुम्हें (Tumhen) in the oblique form. |
| Maya: A very casual pronoun for second person singular is तू (Tuu). This should strictly be used in very informal situations as it may sound rude to some people. The oblique form of तू (Tuu) is तुझे (Tujhe). |
| Udita: The second person plural, "you all," in formal situations is आप (aap). आप (aap) remains the same in the oblique, and is joined with को (ko) to get आपको (aapako). |
| Maya: Next, let’s look at third person singular which is यह (yah), and is used for "He" /"She" /"It" for people or things that are close. यह (yah) becomes इस (iS) in its oblique form. |
| Udita: वह (vah) is used for "He" /"She" /"It" /"That" for people or things that are far. It becomes उस (uS) in the oblique form. |
| Maya: For third person plural, ये (ye) meaning "these" becomes इन (iN) in the oblique form and वे (ve) meaning "those" becomes उन (uN) in its oblique form. |
| Udita: Let’s practice with an example. To say "I want a car." we’d say मुझे गाड़ी चाहिए (mujhe gaadii caahiye.). |
| Maya: We did not say मैं (main) for the Pronoun "I" here. In this sentence for a noun we would use the postposition को (ko). For the pronoun मैं (main), there is no को (ko) used but it changes to मुझे (mujhe). |
| Udita: Let’s try another one. To say, "He received a letter." we’d say उसको एक चिट्ठी मिली। (uSako ek citthii miLii). |
| Maya: Here, the third person pronoun वह (vah) goes into its oblique form, as we are using the postposition को (ko). |
| Udita: The third person pronouns use two oblique forms when using the postposition को (ko). One includes को (ko) - इसको (iSako), उसको (uSako), इनको (iNako), उनको (uNako), which is more colloquial. The other, more polite form is इसे (iSe), उसे (uSe), इन्हें (iNhen), उन्हें (uNhen). This is the more proper oblique form, that is used in literature. |
| Maya: Don’t worry about the postpositions for now. We’ll be looking at them in detail in the last few lessons of this series. |
| Maya: Let's see how the grammar point was used in the dialogue. |
| Udita: Kate says, भैया, मैं लाजपत नगर जाना चाहती हूँ। (bhaiyaa, main LaajapaT Nagar jaaNaa caahaTii huun.) which means "Excuse me, I want to go to Lajpat Nagar." |
| Maya: And to this, the autodriver replies, बैठिये, लेकिन मुझे रास्ता नहीं पता। (baithiye, LekiN mujhe raaSTaa Nahiin paTaa.) which means "Please sit, but I don’t know the way." |
Outro |
|---|
| Udita: Well, that's all for our lesson. Make sure to read the lesson notes for more examples! |
| Maya: Listeners, can you say "I have to go." in Hindi? If you can, please leave us a comment saying it at HindiPod101.com. Thank you for listening. Until next time! |
| Udita: शुक्रिया और फिर मिलेंगे! (sukriyaa aur phir miLenge!) |
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