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LESSON 2

Lesson
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Lesson 2 Grammar

CONTENTS

  1. Expressions of introduction
  2. Simple sentences with the verb huarnu 'to be'
  3. Pronouns
  4. Verb agreement with huarnu
  5. Locative phrases using the post-positions maan 'from' and men 'in'
  6. Negative sentences with na 'no, not'
  7. Vocabulary: gharnaa 'many'; haarne 'now'; ke 'some'

1. Expressions of introduction
A few simple phrases used for introducing oneself or a third person are given here. At this point simply learn these as complete phrases, without concern for the grammatical constructions or word-for-word translation.

I am Susan
maan suuzani aahyaan
I Susan am
The same sentence can be used for females and males, by substituting the appropriate name for "Susan".

My name is Susan
munhinjo naalo suuzani aahe
my name Susan is
The same sentence can be used for female and male names.

This is my (male) friend, Punhalu
hiiu munhinjo yaaru punhalu aahe
This my friend Punhalu is
Used by a male to introduce a male friend.

Sister's name is Meera
adiia jo naalo miira aahe
Sister's name Meera is
Used by a male to introduce a female acquaintance.

This is my girlfriend, Meera
hiia munhinjii saaheRii miira aahe
This my girlfriend Meera is
Used by a female to introduce a female friend.

What is your name?
tavahaanjo naalo chhaa aahe
your(pl.) name what is
Uses the respectful (or plural) form of 'you', appropriate for use in a more formal setting.

What is your name?
tunhinjo naalo chhaa aahe
your (sg.) name what is
Uses the familiar (or singular) form of 'you', appropriate for informal use among peers or to a young child.

2. Simple sentences with the verb huarnu 'to be'
In Sindhi, the order of words in a sentence differs from English. The verb typically appears at the end of the sentence in Sindhi, while in English it typically appears following the subject , but not necessarily at the end of the sentence. Compare the Sindhi sentence below with its English counterpart, and notice the location of the verbs aahe ' is' and aahini ' are'. A word-for-word translation is given below each Sindhi sentence to help you identify the words in the sentences.
Sindhi English
He is Sindhi
huu sindhii aahe
he Sindhi is
They are Sindhi
huu sindhii aahini
they Sindhi are
More generally, the order of words in a Sindhi sentence is Subject-Object-Verb, though you won't encounter sentences with an object until later lessons.

3. Pronouns
In this lesson you will use the 3 rd person pronouns huu 'he' and huua 'she'. The pronoun huu is also used for the plural 'they', and as in English can refer to a group of males or females, or to a mixed group of males and females. You might think it's confusing to have the same pronoun used for singular 'he' and for plural 'they', but the correct interpretation can often be distinguished with help from the verb's number agreement. The pronouns are used in this lesson to refer to people. The same pronouns will be used in Lesson 3 to refer to other kinds of nouns (animals, concrete things, abstract things) based on the noun gender (introduced in Lesson 3).

4. Verb agreement with huarnu

In the sentence construction introduced in this lesson, and many others you will see in later lessons, the verb agrees with the subject of the sentence for person and number. Here are the third person forms of the verb huaNu 'to be' used in the present habitual tense, as in the sentence huu sindhii aahe 'He is Sindhi.' The third person forms are used when the subject of the sentence can be referred to as 'he', 'she', 'it', or 'they'. Note that the plural form of the verb is different from the singular.
Third person singular aahe
Third person plural aahini
More example sentences with huarnu :
She is American

huua amriikii aahe
she American is
He is Sindhi

huu sindhii aahe
he Sindhi is

They are Panjabi

huu panjaabii aahini
they Panjabi are
He is English

huu angrezu aahe
he English is
He is Chinese

huu chiinii aahe
he Chinese is
They are Bengali

huu bangaalii aahini
they Bengali are
She is Japanese

huua jaapaanii aahe
she Japanese is

5. Locative phrases using the post-positions maan 'from' and men 'in'

The words maan 'from' and men 'in' are used to form phrases that indicate location, such as 'from America' or 'in London', as in the following example sentences:

I am from America

maan amriika maan aahiyaan

They are in London

huu lanDana men aahini

maan and men are post-positions, which means that they follow the noun they modify, as in the phrases amriika maan 'America-from' and lanDana men 'in London' in the examples above. In English, words like 'from' and 'in' are prepositions, and precede the word they modify (e.g., from America, in London). Most of the small words that are prepositions in English have counterparts in Sindhi words that are post-positions, resulting in a noticeable difference in word order between the two languages. Here are some additional examples of sentences using maan and men : [Grammar note (pop-up window)]

He is from Karachi
huu karaachiia maan aahe

They are in Mumbai
huu mambaaiia men aahini

6. Negative sentences with na 'no, not'

Use the word na with the verb huarnu 'to be' to form negative sentences such as:

He is not in Sindh
huu sindha men na aahe

They are not Japanese
huu japaanii na aahini

The word na most typically combines with the following verb aahe or aahini in contracted forms naahe , and naahini . The first sentence above is repeated here with the contracted negative verb:

He is not in Sindh

huu sindha men naahe

7. Vocabulary: gharnaa 'many'; haarne 'now'; ke 'some'

    Here are a few notes on vocabulary introduced in the Lesson 2 dialogue:
  1. gharnaa 'many'. This word is used in the dialogue in the phrase gharnaa sindhii 'many Sindhis', where gharnaa agrees with the noun 'Sindhis' for gender and number: masculine, plural. In Lesson 3 you will learn about noun gender and number marking, and in Lesson 4 you will learn how to form adjectives to agree with the noun they modify. For now you may use the word gharnaa in this form to modify masculine (or mixed-gender), plural nouns such as 'Sindhis'.
  1. haarne 'now' may be placed at the beginning of a sentence, as in the following example:

Now she is in Pune
haarne huua puune men aahe
  1. ke 'some'. This word is an adjective and is placed before the noun it modifies, as in the example phrase ke shaagirda 'some students', or ke amriikii 'some Americans'.