Nouns
A noun is a word that refers to a person (Betty Crocker), place (Canada), thing (book), animal (cat), or idea (justice). When used in a sentence, a noun can be a subject or an object.
Examples of Hindi nouns include:
- kidki (F)window
- kamara (M)room
- kursee (F)chair
- seb (M)apple
- mez (F)table
All nouns in Hindi have a gender. They are either masculine (M) or feminine (F). However, there are no hard and fast rules for what dictates the gender of a noun.
The 3 General Rules for Knowing the Gender of a Noun
1. Nouns ending with the vowel -a are usually masculine
- kelabanana
- santaraorange
- kamararoom
- ladkaboy
- betason
2. Nouns ending with the vowel -i are usually feminine
- ladkigirl
- betidaughter
- patniwife
- chinisugar
- sarisaree
3. Nouns ending in consonants can be masculine or feminine
The spelling of these nouns tell you nothing about their gender.
Masculine examples
- gharhome or house
- makanhouse
- mandirtemple
- chavalrice
- phalfruit
- phulflower
Feminine examples
- auratwoman
- kalampen
- kitabbook
- meztable
Exceptions to these Rules
The exceptions to these rules are that there are some masculine nouns that end in -i, and some feminine nouns that end in -a.
Examples of masculine nouns ending in -i
- adamiman
- hathielephant
- paniwater
- ghiclarified butter
- patihusband
Examples of feminine nouns ending in -a
- havawind, air
- davamedicine
Note
It should be pointed out here that gender is the weakest point in Hindi grammar. There are no clear cut rules, especially for nouns that end in consonants. And aside from nouns that refer to people or animals (which actually do have a sex), the genders for nouns were assigned arbitrarily.
Learners should know from the beginning that it will take time and repeated exposure to the language to master genders in Hindi.
Plural
In Hindi, declining nouns into plurals is super easy.
Declining means to change the suffix of a word to express one or more characteristics about what the word refers to.
A noun declines when you want to pluralize it. The way it declines is based on the gender and last letter of the word in its singular form.
| To make it plural | |
| For Masculine Nouns That | |
| 1. End in -a ladkaboy betason | Drop the -a and add -e ladkeboys betesons |
| 2. Don’t end in -a admiman sebapple | There is no change admimen sebapples |
| For Feminine Nouns That | |
| 1. End in -i ladkigirl betidaughter | Add -yan ladkiyangirls betiyandaughters |
| 2. Don’t end in -i kitabbook auratwoman | Add -en kitabenbooks auratenwomen |
To Summarize
All Hindi nouns have a gender
Generally:
| If the Noun | The Gender is |
| ends in -a | male |
| ends in -i | female |
| ends with a consonant | arbitrary |
The 4 easy rules to make nouns plural
| Gender | Singular | Plural |
| male | ends in -a | replace -a with -e |
| male | doesn’t end in -a | doesn’t change |
| female | ends in -i | add -yan |
| female | doesn’t end in -i | add -en |