A Door Into Hindi: Lesson 10

View movie about To have brothers and sisters

You already know that के पास means "have" as in मेरे पास एक सेब है । = I have an apple.

This construction can be used only if you possess an “inanimate” thing. If you “possess” a human being, then पास disappears.

There is another way to express the idea of possession:

Note that this construction uses the normal possessive, and the possessive inflects according to number and gender of भाई, बहिन ।

Literally, you are saying, “Ram’s one brother is.” This is an idiomatic construction.

The constructions for brothers and sisters also applies to other relations, friends, etc.

Parallel constructions can be used to express possession of an object which is inanimate but large:

Addressing Brothers and Sisters:

In Hindi, we generally specify whether the sibling is older or younger, i.e.:

बड़ा भाई = older brother

छोटी बहिन = younger sister

The postposition से is used to mean “than”:

मेरी बहिन मुझ से बड़ी हैं।