Lesson #96: Compound Postpositions
Can you remember all the way back to Lesson #50 where we learnt about Postpositions? Actually we’ve been using Postpositions loads ever since then so I’m sure you’re pretty familiar with them by now!
They may have a confusing name but honestly, Hindi Postpositions are very straightforward and simple!
Postpositions (for those of you who’ve forgot!) are words like in, at, from, to… basically they link two things together in a sentence. What Hindi Postpositions do we know already? That’s right, में men - In, पर par - On, से se - from and को ko - To! See Lesson #50 for more information on these! Today we’re going to learn some more Postpositions, so are you ready to begin?
Our new Postpositions for today are;
के अंदर ke andar - Inside
के आगे ke aage - In Front
के ऊपर ke oopar - On Top
के नीचे ke neece - Beneath / Under
के पीछे ke peeche - Behind
Have you noticed the pattern? Look again. That’s right, they all of these start with the word के ke . This is why we call them Compound Postpositions! But don’t let the word confuse you, they work exactly the same as our normal Postpositions (apart from one small thing we’ll cover next time!).
Of course it’s no good just learning these words without seeing some examples of them in sentences! So are you ready for some examples?
कुत्ता मेज़ के नीचे है
kuttaa mez ke neeche hai
- The dog is under the table.
Can you see what we’ve done here? It’s really quite straight forward! We simply have कुत्ता kuttaa - dog then we’ve used मेज़ के नीचे mez ke neeche - under the table, this literally is ‘table under’ but remember the postposition comes after the noun in Hindi! Finally है hai - is, so all together again कुत्ता मेज़ के नीचे है kuttaa mez ke neeche hai - The dog is under the table.
Did you follow that? Ready for another example?
पेड़ घर के पीछे है
per ghar ke peeche hai
- The tree is behind the house.
Can you see what we’ve done here? Remember the word पेड़ per means tree! We could also say this sentence the other way round, by saying 'The house is in front of the tree’. How would you say that? Have a think for a second!
घर पेड़ के आगे है
ghar per ke aage hai
- The house is in front of the tree.
Are you following? Don’t forget you can always ask questions below if you’re lost! Ready to see another example?
शब्दकोश के अंदर बहुत सारे शब्द हैं
shabdkosh ke andar bahut saare shabd hain
- Inside the Dictionary there are lots of words
This example is a little more complicated but really it’s nothing crazy! We literally say शब्दकोश के अंदर shabdkosh ke andar - Inside the dictionary, then बहुत सारे शब्द bahut saare shabd - Lots of words, and finally हैं hain - is. See, it’s simple!
Now for homework do you think you can try and answer the following question? Give it a go! leave a comment in the comments section below with your guess!
पेड़ के ऊपर क्या है? per ke oopar kyaa hai?
So your first task is to figure out what the question means! Then try and answer it! Leave a comment in the comments section below with your guess! Remember to answer with a full sentence!
