Modern Hindi Grammar - Indian Institute of Language Studies (IILS)

4. SYNTAX

There is no distinct category of articles used in Hindi. The concept
of definiteness and indefiniteness is expressed indirectly by means
of pronouns, and the numeral ek ek ‘one.’

5. kao[- ek laD,ka
   koi:/ek larka:
   some /a/one boy


6. yah/vah baccaa
   yah/vah bacca:
   this/that child

The numeral ek ek and the indefinite pronoun kao[- koi: ‘some(one)’
are used in place of an indefinite article. A definite determiner
involves either a demonstrative/personal pronoun or a zero marking
as given in (6). It is only the context which disambiguates the
potential ambiguity present in the above two sentences.

Besides determiners, a noun may be preceded by quantifiers and
numerals in the form of (i) approximate/ordinal (e.g., lagaBaga lagbhag
‘about,’ krIba kari:b ‘almost,’ kovala keval ‘only,’ phlaa pahla: ‘first’, dUsara
du:sra: ‘second’, tIsara ti:sra: ‘third’, caaOqaa cautha: ‘fourth’), (ii)
cardinal/ multiplicative/fraction (e.g., ek ek ‘one,’ dao do ‘two,’ duganaa
dugna: ‘twice,’ itganaa tigna: ‘three-fold,’ AaQaa a:dha: ‘half’, tIsara Baaga
ti:sra: bha:g/ ihsaa hisa: ‘one-third’, caaOqaa Baaga cøtha: bha:g/ihsaa hisa:
‘one-fourth,’), and (iii) collective/measure (e.g., jaaoD,I jori: ‘pair’, dja-na
darjan ‘dozen,’ iklaao kilo ‘kilogram,’ AaQaa iklaao a:dha: kilo ‘half a
kilogram’).

Definite + Cardinal + Noun

7. yao caar kmaIja,oM AcCI hOM.
   ye ca:r kami:zẽ acchi: h ́~
   these four shirts good are
   These four shirts are good.

Definite + Ordinal + Noun

8. phlaa baccaa hmaoSaa lajaIlaa haota hO.
   pahla: bacca: hameša: lajji:la: hota: h ́.