"The grass is big."
Translation:घास बड़ी है।
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We don't say "the grass is BIG" in English, we say "the grass is LONG". I think the Americans would say "the grass is HIGH"
"Long," "high," "tall," even maybe "extensive"--"the grass is big" sounds very weird, and it doesn't give me a good sense the dimension in which the grass is supposed to be large!
I say 'the grass is tall' when it needs to be mowed. It may be a geographic difference, like whether one says soda or pop when referring to a soft drink.
Why isn't grass masculine here? It doesn't end with an य sound. Is it just one of those words you have to memorise as being a feminine noun?
And even to that rule there are exceptions, आदमी = man. Ends with ई but it's a masculine noun. महिला = lady. Ends with आ but it's a feminine noun.
A lot of masculine nouns end with आ and a lot of feminine nouns end with ई, but there are so many exceptions that I wouldn't call that a rule, it's just that a lot of nouns happen to end with आ or ई. For the rest, yes, you just have to memorize.
So when do we use the ang ki matra on helping verbs?
I've never been taught this :/
For है, you use the ang ki matra when the subject is plural.
For example,
बिल्ली बड़ी है - The cat is big
बिल्लियाँ बड़ी हैं - The cats are big
We've used हैं in the second sentence because बिल्लियाँ is plural
सेब लाल है - The apple is red
सेब लाल हैं - The apples are red
Both the singular and plural forms of सेब are the same. But because of हैं in the second sentence, we can make out that we are talking about the plural 'apples'.
For the past tense form था, the masculine plural is थे. You only need the ang ki matra to distinguish the feminine plural form थीं from the feminine singular थी.
I get it's literal to translate to big but wouldn't लम्बा be a better adjective outside of this duolingo question
घास is a feminine noun. So, you need to use बड़ी, the feminine form of the adjective.
