Nepali
Nepali Determiners
Nepali language does not have formal articles ‘a, an, the’ and instead has determiners ‘this, that, etc.’ The determiner ‘determines’ the article that must be added. For example: त्यो रातो घर हो ; Tyo raato ghar ho, literally translates to ‘That red house is’ but is translated to ‘That is a red house’. त्यो घर रातो हो – Tyo ghar raato ho- translates literally to ‘That house red is’ but means ‘That house is red.’ Nepali language learners should pay close attention to adjective placement (before or after noun) and determinants to infer particles and meaning. The main determinants can be found below.
| य – ya | त्य – tya | क – ka | |
| ओ – o | यो – Yo – This | त्यो – Tyo – That | |
| अहाँ – ahan | यहाँ -Yaha – Here | त्यहाँ -Tyaha- There | कहाँ – Kaha – Where? |
| असरी – asari | यसरि – Yasari- In this way | त्यसरी – Tyasari- In that way | कसरि -Kasari – How? |
| असैले -asaile | यसैले – Yasaile – This is why | त्यसैले – Tyasaile – That is why | |
| अति – ati | यति -Yati – This much | त्यति – Tyati – That much | कति – Kati – How much? |
| अस्तो – asto | यस्तो – Yasto – Like [this] | त्यस्तो – Tyasto – Like [that] | कस्तो – What kind? |
Practice using these determinants below! All answers are in devanagari text:
