A Door Into Hindi: Lesson 3

1. Nouns: masculine and feminine

2.Nouns: singular and plural

3. Adjectives

4. Possessive Pronouns

5. का /के /की

6. अपना

7. Emphatics

8. सकना = "To Be Able To V"

Culture Notes

Exercises

Quiz

Supplemental Materials

Devanagari Writing System

Digital Dictionaries

Other Resources

3.1	Nouns: masculine and feminine

Hindi nouns are either masculine or feminine.The gender of each noun is given in the vocabulary list. For each gender there are two types of nouns, as shown below:

	Examples:
Masculine nouns: Type 1 Ending in आ	लड़का, कड़ा, बुन्दा, सन्तरा,रुपया
Masculine nouns: Type 2 Not ending in आ (all the rest)	फल, बंदर,हाथी,आदमी हार, घर, आलू
Feminine nouns: Type 1 Ending in ई	लड़की, सब्ज़ी, पूरी, चूड़ी, रोटी, लौकी, चाबी
Feminine nouns: Type 2 Not ending in ई (all the rest)	माता, औरत, बस, दुकान

Note that there are some masculine nouns that look like feminine nouns (हाथी, आदमी, पानी) and there are some feminine nouns that look like masculine nouns (माता). You just have to memorize which is which.

Why do you need to know the gender of each noun?Remember, in Hindi, verb conjugations must agree with the subject's gender, and you will see that adjectives and possessives also agree with the gender of their nouns

See Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi (2000)
Section 1.3 page 23