The figures used in speeches, songs and good prose
I can recognise the standard figures and use a few in my own writing
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Her moon-like face.
Add a little salt.
Life is a struggle.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
| अनुप्रास | alliteration | चंचल चपल चरण |
| उपमा | simile, with जैसा or सा | चाँद सा चेहरा |
| रूपक | metaphor, identity without जैसा | जीवन एक संघर्ष है |
| यमक | the same word twice in two senses | |
| अतिशयोक्ति | hyperbole |
Adding सा to an adjective or noun makes it approximate and is enormously common: थोड़ा सा, छोटा सा, चाँद सा. It agrees like an adjective.
Political and devotional speech repeats deliberately: बदलाव चाहिए, असली बदलाव चाहिए. In Hindi this reads as emphasis rather than as poor editing.
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesEditing out deliberate repetition as though it were a flaw.
Deliberate repetition removed
Repetition is emphasis in Hindi public speech.
sa left unagreed
It behaves like an -a adjective: chhota sa, chhoti si.
Her moon-like face.
sa as a soft simile, agreeing like an adjective.
Add a little salt.
The same sa in everyday use, softening a quantity.
Life is a struggle.
rupak: metaphor without jaisa.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in C1 course exercises
Kamta Prasad Guru's grammar, the standard prescriptive reference for Hindi morphology and syntax.
R. S. McGregor's outline, the standard concise academic description of Hindi morphology.