Learn Pali Language

Previously, we've seen how adjectives modify describe or add qualities to nouns . Adverbs are similar, in that, they are used to qualify everything else! In the tree on the hill , the phrase on the hill belongs to the tree ; it identifies which tree we are talking about. This is an adjectival phrase. Whereas, rapidly belongs to the verb; it describes the manner of the action. This is an Adverb . An adverb is a word used to qualify: a verb:      She swims quickly , an adjective:    She is very quick, another adverb:  She swims extremely quickly , or a clause:     Thankfully , she won. Let's take a quick look at each of these... Adverbs Modifying Adjectives When modifying an adjective, an adverb clarifies the extent of or intensifies the adjective. If we look at an example: a black bird sang Here, black is an adjective describing or adding the quality black to the noun: bird . a big black bird sa...

In this post we will look at conjunctions and examine some types of clause in Pali. This post follows on from earlier posts about relative clauses and also adverbs in Pali . In its simplest form a sentence is just a single clause. If you remember, a clause consists of a subject (noun phrase) and a verb (verb phrase) or to use different lingo, a subject and a predicate . Conjunctions can be used to join clauses to form more complex sentences. clause noun verb John shouted   clause pronoun verb everybody waved conj and In English, Conjunctions are often grouped into three types: Coordinating conjunctions , used to join either words, phrases , or clauses . (e...

The last post looked at participle acting in passive sentences . In this post we'll continues with participles in active  Pali sentences, and specifically Present Participles. Just as a reminder, in an active sentence, the grammatic subject in nominative and the actor doing the action of the main verb will be the same ; and the verb will agree in gender & number with this agent/subject. A transitive  verb may also take an object  in accusative. Present Participles (Active) Present participles in English are easy to spot as they all end with ‘–ing’. Present participles are used in several ways: Adjective like: as verbal adjectives , (a modifier to a noun) The smiling girl..., the bouncing ball... as subject complements , (with copula) The girl is smiling ..., the ball is bouncing ... in subordinate clauses , the girl walked along, bouncing the ball Verb like: in periphrasis  - combination with other auxiliary verbs to create aspect , T...

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