Nouns, Pronouns, and adjectives

Sanskrit nominals (nouns, pronouns, and adjectives) can be one of 8 cases (विभक्ति). These forms are called declensions. They are used to express what is expressed using prepositions in English. Example - with, by, to, for, from, of, in etc. However, there will not be an exact equivalence between the two languages. In English the Sanskrit declensions are called: nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, and vocative.

Sanskrit nominals have three numbers - singular, dual, and plural. They also have three genders - masculine, feminine, and neuter. The gender is a word is unpredictable and has little semantic significance.

There are two types of nouns that end in अ - masculine (e.g. राम) and neuter (e.g. फलम)

Verbs in English are either transitive or intransitive. Transitive verbs use a direct object.

We need a large bag.

In the above sentence need is a verb that takes the direct object "large bag". If "large bag" is removed then the sentence is incomplete.

In the below sentence ran is an intransitive verb. It does not need any objects to be complete. The words "around the house" only describe where the boy ran.

The boy ran around the house.

Even if the object is removed "The boy ran." is a complete sentence.