When a direct object takes ko and when it does not
I can decide whether a direct object needs ko
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
I called Ram.
I drank tea.
She fed the children.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Hindi marks some direct objects with को and leaves others bare. The rule is roughly: people and definite things take it, indefinite things do not.
This matters in the ने construction. A bare object controls agreement; an object marked with को does not, and the verb falls back to the default masculine singular:
So को has consequences two words away, which is why it is worth a topic of its own.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesMarking every object with ko, or forgetting that ko blocks verb agreement.
ko on every direct object
Indefinite non-human objects stay bare: maine chay pi.
Verb still agreeing with a ko-marked object
ko blocks agreement; the verb defaults to masculine singular.
I called Ram.
A person, so ko; and bulaya does not agree with Ram.
I drank tea.
Indefinite thing: bare object, and pi agrees with chay.
She fed the children.
People take ko; the verb agrees with khana instead.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Yamuna Kachru's reference grammar; the descriptive account relied on for aspect, valency and clause structure.
R. S. McGregor's outline, the standard concise academic description of Hindi morphology.