Nepali grammar


Nepali grammar is the study of the morphology and syntax of Nepali, an Indo-European language spoken in South Asia.

Phonology

In matters of script, Nepali uses Devanagari. On this grammar page Nepali is written in "standard orientalist" transcription as outlined in. Being "primarily a system of transliteration from the Indian scripts, based in turn upon Sanskrit", these are its salient features: subscript dots for retroflex consonants; macrons for etymologically, contrastively long vowels; h denoting aspirated plosives. Tildes denote nasalized vowels.
Vowels and consonants are outlined in the tables below. Hovering the mouse cursor over them will reveal the appropriate IPA symbol, while in the rest of the article hovering the mouse cursor over forms will reveal the appropriate English translation.
Unlike Hindustani and like languages such as Bengali, Assamese and Marathi, Nepali may retain the final schwa in a word. The following rules can be followed to figure out whether or not Nepali words retain the final schwa.
1) Schwa is retained if the final syllable is a conjunct consonant. अन्त, सम्बन्ध, श्रेष्ठ Exceptions: conjuncts such as ञ्‍‍‍ज ञ्‍च in मञ्‍च गञ्‍‍‍ज and occasionally the last name पन्त
2) For any verb form the final schwa is always retained unless the schwa cancelling halanta is present. हुन्छ, भएर, गएछ but छन्, गइन्
Meanings may change with the wrong orthography: गइन= she didn't go VS गइन् = she went
3) Adverbs, onomatopoeia and postpositions usually maintain the schwa and if they don't, halanta is acquired: अब, तिर, आज सिम्सिम् VS झन्
4) Few exceptional nouns retain the schwa such as: दुख, सुख

Morphology

Nouns

Nepali nouns that denote male and female beings are sometimes distinguished by suffixation or through pairs of lexically differing terms. Thus one pattern involves masculine -o/ā vs feminine -ī suffixes, while another such phenomenon is that of the derivational feminine suffix -nī. Beyond this, nouns are otherwise not overtly marked.
Overall, in terms of grammatical gender, among Indo-Aryan languages, Nepali possesses an "attenuated gender" system, in which "gender accord typically is restricted to female animates, optional or loose even then , and greatly reduced in syntactic scope. In Nepali, the ending is a neutral -o, changeable to -ī with Personal Feminines in more formal style."
Nepali distinguishes two numbers, with a common pluralizing suffix for nouns in -harū. Unlike the English plural it is not mandatory, and may be left unexpressed if plurality is already indicated in some other way: e.g. by explicit numbering, or agreement. further notes that the suffix "rarely indicates simple plurality: it often means that other objects of the same or a like class are also indicated and may be translated as 'and other things'."

Adjectives

s may be divided into declinable and indeclinable categories. Declinables are marked, through termination, for the gender and number of the nouns they qualify. The declinable endings are -o for the "masculine" singular, -ī for the feminine singular, and -ā for the plural. e.g. sāno kitāb "small book", sānī keṭī "small girl", sānā kalamharū "small pens".
"Masculine", or rather "neutral" -o is the citation form and the otherwise overwhelmingly more encountered declension, as previously noted, gender in Nepali is attenuated and accord "typically is restricted to female animates", and "optional or loose even then". However, "In writing, there has been a strong tendency by some to extend the use of feminine markers beyond their use in speech to include the consistent marking of certain adjectives with feminine endings. This tendency is strengthened by some Nepali grammars and may be reinforced by the influence of Hindi upon both speech and writing."
Indeclinable adjectives are completely invariable, and can end in either consonants or vowels.
In Nepali the locus of grammatical function or "case-marking" lies within a system of agglutinative suffixes or particles known as postpositions, which parallel English's prepositions. There is a number of such one-word primary postpositions:
Beyond this come compound postpositions, composed of a primary postposition plus an adverb.
Nepali has personal pronouns for the first and second persons, while third person forms are of demonstrative origin, and can be categorized deictically as proximate and distal. The pronominal system is quite elaborate, by reason of its differentiation on lines of sociolinguistic formality. In this respect it has three levels or grades of formality/status: low, middle, and high. Pronouns do not distinguish gender.
The first person singular pronoun is ma म, and the first person plural is hāmī हामी. The following table lists the second and third person singular forms.
yo and tyo have yī and tī as plurals, while other pronouns pluralize with the common suffix -harū. Also, bracketed beside of a number of forms in the above chart are their oblique counterparts, used when they or that which they qualify are followed by a postposition. However, the need to oblique weakens the longer distance between demonstrative and postposition gets. Also, one exception which does not require obliquing is -sãga "with".

Verbs

Verbs in Nepali are quite highly inflected, agreeing with the subject in number, gender, status and person. They also inflect for tense, mood, and aspect. As well as these inflected finite forms, there are also a large number of participial forms.
Possibly the most important verb in Nepali, as well as the most irregular, is the verb हुनु hunu 'to be, to become'. In the simple present tense, there are at least three conjugations of हुनु hunu, only one of which is regular. The first, the ho-conjugation is, broadly speaking, used to define things, and as such its complement is usually a noun. The second, the cha-conjugation is used to describe things, and the complement is usually an adjectival or prepositional phrase. The third, the huncha-conjugation, is used to express regular occurrences or future events, and also expresses 'to become' or 'to happen'.
They are conjugated as follows:
हो hoछ chaहुन्छ huncha
First person singularहुँ hũछु chuहुन्छु hunchu
First person pluralहौँ haũछौँ chaũहुन्छौँ hunchaũ
Second person singular low-gradeहोस् hosछस् chasहुन्छस् hunchas
Second person middle-grade/pluralहौ hauछौ chauहुन्छौ hunchau
High gradeहुनुहन्छ hunuhunchaहुनुहन्छ hunuhunchaहुनुहन्छ hunuhuncha
Third person singular low-gradeहो hoछ chaहुन्छ huncha
Third person middle-grade/plural masculineहुन् hunछन् chanहुन्छन् hunchan
Third person middle-grade/plural feminineहुन् hunछिन् chinहुन्छिन् hunchin

हुनु hunu also has two suppletive stems in the simple past, namely भ- bha- and थि- thi- which are otherwise regularly conjugated. भ- bha- is also the stem used in the formation of the various participles.
The finite forms of regular verbs are conjugated as follows :
Simple Present/FutureProbable FutureSimple PastPast HabitualInjunctiveImperative
First person singularगर्छु garchu 'I do'गरुँला garũlā 'I will do'गरेँ garẽ 'I did'गर्थेँ garthẽ 'I used to do'गरुँ garũ 'may I do'-
First person pluralगर्छौँ garchaũ 'We do'गरौँला garaũlā 'We will do'गर्यौ garyaũ 'We did'गर्थ्यौँ garthyaũ 'We used to do'गरौँ garaũ 'may we do, let's do'-
Second person singular low-gradeगर्छस् garchas 'you do'गर्लास् garlās 'you will do'गरिस् garis 'you did'गर्थिस् garthis 'you used to do'गरेस् gares 'may you do'गर् gar 'do!'
Second person middle-grade/pluralगर्छौ garchau 'you do'गरौला garaulā 'you will do'गर्यौ garyau 'you did'गर्थ्यौ garthyau 'you used to do'गरौ garau 'may you do'गर gara 'do'
High gradeगर्नुहुन्छ garnuhuncha 'you do'गर्नुहोला garnuhola 'you will do'गर्नुभयो garnubhayo 'you did'गर्नुहुन्थ्यो garnuhunthyo 'you used to do'गर्नुहोस् garnuhos 'may you do, please do'-
Third person singular low-gradeगर्छ garcha 'he does'गर्ला garlā 'he will do'गर्यो garyo 'he did'गर्थ्यो garthyo 'he used to do'गरोस् garos 'may he do'-
Third person middle-grade/plural masculineगर्छन् garchan 'they do'गर्लान् garlān 'they will do'गरे gare 'they did'गर्थे garthe 'they used to do'गरून् garūn 'may they do'-
Third person middle-grade/plural feminineगर्छिन् garchin 'she do'गर्लिन् garlin 'she will do'गरिन् garin 'she did'गर्थिन् garthin 'she used to do'गरुन् garūn 'may she do'-

As well as these, there are two forms which are infinitival and participial in origin, but are frequently used as if they were finite verbs. Again using गर्नु garnu as an example, these are गरेको gareko 'did' and गर्ने garne 'will do'. Since they are simpler than the conjugated forms, these are often overused by non-native speakers, which can sound stilted.
The eko-participle is also the basis of perfect constructions in Nepali. This is formed by using the auxiliary verb हुनु hunu with the eko-participle. So, for example, मैले काम गरेको छु maile kām gareko chu means 'I have done work'.

Infinitives

Nepali has two infinitives. The first is formed by adding -नु nu to the verb stem. This is the citation form of the verb, and is used in a number of constructions, the most important being the construction expressing obligation. This is formed by combining the nu-infinitive with the verb पर्नु parnu 'to fall'. This is an impersonal construction, which means that the object marker -लाई lāī is often added to the agent, unless the verb is transitive, in which case the ergative/instrumental case marker -ले le is added. So, for example, I have to do work would be translated as मैले काम गर्नुपर्छ maile kām garnuparcha. It is also used with the postposition -अघि aghi 'before'. गर्नुअघि garnuaghi, then, means 'before doing'.
The second infinitive is formed by adding -न na to the verb stem. This is used in a wide variety of situations, and can generally be used where the infinitive is used in English. For example, म काम गर्न रामकहाँ गएको थिएँ ma kām garna rāmkahā̃ gaeko thiẽ 'I had gone to Ram's place to do work'.