Learn about noun-adjective agreement rules
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: Hello, I'm Brandon and welcome back to HindiPod101.com. This is Upper Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 6: Choosing a Suitcase for your Trip in India. |
| Ayesha: Namaste, I'm Ayesha. |
| Brandon: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use adjectives with oblique nouns. This conversation takes place inside a store. |
| Ayesha: The speakers are a customer and the suitcase saleswoman in the store. |
| Brandon: Since they have a customer-salesperson relationship, they'll be using polite Hindi. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Customer: हमें सूटकेस लेना है। |
| Saleswoman: हाँजी बताइए कैसी सूटकेस लेना चाहेंगे। |
| Customer: प्लेन में ले जाने के लिए अच्छा सा कैबिन लगेज वाला सूटकेस। |
| Saleswoman: हाँजी यह वाले देख लीजिए। |
| Customer: अच्छा हाँ ये सही साइज़ लग रहे हैं। लेकिन हलके होने चाहिए। |
| Saleswoman: अच््छा अाप ये देख लीजिए। ये नए अभी अाए हैं। वज़न बहुत कम हैं अौर खींचने में बिलकुल अासान। |
| Customer: अच्छा, पहियेँ चार हैं न? दो पहियेँ वाले नहीं चाहिए। |
| Saleswoman: हाँजी चार हैं, अाप यहाँ चला के देख लीजिए। |
| Brandon: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Customer: हमें सूटकेस लेना है। |
| Saleswoman: हाँजी बताइए कैसी सूटकेस लेना चाहेंगे। |
| Customer: प्लेन में ले जाने के लिए अच्छा सा कैबिन लगेज वाला सूटकेस। |
| Saleswoman: हाँजी यह वाले देख लीजिए। |
| Customer: अच्छा हाँ ये सही साइज़ लग रहे हैं। लेकिन हलके होने चाहिए। |
| Saleswoman: अच््छा अाप ये देख लीजिए। ये नए अभी अाए हैं। वज़न बहुत कम हैं अौर खींचने में बिलकुल अासान। |
| Customer: अच्छा, पहियेँ चार हैं न? दो पहियेँ वाले नहीं चाहिए। |
| Saleswoman: हाँजी चार हैं, अाप यहाँ चला के देख लीजिए। |
| Brandon: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Customer: हमें सूटकेस लेना है। |
| Brandon: We're here to buy a suitcase. |
| Salesman: हाँजी बताइए कैसी सूटकेस लेना चाहेंगे। |
| Brandon: Yes, what kind of suitcase would you like? |
| Customer: प्लेन में ले जाने के लिए अच्छा सा कैबिन लगेज वाला सूटकेस। |
| Brandon: A good cabin-luggage-sized suitcase for carrying on the plane. |
| Salesman: हाँजी यह वाले देख लीजिए। |
| Brandon: Yes, please take a look at these ones. |
| Customer: अच्छा हाँ ये सही साइज़ लग रहे हैं। लेकिन हलके होने चाहिए। |
| Brandon: Okay, yes, these look like the right size, but it should be quite light. |
| Salesman: अच््छा अाप ये देख लीजिए। ये नए अभी अाए हैं। वज़न बहुत कम हैं अौर खींचने में बिलकुल अासान। |
| Brandon: Okay, have a look at these ones. These are new ones that have just come in. They're very light and very easy to pull. |
| Customer: अच्छा, पहियेँ चार हैं न? दो पहियेँ वाले नहीं चाहिए। |
| Brandon: Okay, they have four wheels right? We don’t want two-wheeled ones. |
| Salesman: हाँजी चार हैं, अाप यहाँ चला के देख लीजिए। |
| Brandon: Yes, there are four wheels. You can give it a walk here and see. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: It seems that more and more people are flying domestically in India, so I think it’s more common for people to buy lightweight, smaller suitcases for easier travel. |
| Ayesha: Yes, but Indians are used to traveling with a lot of stuff. One reason is because, in the past, people traveled by trains and cars where there's no luggage limit, and second, because middle and upper class Indians have helpers for everything. |
| Brandon: I’ve heard that in India, there are people whose job is just to transport luggage. |
| Ayesha: That’s right. In train stations you'll see hundreds of men in red shirts carrying large, bulky bags and suitcases. They’re piled on top of their heads or hanging from their shoulders, and they’re pulling more by hand, as they walk next to the passenger who owns the luggage. |
| Brandon: What are they called? |
| Ayesha: They’re called “Coolies.” A coolie works in a train station transporting people’s luggage from cars to the train carriage at very low cost. |
| Brandon: Even then, they have to bargain with the passenger to set an acceptable price, and do this all day long. |
| Ayesha: Yes, and so most Indians own large suitcases that are great for storage but inconvenient to carry. Or they own trunks, which are popular for long journeys. |
| Brandon: Okay let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Brandon: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is... |
| Ayesha: सही [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: correct, right |
| Ayesha: सही [slowly - broken down by syllable] सही [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: लगना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to feel, to seem |
| Ayesha: लगना [slowly - broken down by syllable] लगना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: The next one is... |
| Ayesha: हलका [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: light |
| Ayesha: हलका [slowly - broken down by syllable] हलका [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Ayesha: वज़न [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: weight |
| Ayesha: वज़न [slowly - broken down by syllable] वज़न [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: खींचना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to pull, to pull along |
| Ayesha: खींचना [slowly - broken down by syllable] खींचना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next... |
| Ayesha: अासान [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: easy |
| Ayesha: अासान [slowly - broken down by syllable] अासान [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: पहिया [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: wheel |
| Ayesha: पहिया [slowly - broken down by syllable] पहिया [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: And our last word is... |
| Ayesha: चलाना [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to walk something |
| Ayesha: चलाना [slowly - broken down by syllable] चलाना [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Ayesha: The first word is haLkaa which is an adjective meaning “light”—the opposite of heavy. |
| Brandon: This only refers to weight and is a marked adjective, so it changes to accommodate the gender of the noun. |
| Ayesha: The feminine form is haLkii, and the plural form is haLke. For example, if the noun is Ladkii, which means “girl,” since this is feminine, the phrase will be haLkii Ladkii, which means “a light girl.” |
| Brandon: There's another use of the word with the quality particle. |
| Ayesha: The quality particle being Saa, Sii, or Se. This particle means “a bit of.” When it’s combined with haLkaa it changes the meaning. haLkaa Saa means “slight” or “a little bit of.” |
| Brandon: Can you give us an example? |
| Ayesha: Sure. haLkii Sii hanSii means “a slight smile.” This also works with verbs. So if you hear haLke Se kaanpNaa, it means “to shiver slightly.” |
| Brandon: Okay, the next word is a verb. |
| Ayesha: And it’s खींचना (khiincNaa) |
| Brandon: It means “to pull.” It's better to use the subject marker as much as possible with this word, so it's clear what’s being pulled. |
| Ayesha: That’s right. For example to say, “Don’t pull the bag,” you'd use the subject marker को (ko) after the word बैग (baig). The sentence in Hindi is बैग को मत खींचो| (baig ko maT khiinco). |
| Brandon: A lot of times, the subject marker is dropped in daily speech, but it’s better in general to use it. Okay, let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Brandon: In this lesson you’ll learn about adjective - noun agreement. As you know, adjectives change their gender and number to match the noun they modify. |
| Ayesha: There are also rules for agreement when the noun is oblique, and when there are multiple nouns, which we'll cover here. |
| Brandon: There are marked and unmarked adjectives. Marked adjectives have feminine and masculine forms. Marked adjectives also have oblique forms. |
| Ayesha: Unmarked adjectives don’t change in the oblique form at all, but marked adjectives mimic the noun they modify. |
| Brandon: Only the masculine marked adjectives become oblique in the singular count. Since feminine nouns don’t change to the oblique in the singular, the adjectives don’t change either. |
| Ayesha: For example, piiLaa kurTaa means “yellow shirt,” and the oblique form is piiLe kurTe. In the same situation, if we have an unmarked adjective, like SuNDar which means “beautiful,” the adjective will not change. SuNDar kurTaa will become SuNDar kurTe. |
| Brandon: You can also have a marked masculine adjective with an unmarked noun, such as... |
| Ayesha: ...piiLaa ghar. |
| Brandon: In this case, in the oblique form the adjective will still change. It becomes... |
| Ayesha: ...piiLe ghar. |
| Brandon: Basically, if there's a marked adjective with a masculine noun—marked or unmarked, the adjective will change to the oblique. |
| Ayesha: Yes. And as we saw, the change is very simple—an e vowel is added to the last consonant. Or if the adjective ends with a vowel, then the e substitutes for the last vowel. |
| Brandon: When the noun is plural, the adjectives all switch to their oblique forms if a particle, marker, or postposition follows the noun. In this situation, all marked adjectives also switch to the oblique. |
| Ayesha: The change is the same—the e substitutes for the end vowel of the adjective, or joins the last consonant. |
| Brandon: The difference is that this rule applies to both masculine and feminine marked adjectives. |
| Ayesha: So piiLaa kurTa becomes piiLe kurTon, and piiLii cuNarii becomes piiLe cuNariyon. |
| Brandon: That’s right. Those are the rules for oblique noun and adjective agreement. The next rule is for sentences where there's a single adjective and multiple nouns. For example, if you say “big houses and trees,” the adjective “big” applies to both nouns. |
| Ayesha: Right, and in this case, both are plural so the adjective badaa would be in the plural form bade, so there's no confusion. |
| Brandon: What if you wanted to say “big house and trees” or “big houses and a tree?” |
| Ayesha: Let’s try those. In the first case, “big house” in Hindi is badaa ghar, and “big trees” is bade ped. Together it will be badaa ghar aur ped. |
| Brandon: So the adjective will agree with the noun closest to it. |
| Ayesha: That’s right. And, we add the particle ke, meaning “of” at the end of that phrase, ped will become oblique, but the adjective will still only agree with the first noun. |
| Brandon: So, we’d get the phrase… |
| Ayesha: ...badaa ghar aur pedon ke. |
| Brandon: To make it clear that the trees are also big, a better way might be to use the adjective twice. |
| Ayesha: In the second case, “big houses” is bade ghar, and “big tree” is badaa ped. How will this combine? |
| Brandon: Again, the adjective will agree with the closest noun. |
| Ayesha: So the phrase will be bade ghar aur ped, which is “big houses and tree.” |
| Brandon: Now if we add the same particle at the end… |
| Ayesha: ...ke… |
| Brandon: ...meaning “of,” we’ll get the phrase… |
| Ayesha: bade gharon aur ped ke. |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that's all for our lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone. And we’ll see you next time! |
| Ayesha: Sukriyaa aur aLviDaa! |
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