Page 216 - The Rough Guide Phrasebook - Hindi & Urdu

Word order
The word order of a basic sentence in Hindi and Urdu is:
subject – object – verb
Any negatives are positioned just before the verb at the end:
mA chiA TThī likhūgā mA chiA TThī nahī likhī ūgā
I’ll write a letter I won’t write a letter
lit: I letter will write lit: I letter will not write

Articles
There are no definite or indefinite articles in Hindi or Urdu.
Context determines whether, for example,
hāthī means ‘an elephant’ or ‘the elephant’.

HOW THE LANGUAGE WORKS
Nouns
N
Genders
Nouns in Hindi and Urdu have one of two genders, masculine
or feminine.
There are two types of masculine noun:
type 1 nouns ending in -ā
type 2 nouns not ending in -ā
beTā bhāi
son brother
There are also two types of feminine noun:
type 1 nouns ending in -ī
type 2 nouns not ending in -ī
W or d or der / Articles / Nouns
beTīT bahan
daughter sister
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