"Who does not drink water?"
Translation:पानी कौन नहीं पीता?
7 Comments
why is कौन पानी पीता नहीं। not acceptable? my neighbors who are native speakers use the form verb + नहीं rather than the other way round.
52
Hmm... It's definitely OK to do verb + नहीं in certain sentences. It will often carry a particular emphasis (although not necessarily), whereas नहीं + verb is more like the "default" because it is the most neutral (lacking any particular emphasis).
All this being said, your sentence, कौन पानी पीता नहीं sounds odd IMHO. It should at least be पानी कौन पीता नहीं? (place the question word before the verb phrase), and even that would seem to imply that you were contrasting the sentence with पानी कौन पीता है? "Who drink water? OK, now tell me: Who DOESN'T drink water?" (Note the special emphasis.)
This question was asked before we were introduced to the negative form of verbs in Hindi (or whatever the proper way of making things negative is.) Thanks and thanks for the course.
