A Door Into Hindi: Lesson 6

2. Special dative forms

3. Dative constructions

4. The Infinitive as a Noun

Culture Notes

Supplemental Materials

Devanagari Writing System

Digital Dictionaries

Other Resources

6.2	Special dative forms

In addition to the regular dative case forms for pronouns (oblique + को ), there is a set of special "contraction" dative forms which you should memorize. Both forms are given in the table below. In most cases the two forms are interchangeable.

Note that there is no special contraction form for आप.

Also note that the को can be written joined to the preceding pronoun, or as a separate word.

Dative Pronouns		regular form	contraction form		regular form	contraction form
1^st person	to me	मुझको	मुझे	to us	हमको	हमें
2^nd person	to you (familiar)	तुमको	तुम्हें	to you (polite)	आपको
3^rd person (far)	to him/her/that/it	उसको	उसे	to them/those	उनको	उन्हें
3^rd person (near)	to him/her/this/it	इसको	इसे	to them/these	इनको	इन्हें
3^rd person (unknown)	to someone	िकसीको
3^rd person (question)	to whom	िकसको	किसे	to whom	िकनको	िकन्हें

See Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi (2000)
Section 5.5 page 68