Hindi Patterns

Postpositions

In Hindi, postpositions occur after a noun or pronoun.

Here is the complete list of postpositions:

Postposition	Meanings	Relationship to Noun Indicated
ne	Used after the subject if the subject is performing the action	The nouns ownership of the action
ka, ke, ki	of (inflect based on gender and number of the object that follows)	The nouns ownership of an object
ko	to	The noun as a recipient
se	from, with, by	The source or origin of an action
par	on, above	A spatial relation to the noun
me	in	A spatial relation to the noun

The postpositions are written as separate words with nouns, but they are suffixes to pronouns.

After Noun	After Pronoun
Ram koto Ram	mujhkoto me
mez paron the table	usparon that
kamare mein the room	usmein that
Ram neRam	maineI

Let’s dig a little deeper.

Postpositions Following Nouns

Postpositions are written as separate words when following nouns.

If a noun is followed by a postposition, the form of the noun changes based on one of 3 rules.

Rule 1

If	If the preceding noun is singular male
Then	Then the noun takes the plural form, followed by the postposition

For example: kamare me garmi haiit is hot in the room

Rule 2

If	If the preceding noun is singular female
Then	Then the noun doesn’t change form and is followed by the postposition

For example: kursi par dhul haithere is dust on the chair

Rule 3

If	If the preceding noun is plural (male or female)
Then	The noun gets the suffix -(y)on, followed by the postposition

Inflections:

-on replaces the trailing -a of masculine nouns
-yon is appended to the trailing -i of feminine nouns
-on is appended to a noun if it ends in a consonant

For example:

• Male plural: kamaron men garmi haiit is hot in the rooms
• Female plural: kursiyon par dul haithere is dust on the chairs

Postpositions Following Pronouns

When postpositions follow a pronoun they are added as suffixes. For all of the 3rd person pronouns, and some of the 1st person pronouns, the prefixes change too.

	ne	ka, ke, ki	ko
mainI	maineI	mujhkamine	mujhkoto me
humwe	humnewe	humkaours	humkoto us
tumyou	tumneyou	tumkayour	tumkoto you
apyou	apneyou	apkayour	apkoto you
ye/vo singular (near, far)he/she/it/this/these	isne, usnehe,she,it	iska, uskahis/hers/its	isko, uskoto him/her/it
ye/vo plural (near, far)they/those	inhone, unhonethey	inka, unkatheirs	inko, unkoto them

	se	ke liye	par
mainI	mujhseto/from/with/by me	mere liyefor me	mujh paron me
humwe	humseto/from/with/by us	humare liyefor us	hum paron us
tumyou	tumseto/from/with/by you	tumhare liyefor you	tum paon you
apyou	apseto/from/with/by you	apke liyefor you	ap paron you
ye/vo singular (near. far)he/she/it/this/these	ise, useto/from/with/by him/her/it	iske liye, uske liyefor him/her/it	is par, us paron him/her/it
ye/vo plural (near, far)they/those	inse, unseto/from/with/by them	inke liye, unke liyefor them	in par, un paron them

Examples:

• tumne roti khayi?have you had your bread?
• tumko patra kisne diya?who gave you the letter?
• usne kya kaha tha?what did he say?

Synonyms in the Case of Ko

There is a set of pronouns that are synonymous with the pronouns ending in the -ko postposition. Let’s take mujhko for example. You can replace mujhko with the special personal pronoun mujhe. Mujhe is synonymous with mujko, and is used more often in casual Hindi.

The same is true for the rest of the pronouns followed by ko. Here is a table to illustrate:

Pronoun with Ko	Is Synonymous With
mujhko	mujhe
humko	humen
tumko	tumen
apko	apko
isko, usko	ise, use
inko, unko	inhen, unhen