A Door Into Hindi: Lesson 19

वाला/वाले/वाली are versatile postpositions which can be used with any verb, noun, or adjective to denote a person somehow associated with that action, thing or quality. Thus कार वाला could mean any of the following: a driver (i.e.chauffeur), the owner of the car, the person who is driving, the person standing next to the car, a person who owns a car business, etc.

नाचने वाला / नाचने वाली dancer

यात्रा करने वाला traveler

फल वाला fruit seller

आने वाला the one who is coming

कानपुर वाला the one from Kanpur

Remember that like all postpostions,वाला/वाले/वाली change the noun or verb before them into the oblique case.

वाला/वाले/वाली themselves, however, inflect like normal nouns and adjectives.

When used with verbs, a वाला expression can mean “the one who is…” For example:

बाज़ार से आने वाला लड़का the boy (who is) coming from the bazaar

Note that a वाला construction functions like an adjective when followed by a noun; otherwise it functions like a noun itself.

Likewise वाला expressions are useful for turning any noun into an adjective:

पाँच रुपये वाले जूते the five rupee shoes

कानपुर वाला डाक्तर the Kanpur doctor

Note the slightly different usage of वाला with adjectives:

अच्छा वाला/अच्छी वाली the good one

अच्छा वाला लड़का the good boy

नीले वाले/नीली वाली the blue ones

नीली वाली कारें the blue cars

In the above examples, the वाला expression has a restrictive sense: e.g. “the blue cars” (as opposed to the white cars) or “the good boy” (as opposed to boys in general).

See Snell's Teach Yourself Hindi (2000) Section 10.5 page 130