Learn Pali Language

We’ve covered a lot of Pali syntax already and this post is a recap and summary. I’ve put together a quick reference guide to Subject-Verb Agreement to aid students (and myself ) when attempting to translate. This helps to determine which word belongs where... I’ll paraphrase Duroiselle & Bomhard here: Clauses in Pali have at least two elements: The “subject” — the person, place, or thing which the sentence is about – always in nominative case or implied. The “predicate” — that which happens to the subject. The predicate may contain: A main finite verb, in which case it must agree with the subject in number and person. A past passive participle used as a finite verb., in which case it must agree with the subject in gender and number. (Present participles never appear as finite verbs) A noun with an implied hoti ‘to be’ understood after it, in the same case and usually number, but no concord of gender or number need take place! An adjective with an implied hoti ‘to be’ u...

First let’s look at what a clause is and explain some terminology. Learning this terminology helps when reading grammar guides like Warder . Clauses - an overview Previously I said that sentence consisted in a noun phrase + a verb phrase. Strictly this is the description of a clause . A sentence can involve one or more clauses joined by conjunctions . clause noun verb John shouted   clause pronoun verb everybody waved conj and