Appendix:Hindi nouns
Hindi nouns can have masculine or feminine genders and take on three cases and two numbers.
Gender[edit]
There are two genders: masculine and feminine. Often, these are inherited from Sanskrit, with the neuter lost and changed to either of the two. Here are some examples of genders:
- m
- f
Cases[edit]
The three cases are:
- Direct case - usually used as the subject of the sentence
- Oblique case - used when the word isn't the "focus" of the sentence, as in a prepositional phrase
- Vocative case - used when calling people or animals, or even things and abstract entities
Number[edit]
The only two numbers are singular and plural. Since nearly all Hindi nouns are countable, constructions like ख़ुशियाँ (xuśiyā̃, “happinesses”) are common and standardized.
Types[edit]
There are several classes of Hindi nouns, sorted by gender and stem.
Masculine[edit]
ā-stem[edit]
Words ending in -ā are quite common. An example is बच्चा (baccā, “boy”):
other-stem[edit]
Words ending in consonants, or any other vowel, fall in the other category. An example is मनुष्य (manuṣya, “human”):
Feminine[edit]
i, ī, and iyā-stem[edit]
Words with this stem are very common. An example is ग़लती (ġaltī, “mistake”):
other-stem[edit]
Feminine words ending in other stems are somewhat common. An example is भाषा (bhāṣā, “language”):