The suffixes that build new words: vala, pan, i, dar
I can recognise a word I have not met from the suffix on it
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
He is a very honest man.
In childhood I lived in a village.
This work is not impossible.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
| -वाला | the one associated with | दूधवाला - milkman |
| -दार | holder of, having | दुकानदार - shopkeeper; ईमानदार - honest |
| -पन | abstract quality | बचपन - childhood; अपनापन - closeness |
| -ई | abstract noun or origin | ख़ुशी - happiness; पंजाबी - Punjabi |
| -हट | state, sensation | घबराहट - panic; थकावट - tiredness |
अ- is Sanskrit, ना- and बे- are Persian, and Hindi uses all three freely.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesCoining words with a suffix that does not attach to that root.
Inventing a word with the wrong suffix
Use these to decode unfamiliar words before using them to build new ones.
Mixing the Sanskrit and Persian negative prefixes
a-/an- with Sanskrit roots, be-/na- with Persian ones.
He is a very honest man.
-dar makes 'having' from a noun.
In childhood I lived in a village.
-pan builds the abstract noun, like the Russian -stvo.
This work is not impossible.
The Sanskrit negative prefix a-.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A2 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.