Lesson #92: के पास ke paas - To Have
In today’s lesson we’re just going to learn about the important little Hindi word के पास ke paas which usually translates to ‘have’. It’s actually really straightforward to use, there’s not much explaining I need to do. So let me get right into it and start of by showing you an example…
अजय के पास खाना है
ajay ke paas khaanaa hai
- Ajay has food.
Can you see what we’ve done? Our new word के पास ke paas comes before the noun खाना khaanaa - food to mean 'have / has food’. See I told you it was easy! Ready for another example?
प्रियंका के पास मेज़ है
priyanka ke paas mez hai
- Priyanka has a desk.
The great thing about के पास ke paas is that it never changes at all for masculine, feminine or plural! But there is one very important thing you need to know…
के पास ke paas is only used when you 'have’ small items or objects. के पास ke paas is not used for relatives (ie saying 'I have two brothers’ is different) nor for parts of the body. I will cover this with you soon though so don’t worry!
Anyway, ready for a slightly more tricky example?
मेरे पास बहुत सारा काम है
mere paas bahut saraa kaam hai
- I have lots of work
Now, you might read this and wonder where the के ke has disappeared to. Well the answer is that when we are using pronouns (words like I, you, he, she…) with के पास ke paas we use the Possessive Pronoun as covered in Lesson #37. This means that sometimes the के ke 'dissapears’. So we say मेरे पास mere paas to mean I have. Following?
उसके पास हरी किताब नहीं है
uske paas hari kitaab naheen hai
- He doesn’t have a green book.
As you can see creating the negative is also easy, you just use नहीं naheen before the है hai to mean 'do not have’ or 'does not have’. Ready for one last example? In fact you’ll probably have to say this quite often…
मेरे पास समय नहीं है
mere paas samay naheen hai
- I don’t have time
के पास ke paas is a really straightforward and easy word to master so hopefully now you know how to use it! Try making some sentences describing the things in your room, eg I have a bed, I have 10 books.
And most important, don’t forget that we don’t use के पास ke paas for relatives, 'really big things’ like houses, or body parts!
