"कौन है?"

[jackheywood]

Can this also mean 'Who are they?/Who is he?/Who is she?'

[Kateykr]

Jack, coming from a fallible decade-long Hindi learner, "Kaun hai?" can only mean "Who is [it]?"

• To get these other sentences, you'd need to write "Ve [log] kaun hain?" = "Those [people] who are?" = "Who are they?"

• "YEH kaun hai?" = who is THIS/he/she? (subject is near you).

• "VAH kaun hai?" = who is THAT/she/he? (subject is not near you).

• "VE kaun hain?" = Who are they [and] Who is s/he? ---> Ve is the plural of Vah. Plural is used in Hindi to honor the subject by literally speaking about them as if they were "more than 1" person.

[Pikachuu18]

Can’t it be just ‘Who’?

[Kateykr]

I believe "Kaun?" by itself would be your sentence.

[silv1991]

Is "who is?" a possible translation?

[Kateykr]

I agree. And "Who is?" COULD be mistaken as an incomplete sentence, but it's a real response to something like, "They're going to fly today." - - - "...WHO is?"

[V2Blast]

No, because that's not a grammatically correct/meaningful English sentence. On the other hand, I believe this is a correct Hindi sentence.