The grammar of the Marathi language shares similarities with other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Odia language, Gujarati or Punjabi language. The first modern book exclusively about the grammar of Marathi language was printed in 1805 by Willam Carey.
The principal word order in Marathi is SOV (subject–object–verb).
The contemporary grammatical rules described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi. These rules are described in Marathi Grammar, written by M. R. Walimbe. The book is widely referred to students in schools and colleges.
Sanskrit influence
Traditions of Marathi linguistics and above mentioned rules give special status to ‘
tatsama’ (तत्सम) words borrowed from the Sanskrit language. This special status expects the rules for ‘tatsama’ words be followed as of Sanskrit grammar.
Parts of speech
Marathi words can be classified in any of the following parts of speech:
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| Noun | nāma (नाम) |
| Pronoun | sarvanāma (सर्वनाम) |
| Adjective | vishheshaṇa (विशेषण) |
| Verb | kriyāpada (क्रियापद) |
| Adverb | kriyāvishheshaṇa (क्रियाविशेषण) |
| Conjunction | ubhayanvayī avyaya (उभयान्वयी अव्यय) |
| Preposition | shabdayogī avyaya (शब्दयोगी अव्यय) |
| Interjection | kevalaprayogī avyaya (केवलप्रयोगी अव्यय) |
Nominals
Nouns are primarily divided into three categories – proper nouns (विशेषनाम,
visheshnāma), common nouns (सामान्यनाम,
samānyanāma), and abstract nouns (भाववाचकनाम,
bhāvvāchaknāma) – that are identical in definition to their counterparts in other languages (such as English), and are inflected for gender, number and case. They are also often categorized based on their ending vowel, which is especially useful in studying their inflection – those ending in the schwa (or inherent vowel)
a (अ) are termed
akārānta (अकारान्त), those ending in the vowel
ā (आ) are termed
ākārānta (आकारान्त), those ending in the vowel
ī (ई) are termed
īkārānta (ईकारान्त), and so on.
Gender
There are three genders in Marathi: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Some other modern Indo-European languages have lost these genders, completely, as in English and Persian, or in part, with either neuter and common gender (merging masculine and feminine), as in some Northern Germanic languages, or feminine and masculine (absorbing neuter), as in almost all Romance languages.
While there exist no concrete rules for determining the gender of a given noun, certain observations do help speakers in that regard: masculine nouns can only be akārānta or ākārānta, while neuter nouns can only be akārānta, īkārānta, ukārānta (उकारान्त, ending in u) , or ekārānt (एकारान्त, ending in e) .
The grammatical gender of common nouns referring to animated objects corresponds to their natural sex – for example, mulagā (मुलगा, 'boy') is a masculine noun, whereas mulagī (मुलगी, 'girl') is a feminine one. Given the masculine forms of such nouns, the feminine noun can often be determined using a set of rules:
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Some ākārānta nouns have corresponding feminine forms as īkārānta with the same root – mulagā/mulagī (boy/girl), kutrā/kutrī (dog/bitch) , ghoḍā/ghoḍī (horse/mare).
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Some akārānta nouns also have their corresponding feminine forms as īkārānta with the same root – hansa/hansī (male and female swans), vānar/vānrī (male and female monkeys).
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Some nouns use the suffix - īna (ईन) to form their feminine forms – vāgha/vāghīna (tiger/tigress), mālaka/mālakīna (male and female owners).
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Some nouns have their feminine forms made out of entirely different words – navarā/bāīko (husband/wife), bāp/āī (father/mother), rājā/rāṇī (king/queen).
Similarly, for masculine ākārānta common nouns referring to inanimate objects, the 'diminutive' (लघुत्वदर्शक, laghutvadarshaka) forms are feminine, and are īkārānta – danḍā/danḍī (big/small stick) , loṭā/loṭī (big/small mug) .
Case
There are differences of opinion regarding
in Marathi. According to one view, there are two cases:
direct case, which is unmarked (e.g. Rama 'Rama') and
oblique case, which is used before
adpositions (e.g.
'to Ram', -a being the oblique case marker and -la the dative adposition) and (e.g. 'from Rama',
-a being the oblique case marker and
-pasun the postposition). The form of the oblique suffix depends on the gender and the final vowel of the word it is suffixed to.
According to this analysis, true postpositions (like 'from') have a wide range of meanings and can be separated form the noun by like (e.g. ). Adpositions (like -la), on the other hand, are only used to mark nominal arguments of the verb in terms of their and cannot be separated from the noun by clitics ( * is ungrammatical). Syntactically, the latter behave the same as case markers corresponding to the traditional grammar. In this view, the cases are: nominative (unmarked), accusative (singular -la, plural -na), ergative case, which is traditionally called 'instrumental' (sg. -ne, pl. -nni), dative (singular -sa/si, plural "-nvsa/nvsi"), and genitive/possessive (, , , ).
The class of true postpositions will then include -hatun 'through', -hu(n) 'from'/ablative, -t locative, -jagi 'in place of' and many more. The genitive markers inflect to agree with the governing noun.
Traditional grammar
| + Declension of मी (mī)
! style="width:120px;" | ! colspan="2" singular
! colspan="2" | plural |
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In traditional analyses which follow the pattern of Sanskrit grammatical tradition, case suffixes are referred to as (
vibhaktī pratyaya) विभक्ति प्रत्यय. There are eight such (
vibhaktī) विभक्ती (
विभक्ती) in Marathi. The form of the original word changes when such a suffix is to be attached to the word, and the new, modified root is referred to as
saamaanya ruup of the original word. For example, the word (
ghodā) घोडा (“horse”) gets transformed into (
ghodyā-) घोड्या- when the suffix (
-vara) वर- (“on”) is attached to it to form (
ghodyāvara) घोड्यावर (“on the horse”). The nominal suffixes are tabulated below.
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| prathamā (प्रथमा) | First | kartā (कर्ता) | Nominative case | - | – The nominative case uses the unmarked singular or plural form. The unmarked form may also mark certain .
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| dwitīyā (द्वितीया)Second
| karma (कर्म) | Accusative case | Nnā(न्ना), nvsa(ंस)- | - sa and - te are not typically used. Direct objects may also be unmarked in some situations. |
| trutīyā (तृतीया) | Third | karaṇa (करण) | Instrumental case (and Ergative case) | -nnī (न्नी) | - shī is not typically used as an instrumental, and never for the ergative case. |
| caturthī (चतुर्थी) | Fourth | sampradāna (सम्प्रदान) | Dative case | - nna (-न्ना), nvsa (-ंस), | |
| pancamī (पञ्चमी) | Fifth | apādāna (अपादान) | Ablative case | - ūna (ऊन), - nvhūna (हून) | - hūna is used when the noun ends in a vowel. |
| shhashhthī (षष्ठी) | Sixth | sambandha (सम्बन्ध) | Genitive case | - ce (-चे), - cyā (-च्या), - cī (-ची) | The specific suffix used depends on the gender of the noun. |
| saptamī (सप्तमी) | Seventh | adhikarana (अधिकरण) | Locative case | - nta (-न्त), - ī (-ई), - ā (-आ) | The specific suffix used depends on the morphology of the noun and the connotation desired. |
| | | sambhodana (सम्बोधन) | Vocative case | आ | -nno (-न्नो) The vocative case cannot be used in the singular
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| +Examples |
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| Nominative case | – | विद्यार्थी अभ्यास करतात | – |
| Accusative case | घरा ला रङ्ग दिला | घरान् ना रंग दिला | - nā (ना) |
| त्याने संस्थे ला देणगी दिली | त्यांनी संस्थे न्ना देणगी दिली | - sa (-न्ना) |
| Instrumental case | विद्यार्थी लेखणी ने चित्र काढतो | विद्यार्थी लेखण्यान् नी चित्र काढतात | - nī (न्नी) |
| मुलगा दारा शी उभा होता | मुले दारा शी उभी होती | shī (ंशी) |
| Dative case | मी विद्यार्थ्या ला ओळखतो | मी विद्यार्थ्या न्ना ओळखतो | - nnā (न्ना) |
| मी मुला स ओळखतो | मी मुला न्ना ओळखतो | - nvsi (न्ना) |
| Ablative case | मुलगा घ रून निघाला | मुले घ रून निघाली | - ūna (-ऊन) |
| मुलगा गावा हूनी आला | मुले गावा हून आली | - hūna (हून) |
| Genitive case | घरा चा दर्वाजा सुन्दर आहे | घरां चे दरवाजे सुंदर आहेत | - ce (-चे) |
| मुलां ची तब्येत सुधारली आहे | मुलां च्या तब्येती सुधारल्या आहेत | - cyā (-च्या) |
| मुला चे प्रगती पत्रक मिळाले | मुलाञ् ची प्रगती पत्रके मिळाली | - cī (-ची) |
| Locative case | मुलगा घरा त होता | मुले घरा त होती | - ta (-त) |
| मुलगा घ री होता | मुले घ री होती | - ī (-ई) |
| गाय घ री परतली | गायी घ रा परतल्या | - ā (-आ) |
| Vocative case | – | – | मुलान् नो शान्तित बसा -nno (-न्नो)
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Split Ergativity
Marathi is considered a
Split ergativity language, i.e. it uses both nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive alignment. In the latter type, the subject of a transitive verb takes the ergative marking (identical to that of the instrumental case
) instead of having the same form as the subject of an intransitive verb. This change also results in the verb agreeing with the unmarked noun (usually the object) instead of its subject, as it would in nominative-accusative situations:
Note that it is possible for the unmarked noun to be a direct object despite Marathi having an accusative case: Marathi exhibits differential object marking for direct objects, and the accusative declension is used in the case of definite or animate objects.
In case there is no unmarked noun, the verb shows neutral agreement:
As in many Indo-Aryan languages, the ergative split in Marathi is primarily aspect-based, specifically triggered by the perfective for transitive verbs, as seen in the examples above.
Differential object marking
Marathi, like many Indo-Aryan languages, exhibits differential object marking.
are marked according to
definiteness, with unmarked objects representing indefinite nouns. As such,
accusative case markings are not universally required.
Sentences with both unmarked and unmarked subjects must follow the unmarked SOV word order. Since the nominative case is typically unmarked, the only time this does not occur is when the subject is a pronoun or in the ergative case, allowing for the usage of marked word orders for emphasis:
An alternate analysis of this situation is that Marathi does not mark the accusative case at all, rather the -ला marker is shared between the dative case and definite differential object marking.
Adjectives
Adjectives typically precede the noun (although in adjective phrases they can follow the noun) and are divided into
declinable and
indeclinable categories. Declinable adjectives end in the vowel -
ā (आ) and must be declined for the gender, number and case of the nouns they qualify. Declining adjectives for case is easier compared to declining nouns, since a single ending applies to all cases; a complete table listing the different endings is given below, with the masculine nominative singular as the
citation form.
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| Declinable | Masculine | Singular | - ā (आ) | -yā (या) | The -yā (या) ending requires the removal of the schwa from the final consonant. In other words, the adjective is transformed to its saamaanya ruup. |
| Plural | - e (ए) |
| Feminine | Singular | - ī (-ई) |
| Plural | -yā (या) |
| Neuter | Singular | - e (ए) |
| Plural | - ī (-ई) |
| Indeclinable | – |
Possessive
Possessive adjectives in Marathi are slight modifications to the personal pronouns, suffixed with the genitive/possessive case markers – चा/ची/चे (
cā/cī/ce)
, for masculine, feminine and plural subjects respectively. However, in the first and second-person singular the case marking is different, as shown below. Possessive adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they modify; for plural nouns, the markers change from चा/ची/चे to चे/च्या/ची (
ce/cyā/cī), with a similar transformation for the first and second-person singular adjectives.
Demonstrative
The adjectives हा (
hā, this) and तो (
to, that) serve as demonstrative adjectives and are always declined for the gender and number of the noun(s) that follows them.
Pronouns
There are three grammatical persons (पुरुष
purusha) in Marathi. There is gender distinction in the first- and second-persons when the pronouns act as agreement markers on verbs; as independent pronouns this distinction in lost.
[Bhat, D.N.S. 2004. Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 18–19]
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| First Person | प्रथम पुरुष | ( mi) मी “I” | ( āmhī) आम्ही “we” (exclusive)
( āpaṇa) आपण “we” (inclusive) |
| Second Person | द्वितीय पुरुष | ( tū) तू “you” | ( tumhī) तुम्ही “you” (formal)
( āpaṇa) आपण “you” (extremely formal) |
| Third Person | तृतीय पुरुष | ( to) तो “he”
( tī) ती “she”
( te) ते “it” | ( te) ते “they” (masculine) or (“he”) हे (formal)
( tyā) त्या “they” (feminine)
( tī) ती “they” (neuter) |
Verbs
Verb stems can end in a vowel (
ākārānt, īkārānt, or
ekārānt) or a consonant (a
kārānt) and are declined for person, gender and number. They are usually listed in dictionaries in their infinitive forms, which consist of the verb stem with the suffix –
ṇe (णे); for example खाणे (
khāṇē, to eat), बोलणे (
bolaṇē, to speak), चालणे (
cālaṇē, to walk). Verbs are fairly regular, although the copula and other auxiliaries are notable exceptions.
The verbal system, much like in other Indo-Aryan languages, revolves around a combination of aspect and tense – there are 3 main aspects (perfect, imperfect, and habitual) and 3 main tenses (present, past, and future). Tenses are marked using conjugations, while aspects are marked using suffixes and by adding conjugations of a copula/auxiliary verb.
Copula
The verb असणे (
asaṇē, to be) is an irregular verb that acts as the copula / auxiliary for all tenses and for the perfect and imperfect aspects; its conjugations are shown below.
| +असणे ( asaṇē, to be)
! rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2"Present tense
! colspan="2" | Past tense
! colspan="2" | Future tense |
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The habitual aspect uses a different set of conjugations of the same auxiliary verb (असणे); for present-tense and past-tense these conjugations are shown below. In future tense a different auxiliary verb, जाणे (
jāṇē, to go), is typically used.
| +असणे ( asaṇē, to be, habitual aspect)
! rowspan="2" | ! colspan="2"Present tense
! colspan="2" | Past tense |
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Causatives
Causatives are created from existing verb stems and typically follow the set of patterns listed below.
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Attaching 'व' ( va) to the stem of the verb; in modern literature 'व' is often replaced by 'वि' ( vi). So हसणे ( hasaṇē, to laugh) → हसवणे/हसविणे ( hasavaṇē/hasaviṇē, to cause to laugh); चालणे ( cālaṇē, to walk) → चालवणे/चालविणे ( cālavaṇē/ cālaviṇē, to cause to walk).
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For verbs with stems that have single syllables (खा, घे, दे; khā, ghē, dē), attach 'ववि' ( vavi) instead of 'व'. Thus, खाणे ( khāṇē, to eat) → खावविणे ( khāvaviṇē, to cause to eat); देणे ( dēṇē, to give) → देवविणे ( dēvaviṇē, to cause to give).
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Root vowel change: a → ā (अ → आ), u/ū → o (उ/ऊ → ओ), i/ī → e (इ/ई → ए); sometimes also accompanied by the root final consonant change 'ṭ' → 'ṛ' (ट → ड). So तुटणे ( tuṭaṇē, to be broken) → तोडणे ( toṛaṇē, to cause to broken/to break); गळणे ( gaḷaṇē, to be buried) → गाळणे ( gāḷaṇē, to cause to be buried/to bury).
Imperatives
The imperative form of a verb (called आज्ञार्थ,
ādñārtha) is formed by applying a simple set of rules to the stem of the verb, and has second-person singular (where there is a distinction between formal and informal) and second-person plural forms (which are the same as the second-person singular formal).
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For akārānta verbs, the informal imperative form is the verb stem itself. The formal imperative is formed by utilizing the transformation a → ā (अ → आ) to the stem vowel.
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For ākārānt verbs, the imperative form (formal and informal) is the verb stem itself.
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For īkārānt and ekārānt verbs, the informal imperative is the verb stem itself. The formal imperative is formed by transforming the final vowel to the semi-vowel या ( yā).
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Negative imperative forms are constructed by adding the suffix -ऊ ( ū) to the verb stem, and then by adding a separate negative particle नकोस/नको ( nakosa/nako, for informal imperative) or नका ( nakā, for formal imperative).
+ Imperative forms
!Verb (infinitive)
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!Second-person singular (informal)
!Second-person singular (formal) /
Second-person plural |
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| Negative | | |
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| Negative | | |
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| Negative | | |
Voice
Traditional grammar distinguishes three grammatical voices (प्रयोग,
prayoga) in Marathi.
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Active voice (कर्तरी प्रयोग kartarī prayoga) refers to a sentence construction in which the verb changes according to the subject
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Passive voice (कर्मणी प्रयोग karmanī prayoga) refers to a sentence construction in which the verb changes according to the object
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Bhāve prayoga (भावे प्रयोग) refers to a sentence construction in which the verb does not change according to either the subject or the object. This is used for Imperative mood.
Sentence structure
A Marathi sentence generally has three parts: subject (कर्ता
kartā), object
(कर्म
karma), and
verb (क्रियापद
kriyāpada). While there is no real restriction on word order, SOV is most commonly used. Poetry like
Powada often play with the word order for emphasis or to fit the meter or rhyme.
See also:
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