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- "Their brother goes to school…
"Their brother goes to school."
Translation:उनका भाई स्कूल जाता है।
29 Comments
I thought that because जाता is in the sentence it creates a "ghost position", which would make उनका into उनके. World someone be able to explain where my reasoning is wrong? Thank you
You're right about there being a 'ghostposition' before जाता corresponding to the English preposition 'to' - 'उनका भाई स्कूल (को) जाता है'.
To see which words would have to be in the oblique case because of this implicit postposition, look for the noun phrase which answers the question, 'To what?'/'किस को'. In this sentence, the answer would be the noun 'school'/स्कूल. So, only स्कूल is in the oblique case but due to its अ-ending, it retains its form in the oblique case
Thank you so much Vinay92. Just when I think I'm getting somewhere I realise how far I have to go. Much appreciated.
Can you please give an example of the same sentence but with other word then school so we can see the difference?
Consider the sentence उनका भाई मेरे स्कूल जाता है। (Their brother is going to my school) In this sentence, the whole noun phrase 'मेरा स्कूल' (my school) is in the oblique case because that is the answer to the question 'To what?'/'किस को'. That is why it has been used in the oblique case form मेरे स्कूल.
I had the same question, but I'm afraid I'm still confused after reading your explanation. I don't see a अ-ending in स्कूल . I thought - oh, it's because every letter incorporates that अ - but my understanding is that EVERY letter includes the अ, so it that case how would any word change its form in the oblique? Yet I know some do.
Every letter has an अ attached to it unless it has the diacritic mark (called mātrā) for another vowel. So, क is the consonant+अ. का is the consonant+आ , कि is the consonant+इ and so on.
(Note that the vowel अ that is attached to a consonant is often not pronounced and this is always the case when it occurs at the end of a word. So, words with an अ-ending are often said to have consonant endings.)
The oblique case rules for singular masculine nouns posit that words with an आ- ending change form in the oblique case and take an ए-ending (eg: कुत्ता becomes कुत्ते in the oblique case) while words which end in anything else don't change form. Since स्कूल ends with अ and not आ, it remains as it is in the oblique case.
292
If there were a pronoun before स्कूल, that's what would be inflected. e.g. 'Their brother goes to this school' - उनका भाई इस स्कूल जाता है - 'इस' है, 'यह' नहिं।
- 292
Wrong, का / के agrees with the thing possessed, not the possessor(s), and उन is third person plural/honorific.
His (non-honorific) would be उसका / उसकी / उसके, depending on the gender and plurality of the object. 'Her' would be the same, you can't tell their gender from that alone.
Somw times we know the answer but we tab on false word. After pressing continue there's no way to correct our mistake
Could it also mean "HIS brother goes to school" ? Or even "HER brother goes to school" ?
- 292
By taking the 'Plurals' lesson? :)
In this case, no anusvar (nasalising dot) on 'hai' means that 'bhai' (which has the same form in nominative case sing./pl.) must be singular. 'unka'(/ke/kii) is obviously inherently plural/respectful.
Plural is the word through which we get to know that the quantity of something is more than one i.e. लताएँ (Lataayein – Creepers), बच्चे (Bacche – Children), कुत्ते (Kutte – Dogs) , कमरे (Kamare – Rooms) etc. In Hindi, it is called बहुवचन (Bahu Vachan) and the singular form is called एकवचन (Ek Vachan).
I hope karthiktej it helps u!!
Theirs an issue in this sentence Both the sentences are right though but meaning of each sentence is different
- 292
Use the report button - we commenters can't do anything, nor even see what the sentence options were. (Though maybe if you comment with the two you think are both right somone might say actually one isn't for some reason.)
I answered 'unke bhayi school jatha hai'. it threw typos "unka bhayi school jatha hai". How do we differentiate 'Their brother' and 'Their brothers'?
- 183
In the previous question 'Their father lives in America' - Here corrected me to 'Unkey', instead of 'Unka'.
But in this example 'Their brother goes to school', it says 'Unka' instead of 'Unkey' I'm confused :(
You use उनका if the word following it is singular and उनके if it is plural. Eg: उनका कुत्ता - Their dog, उनके कुत्ते -Their dogs.
However, when talking about people, some words that refer to people older than the speaker or in a position of authority (Eg: पिता, दादा, शिक्षक etc ) are conjugated as if they were plural to convey respect and we use उनके for them. Some of these words like पिता are seen as somewhat formal (compared to the synonym बाप ) so we use the respectful plural form even if the person it is referring to is younger.
With भाई, you can use उनके भाई if the brother is significantly older than you or you want to convey respect. However, note that 'उनके भाई स्कूल जाते हैं' can also mean 'Their brothers go to school'.
I assumed 'their' was a plural pronoun but it could also refer to a singular neutral entity.
