Word order
Subject – Object – Verb. The verb comes last, always.
मैं किताब पढ़ता हूँ — "I book read am."
Once you accept that, most of Hindi follows. Everything that modifies something comes before it, and everything that governs a noun comes after it.
Postpositions, not prepositions
They follow the noun, and they force it into the oblique.
- घर में — in the house
- मेज़ पर — on the table
- दोस्त के लिए — for a friend
English says "to the boy"; Hindi says "boy to" — लड़के को.
Modifiers before
- Adjective before noun: अच्छी किताब
- Possessor before possessed: मेरा घर
- Relative clause before its noun, or introduced by जो
The verb cluster at the end
Hindi stacks its verbs at the end and reads them right to left:
मैं जा सकता हूँ — "I go can am" — I can go. मुझे जाना पड़ेगा — "to-me to-go will-fall" — I will have to go.
What is flexible
Everything except the verb. For emphasis, the object can front:
किताब मैंने पढ़ी — "the book, I read" — with the book emphasised.
The ने problem
In the perfective, a transitive subject takes ने and the verb then agrees with the object, not the subject:
मैंने किताब पढ़ी — the verb is feminine because किताब is, not because I am.
This is split ergativity, the same phenomenon Georgian has, and it surprises everyone who meets it.
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