The Sanskrit Language | Guided Sanskrit Lessons

Lesson 20

Dual Number
First and Second Person Pronouns

Exercises
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Exercise Page 262
CORRECTION: On Line 8 of the exercise on Page 263, there should be no space between ज्येष्ठ and सगरपत्न्यैको. ज्येष्ठसगरपत्न्या is a compound word.
HINTS:
  • The third line of the exercise on Page 263 has the word एताः (in sandhi with इति तस्य to form इत्येतास् तस्य). This is the feminine 2/+ form of the pronoun एतद्. The forms of एतद् are almost all the same as तद्, with the addition of the letter ए at the beginning. The pronoun तद् usually refers to a distal object (i.e. 'that') while एतद् refers to a proximal object (i.e. 'this'). Hence एताः... वाचः can be translated as 'these words'. See Lesson 7 for a general overview of declensions of pronouns, including एतद्.
  • The sixth line of the exercise on Page 263 has the word स्यात् (in sandhi with इति to form स्याद् इति). This is the Optative परस्मैपद ('active') III/1 of the verb अस् ('be'), which can be translated as 'should be'.

Dual Number

In addition to singular and plural, Sanskrit has a dual number. Dual forms of nouns are generally easy to remember as most of them end in औ, भ्याम्, or ओः. Noun forms different from these and verbal affixes can be easily looked up in the rare occasion that the dual is used. It is usually easy to identify when a verb form is dual because there will be two subjects in the sentence, either as separate words, a द्वन्द्व compound with two stems, or a dual pronoun.

First and Second Person Pronouns

Although first and second person pronouns have been used frequently in exercises, they are formally introduced here. It is advisable to memorize at least the singular forms of each of them. First and second person pronouns have no gender, and are rarely used in First (Nominative) Case if a verb is present to indicate person. It is important to be familiar with the alternative forms in parentheses (e.g. मा, मे, नौ, नः) as these are used as frequently as the forms outside of parentheses. The second person pronoun alternative form of 4/1 and 6/1, 'ते' is often confused with the forms of तद् that look the same (i.e. masculine 1/+, neuter and feminine 1/2 and 2/2).
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