"What is your story?"
Translation:आपकी कहानी क्या है?
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कहानी is indeed feminine and आपकी takes the gender of its object (कहानी) so you would say आपकी कहानी क्या है? even if you were talking to a man.
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Can you please elaborate on gender affecting the verb 'to drink': when would we use: - main sharaab piitha hoon - main sharaab piithi hoon - main ne paani piiya - main ne sharaab piili
It seems the verb sometimes reflects the gender of speaker and sometimes the object that was drunk. In very confused.
Thanks in advance.
For 'intransitive' verbs (verbs that cannot take a direct object), you always need to conjugate them with the subject.
Eg:
पीटर भागता है - Peter runs
जूलिया भागती है - Julia runs
पीटर भागा - Peter ran
जूलिया भागी - Julia ran
For transitive verbs (verbs that can have direct objects), you need to conjugate them with their object in some tenses (simple past tense, perfect tenses) but with the subject in others. In tenses where transitive verbs are conjugated with their objects, a ने is added to the subject to indicate that the verb is not agreeing with it.
Eg:
पीटर पानी पीता है - Peter drinks water - Verb conjugating with the subject as usual
जूलिया पानी पीती है - Julia drinks water
पीटर ने पानी पिया/ जूलिया ने पानी पिया - Peter drank water/Julia drank water - Verb conjugating with its object (पानी is masculine and शराब feminine) in the simple past tense. Notice the ने attached to the subject
पीटर ने शराब पी/जूलिया ने शराब पी- Peter drank alcohol/Julia drank alcohol
no, kya comes directly before the verb when asking a 'what' question. Subject + object + kya + verb aapki kahani kya hai? literal translation: your story what is = what is your story?
No. You use अपनी when the sentence has an already established subject and you are referring back to it.
For example, in a sentence like 'आप अपनी कहानी बता रहे हैं' (You are telling your story), the subject is आप (you). Since we want the pronoun to also refer to the same entity ('your'), instead of repeating the subject by using आपकी, we use अपनी.
The subject of the sentence 'आपकी कहानी क्या है' is 'आपकी कहानी' so there is no pre- established subject to refer back to. That is why अपनी cannot be used.
Note that all imperative sentences (requests and commands) have one of the forms of 'you' as an implicit subject. So, you can say 'अपनी कहानी बताइए।' (Tell your story). Since this is an imperative, आप is the subject of this sentence even if it's not explicitly written. This is the reason you can use अपनी to refer back to it.
It's है because कहानी is singular.
In case of आपकी कहानियाँ क्या हैं? ('What are your stories?') there is a हैं.
आप is the honor way to address a person, I learned that I should use the plural form.
That's correct but the subject of this sentence is not 'आप'/'you'. It's 'आपकी काहानी'/'your story'. So, the verb will conjugate according to काहानी.
This is similar to how you should say 'Their house is nice' with a 'is' even though 'they' usually goes with the plural form 'are'.
Can this be used idiomatically the same way that it is an English? In English this could mean a literal story that someone wrote, or a "story" of their experiences, or even an explanation/excuse for something.
I swear I've heard कहानी in a Bollywood song before, but I can't remember which or what the context was.