Learn how to use the oblique forms of nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hi everyone. I'm Brandon, and welcome back to HindiPod101.com. This is Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 3: Don’t Get Caught in an Indian Thunderstorm! |
| Ayesha : Namaste, I'm Ayesha. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn about using oblique forms of nouns. This conversation takes place inside a home. |
| Ayesha: The conversation is between a Mother and her daughter, Naina. |
| Brandon: Since they're family members, Naina will be speaking in familiar Hindi, and her mother will address her in casual Hindi because she is older. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Naina: माँ देखो बड़ा तुफ़ान अा रहा है। |
| Mother: हाँ कितने घने बादल! तु जल्दी से उपर के सारे कमरों के खिड़कियों को बन्द कर, मैं यहाँ देखती हूँ। |
| Naina: अौर बाहर जो मिर्ची सूख रहे थे उनको उठा दूं? |
| Mother: अभी तो पूरा चादर उठा कर टेबल पर रख, मैं कपड़ो को अंदर लाती हूँ। |
| Naina: साथ ही साथ पौधों को बाहर कर दुँ? |
| Mother: हाँ हाँ, उनको बारिश में भीगने के लिए रख दो। |
| Naina: अरे वाह! क्या बादल गरज रहे हैं! |
| Mother: अब तो पास अा गया होगा। तु जल्दी जा वरना सब कुछ भीग जाएगा। |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Naina: माँ देखो बड़ा तुफ़ान अा रहा है। |
| Mother: हाँ कितने घने बादल! तु जल्दी से उपर के सारे कमरों के खिड़कियों को बन्द कर, मैं यहाँ देखती हूँ। |
| Naina: अौर बाहर जो मिर्ची सूख रहे थे उनको उठा दूं? |
| Mother: अभी तो पूरा चादर उठा कर टेबल पर रख, मैं कपड़ो को अंदर लाती हूँ। |
| Naina: साथ ही साथ पौधों को बाहर कर दुँ? |
| Mother: हाँ हाँ, उनको बारिश में भीगने के लिए रख दो। |
| Naina: अरे वाह! क्या बादल गरज रहे हैं! |
| Mother: अब तो पास अा गया होगा। तु जल्दी जा वरना सब कुछ भीग जाएगा। |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Naina: माँ देखो बड़ा तुफ़ान अा रहा है। |
| Brandon: Mother, look! There's a big storm coming in! |
| Mother: हाँ कितने घने बादल! तु जल्दी से उपर के सारे कमरों के खिड़कियों को बन्द कर, मैं यहाँ देखती हूँ। |
| Brandon: Oh yes, what big grey clouds! Quickly go upstairs, and shut the windows in all the rooms. I'll take care of the ones here. |
| Naina: अौर बाहर जो मिर्ची सूख रहे थे उनको उठा दूं? |
| Brandon: And the peppers that were drying in the sun? Should I remove them? |
| Mother: अभी तो पूरा चादर उठा कर टेबल पर रख, मैं कपड़ो को अंदर लाती हूँ। |
| Brandon: For now just grab the whole sheet and keep it on the table. I'll get the clothes hanging outside. |
| Naina: साथ ही साथ पौधों को बाहर कर दुँ? |
| Brandon: Along with that, should I put the plants out? |
| Mother: हाँ हाँ, उनको बारिश में भीगने के लिए रख दो। |
| Brandon: Yes, yes, keep them outside to get rain water. |
| Naina: अरे वाह! क्या बादल गरज रहे हैं! |
| Brandon: Oh, wow! The thunderclouds are really roaring! |
| Mother: अब तो पास अा गया होगा। तु जल्दी जा वरना सब कुछ भीग जाएगा। |
| Brandon: They must be very near now. Go quickly, or else everything will get drenched. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: So we heard about chilli peppers being dried in the sun. Are many ingredients in Indian cuisine sun-dried? |
| Ayesha: They are! Spices are often toasted in the sun. Traditionally, people would leave these out in bulk on their home verandas. |
| Brandon: It’s still quite common to see spices sprawled across bed sheets or old sarees on rooftops, gardens, and verandas. Red chili peppers are one of the most common, but the same is done with bay leaves, coriander, mango, and many other herbs. |
| Ayesha: This is how Indian pickles are made. Pickles are called achaar in Hindi, and they taste very different from European pickled vegetables. |
| Brandon: That’s right. Indian pickles come in hundreds of flavors and types, and are made very elaborately. There's oil involved, but also many other spices. |
| Ayesha: Achaar is most commonly eaten with the Indian breads roti or chapati; fried breads like parantha or puuri; with naan, dosa, and also rice to add flavor to the food. |
| Brandon: That sounds delicious but, now on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word is... |
| Ayesha: तुफ़ान [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Storm.” |
| Ayesha: तुफ़ान [slowly - broken down by syllable] तुफ़ान [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: घना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Thick; concentrated; or dense.” |
| Ayesha: घना [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| घना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next word is... |
| Ayesha: कमरे [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Rooms.” |
| Ayesha: कमरे [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| कमरे [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Ayesha: बादल [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Cloud.” |
| Ayesha: बादल [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| बादल [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: उपर [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Up” or “upstairs.” |
| Ayesha: उपर [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| उपर [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next one is... |
| Ayesha: खिड़कियाँ [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Windows.” |
| Ayesha: खिड़कियाँ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| खिड़कियाँ [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Ayesha: सूखना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To dry.” (It’s an intransitive verb.) |
| Ayesha: सूखना [slowly - broken down by syllable] सूखना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: चादर [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Bedsheet.” |
| Ayesha: चादर [slowly - broken down by syllable] चादर [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Ayesha: भीगना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “To get wet.” (intransitive verb.) |
| Ayesha: भीगना [slowly - broken down by syllable] भीगना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: And last we have... |
| Ayesha: गरज [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: “Roar” or “the sound of thunder.” |
| Ayesha: गरज [slowly - broken down by syllable] गरज [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Now let’s take a closer look at some of the vocabulary. |
| Ayesha: First we have the word घना (ghaNaa). |
| Brandon: This means “thick,” “dense,” and “concentrated.” It's an adjective that doesn’t have a masculine or feminine form, but the oblique and plural form is... |
| Ayesha: घने (ghaNe). You commonly use it with nouns such as बादल (baaDaL), which is "clouds;" जंगल (jaNgaL), "forests;" and बाल (baaL), "hair." Brandon, have you heard about the word घने बाल (ghaNe baaL)? |
| Brandon: Yes. From what I’ve heard, it’s a common phrase describing what is considered beautiful hair in India—thick, dark hair. The adjective is also used to describe the consistency of liquids, deeper shades of color, and darkness. |
| Ayesha: Right, so घना दूध (ghaNaa DuuDH) means “thick, creamy milk.” The next word is सूखना (SuukhNaa). |
| Brandon: This is a verb that means “to dry.” It's an intransitive verb, so it only applies to things drying on their own, and not to a person drying something. |
| Ayesha: Right. It's often used with the auxiliary verb जाना (jaaNaa) to form the phrase सूख जाना (Suukh jaaNaa), which means “to become dry.” For example, तौलिया धुप में सूख रहा है|(TauLiyaa DHuup mein Suukh rahaa hai) means, “The towel is drying under the sun.” |
| Brandon: Okay. What’s the next word? |
| Ayesha: The next word is चादर (caaDar). |
| Brandon: This is a noun that means “bed sheet.” In India, bed sheets are used for covering beds and mattresses, but also as blankets. |
| Ayesha: Right. So चादर (caaDar) is a large single cotton sheet that's used for covering things. |
| Brandon: It can also mean, something like “a cover,” so in more poetic Hindi, people might speak of doing things "in the cover of darkness at night” using the phrase... |
| Ayesha: रात की चादर (raaT aka caaDar). |
| Brandon: Okay. Now on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use noun obliques in Hindi. |
| Ayesha: We'll focus on the rules for using them in sentences. There are different rules for singular nouns and plural nouns. |
| Brandon: There are two kinds of nouns in Hindi—marked and unmarked—and these can be further divided into male and female nouns. |
| Ayesha: When the nouns are in the singular count, unmarked nouns don't change to the oblique. |
| Brandon: The oblique form is only needed when a particle is placed after a noun. Only male marked nouns change to oblique forms in the singular. |
| Ayesha: Let’s take three words. Lakdii means “wood,” kamraa means “room," and ghar means “house.” These are all nouns in the singular. Ghar is an unmarked noun, so even if you place particles after it, there's no oblique form needed. We just say ghar Se, ghar ko, ghar mein, and so on. |
| Brandon: What about the other two words? |
| Ayesha: Lakdii and kamraa are both marked nouns, because they change when they become plural to Lakdiyaan and kamre. However, Lakdii is a feminine marked noun, which means there's no oblique form in the singular form. So, we say Lakdii ko, and Lakdii kii, for example. |
| Brandon: The word... |
| Ayesha: ...kamraa... |
| Brandon: ...is a marked masculine noun, so if we use a particle after it such as to say “in the room,” then the phrase is ... |
| Ayesha: Kamre mein. The e substitutes for the last vowel or joins the last consonant to give the oblique form. So ghaNtaa, which means “hour,” becomes ghaNte. Ladkaa, meaning “boy,” becomes Ladke. |
| Brandon: The meaning doesn’t change, but this is the only way to apply a particle to these nouns. It can be very difficult to figure out which nouns are marked, which are feminine, and which are unmarked. Unfortunately, there's no single rule to tell them apart in Hindi, and Hindi speakers learn which is which over time from experience. |
| Ayesha: But one general rule is that nouns ending in the ii sound are most often female nouns. And generally nouns ending in aa are more likely to be male nouns, but some of them may be unmarked. |
| Brandon: There are many exceptions to these, but they can still be used as a general rule. The second rule of the oblique applies to plural nouns, and it's quite simple. All plural nouns change to oblique forms when a particle or postposition is placed after them. |
| Ayesha: The plural oblique form ends with an on sound for all nouns. But the plural form has to be figured out before making the plural oblique. |
| Brandon: For all masculine nouns ending with ... |
| Ayesha: ...aa... |
| Brandon: ..in the singular, the plural oblique replaces the last vowel with... |
| Ayesha: ...on. So Ladkaa in the singular is Ladken in the plural, and Ladkon in the plural oblique. And kamraa in the singular is kamren in the plural, and kamron in the plural oblique. |
| Brandon: With the remaining masculine nouns... |
| Ayesha: ...on... |
| Brandon: ...is just added to the end, whether or not there's a vowel or consonant. |
| Ayesha: So aaDmii, which means “man” in the singular and “men” in plural, becomes aaDmiion in plural oblique. And palaNg, which means “bed” or “beds,” changes to palaNgon in plural oblique. |
| Brandon: Feminine nouns have separate rules, right? |
| Ayesha: That’s right. If they end in ii in the singular, then the marked nouns change to iyaan in the plural. In the plural oblique, the iyaan is substituted by iyon. For example, चाबी (caabii) means “key” and चाबियाँ (caabiyaan) means “keys.” The plural oblique is चाबियों (caabiyon). All the feminine nouns that don’t end with ई (ii), usually end with एं (en) in the plural, and ओं (on) is substituted to the end in the oblique. |
| Brandon: That sounds a little complicated. Can you give us some examples? |
| Ayesha: Sure! भाषा (bhaasaa) means “language,” and its plural form is भाषाएं (bhaasaaen). In the plural oblique, it becomes भाषाओं (bhaasaaon). |
| Brandon: Listeners, remember you can check the lesson notes for more information and examples on this topic. And if you have any questions or comments, leave us a message at HindiPod101.com. |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that's all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time. Bye! |
| Ayesha: Sukriyaa aur aLviDaa! |
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