jo opens the relative clause and vah answers it
I can build a relative clause with its correlative
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
जो आदमी कल आया था, वह डॉक्टर है।
The man who came yesterday is a doctor.
जब बारिश होगी, तब हम निकलेंगे।
We'll set off when it rains.
जितना चाहिए, उतना लीजिए।
Take as much as you need.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Hindi relative clauses come in pairs. जो opens, and a word from the वह family answers it in the main clause:
| Relative | Correlative |
|---|---|
| जो - who, which | वह / वे |
| जहाँ - where | वहाँ |
| जब - when | तब |
| जैसा - as, like | वैसा |
| जितना - as much as | उतना |
Unlike English, the जो clause normally opens the sentence and the main clause follows it. Putting it after the noun is possible but far less common.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesDropping the correlative and leaving the jo clause hanging.
jo clause with no correlative in the main clause
Answer every jo with vah, jahan with vahan, jab with tab.
Placing the jo clause after the noun as in Russian
The relative clause normally opens the sentence in Hindi.
जो आदमी कल आया था, वह डॉक्टर है।
The man who came yesterday is a doctor.
The jo clause opens; vah answers it.
जब बारिश होगी, तब हम निकलेंगे।
We'll set off when it rains.
jab pairs with tab exactly as agar pairs with to.
जितना चाहिए, उतना लीजिए।
Take as much as you need.
jitna / utna is the quantity pair, and Russian skolko / stolko matches it word for word.
The check for this topic is still being prepared
Ready-made hints are free
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Kamta Prasad Guru's grammar, still the standard prescriptive reference for Hindi verb morphology.
Yamuna Kachru's reference grammar; the descriptive account of aspect, compound verbs and the ergative used here.