Intro to Lesson 4 – Residential Sanskrit Course

Summary:

We can now say “Man goes to the horse”. Welcome to Lesson 4, where we learn two noun cases (or declensions) of nominative & accusative. Our vocabulary expands further.

Source: Introduction to Sanskrit (4th Ed) – Thomas Egenes – Part One

Highlights:

  1. Video serves as intro to Lesson 4. Details will be covered when we meet in class.
  2. To form a noun: stem + ending. EG:
    • nara + ḥ   =  naraḥ (man)
    • nara + u  =  narau (two men)
    • nara + aḥ = narāḥ (many men).
  3. What is nominative (subject)? The doer of the verb. Subject of the sentence. The one who is performing the verb.
    • EG: Rāma goes.
  4. What is accusative (object)? The “victim” of the verb. The object which the verb is done onto. Motion towards.
    • EG: Rāma goes to the horse.
  5. Sentence order? Subject(nominative)  object(accusative)  verb.  (S.O.V)
    • naraḥ aśvam gacchati  (The man goes to the horse).
  6. The nominative and verb ALWAYS agree in number. EG:
    • naraḥ(single) gacchati(single)
    • narāḥ(plural) gacchanti(plural)
  7. Rule of apposition: EG: (L4, pg33 #2)
    • “Rāma, the boy goes to the horse.” Both Rāma and boy are nominative.
    • “The horse goes to Rāma, the king.” Both Rāma and king are accusative.
  8. Rule of “vā” (or): (L4, pg35) 

    • When two nominatives are connected by “vā”, then verb agrees(in number) with the nominative closest to it. EG:
      • aśvaḥ gajāḥ vā gacchanti   (The horse or the elephants are going.)
      • aśvau gajaḥ vā gacchati     (The two horses or the elephant is going.)
  9. Nominative + verb? Drop the “He/she/it”. EG:
    • gacchati (He/she/it goes.)    |  naraḥ gacchati (The man goes.)
    • vadati  (He/she/it speaks.)   |  naraḥ vadati     (The man speaks.)

My Embarrassing Mistakes:

  • 12:53: vadathaḥ smarataḥ ca (You two speak and those two remember)

Homework:

  1. Verse: Like Blades of Grass
  2. Spoken Sanskrit: Week 3
  3. Practice devanāgarī writing. Here are practice sheets to print: 5.
    • Labials: pa, pha, ba, bha, ma
    • Semi-vowels/liquids: ya, ra, la, va
    • Sibilants: śa, ṣa, sa, ha
    • anusvāra: aṃ
    • visarga: aḥ
  4. Remember the “nara” cases for nominative & accusative. (L4, pg33)
  5. Remember the new vocabulary. (L4, pg35)
  6. Complete exercises in Lesson 4. (L4, pg36-39)

Questions:

You'll have more questions throughout the course. How to ask? Leave in comments below, so others can also benefit. I will respond in 48 hours. Only ask specific to Lesson.

 

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Recorded 20 April, 2020

Lesson 3 Intro
Index
Lesson 5 Intro

 

5 Comments

  1. Hello Andre,

    Thank you for these lessons.

    In exercise 7f and 7i in the book, the answers given are:
    7f – aśvam gacchasi
    7i – gajam vadatha

    I incorrectly answered:
    7f – aśvaḥ gacchasi
    7i – gajaḥ vadatha

    So my question is: Is the rule when the subject of the sentence is “You”, we use the accusative declension instead of the nominative declension?

    I could not find the answer to this in the textbook.

    Thank you

    Tom

    Reply

    1. 7f) “You” are doing motion towards the horse. The horse is being done onto by an action performed by you (gaccha + si: You do action of going). Hence horse must be accusative (aśvam).

      aśvam gacchasi: You go to the horse.

      —

      7i) “You all speak” is motion towards the elephant. An action of speaking is DONE ONTO the elephant. Hence elephant must be accusative (gajam).

      gajam vadatha: You all speak to the elephant. (OR: You are all speaking to the elephant. Don’t have to match Egenes 100%, long as it’s proper English grammar).

      Reply

  2. Hello Andre

    Lesson 4 exercise 5g

    Can you please explain why the ca goes in between putrah and smarati and a) not after vadati and b) not after smarati

    Cheers

    Tom

    Reply

    1. See pg6, description for “ca”. Placed AFTER last word of series. Last word is putraḥ, thus “ca” placed after it.

      EG1: Deer goes and the man remembers and the horse speaks. > mṛgaḥ gacchati naraḥ smarati aśvaḥ CA vadati.
      EG2: Son asks, Rāma does not remember and man does not live. > putraḥ pṛcchati rāmaḥ na smarati naraḥ na CA vasati.

      Rule: Placed AFTER last word of series.
      Extension: In most cases, only one “ca” is needed, no matter how many items you have in the list.

      Reply

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