Forms of Noun (संज्ञा रूप)

We saw in the previous article how the behaviour of a noun in a sentence is uniquely determined by the corresponding vibhakti or form.

English and Hindi have the vachan or ‘number’ as either singular or plural. Sanskrit has three vachans – singular (एकवचन), dual (द्विवचन) and plural (बहुवचन). You may think of ‘dual’ as unnecessary. However, you may be surprised to know that dual numbers were a standard feature of many Indo-European languages. It has a deeper meaning as well – it signifies the natural pairings like eyes, ears or partners!

Eight vibhaktis and three vachans make a 8 x 3 grid of different forms (रूप). An example is given below for all forms of the noun – बालक (boy):

Case (विभक्ति)	Singular (एकवचन)	Dual (द्विवचन)	Plural (बहुवचन)	Meaning
Prathama – प्रथमा	बालकः	बालकौ	बालकाः	Boy [Subject]
Dwitiya – द्वितीया	बालकम्	बालकौ	बालकान्	To the boy
Tritiya – तृतीया	बालकेन	बालकाभ्याम्	बालकैः	By/With the boy
Chaturthi – चतुर्थी	बालकाय	बालकाभ्याम्	बालकेभ्यः	For the boy
Panchami – पञ्चमी	बालकात्	बालकाभ्याम्	बालकेभ्यः	From the boy
Shasthi – षष्ठी	बालकस्य	बालकयोः	बालकानाम्	Boy’s / Of the boy
Saptami – सप्तमी	बालके	बालकयोः	बालकेषु	In/On the boy
Sambodhan – संबोधन	हे बालक!	हे बालकौ!	हे बालकाः!	O Boy!

To know the correct form you need to know three things: Ending letter (अन्त्यक्षर), Gender (लिङ्ग) and Number (वचन). Here are the most commonly used ending letters for each gender, along with specimen word. If you know the forms of the specimen word, then you know the forms of all similar words. For example, if you know the forms of बालक, then you know forms of all अकारान्त पुल्लिङ्ग् words, e.g., राम, नृप, जनक, अश्व, पुत्र. You can view form tables for all specimen words by clicking the ‘view’ link below the table.