Appendix:Hindi nouns

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Hindi nouns can have masculine or feminine genders and take on three cases and two numbers.

Gender

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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:

Cases

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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

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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

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There are several classes of Hindi nouns, sorted by gender and stem.

Masculine

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ā-stem

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Words ending in are quite common. An example is बच्चा (baccā, boy):

other-stem

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Words ending in consonants, or any other vowel, fall in the other category. An example is मनुष्य (manuṣya, human):

Feminine

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i, ī, and iyā-stem

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Words with this stem are very common. An example is ग़लती (ġaltī, mistake):

other-stem

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Feminine words ending in other stems are somewhat common. An example is भाषा (bhāṣā, language):