Grammar

Question 1

ablative

Answer 1

The case of nouns and their modifiers expressing causation, departure, separation, and point of origin.

Question 2

absolutive

Answer 2

A verbal derivative used to express an action, or a series of consecutive actions, done by the subject of the sentence prior to the action denoted by the main verb.

Question 3

accusative

Answer 3

The case of nouns and their modifiers used principally for the direct object of transitive verbs and secondary objects in double accusatives with verbs of speech, also in certain adverbial expressions.

Question 4

adverbial compound

Answer 4

a compound that functions adverbially; it is generally indeclinable and in the form of the accusative singular ending in the niggahīta, though sometimes with the case ending retained.

Question 5

aorist

Answer 5

the past tense of a verb.

Question 6

bahubbīhi

Answer 6

a compound ending in a noun used as an adjective to describe or represent a noun external to itself; it is declined like the noun it qualifies and agrees with it in gender, number, and case.

Question 7

case

Answer 7

the form of a noun and its qualifiers that governs its role in the syntax of a sentence.

Question 8

causative

Answer 8

a form of the verb that expresses its role in causing the action denoted by the primary verb to take place.

Question 9

compound

Answer 9

a word formed by joining together two or more words in such a way that the combination of words functions as a single unit.

Question 10

conditional

Answer 10

a form of the verb that expresses a conditional relationship about a counterfactual matter — that is, “if such [which is not the case] were the case.”

Question 11

dative

Answer 11

the case of nouns and their modifiers that may express the destination of movement, an indirect object, and the purpose of an action.

Question 12

dvanda

Answer 12

a copulative compound, made up of two or more words that, used separately, would be joined by the conjunction ca.

Question 13

enclitic

Answer 13

the form of a word, especially the pronouns me, no, te, and vo, that occurs only within a sentence or clause, never at the beginning of a sentence or clause.

Question 14

future passive participle

Answer 14

a verbal derivative used to express the ideas of necessity, obligation, or fitness, indicating that a certain action should be done, must be done, or is worth doing.

Question 15

gender

Answer 15

the classification of nouns and their modifiers as masculine, feminine, or neuter.

Question 16

genitive

Answer 16

the case of nouns and their modifiers that may express a possessive or partitive relation between two nouns, corresponding to the preposition “of” or possessive forms of nouns and pronouns.

Question 17

imperative

Answer 17

the mood of a verb used to issue a command or make a request.

Question 18

indeclinable

Answer 18

a word that is not subject to declination by way of case, number, and gender.

Question 19

infinitive

Answer 19

a form of the verb not specified for any person, number, or tense, usually used with the sense of “to do [the action signified by the verb].”

Question 20

instrumental

Answer 20

the case of nouns and their modifiers that may express the agent of passive verbs, the instrument of action, the cause or reason of an action or event, the qualities with which someone or something is endowed, persons who accompany the subject, and the accompaniment of an action.

Question 21

interrogative

Answer 21

a sentence (or part of speech) that poses a question.

Question 22

itaritara

Answer 22

a dvanda compound in which the joined terms constitute a plural and take the gender and case of the last member.

Question 23

kammadhāraya

Answer 23

a descriptive determinative compound, a compound made up of two members, with the first modifying the second as an attributive adjective, a noun, or an adverb.

Question 24

locative

Answer 24

the case of nouns and their modifiers that expresses location and position in space and time; it is also used for the object referred to by nouns of desire and knowledge.

Question 25

locative absolute

Answer 25

a construction used to show a situation with a subordinate subject and action/event, distinct from the main subject and its action/event in the primary clause; the subordinate subject along with the terms that qualify it and its action/event, represented by either the past participle or present participle, all occur in the locative case.

Question 26

middle voice

Answer 26

the form of a verb and present participle originally used to denote an action that accrues only to the subject (as contrasted with an action that passes from a subject to an object), but in Pāli confined mostly to verse and elevated prose, without necessarily signifying an action that inheres only in the subject.

Question 27

niggahīta

Answer 27

the pure nasal sound attached to certain vowels, represented by -ṃ.

Question 28

nominative

Answer 28

the case of a noun and its modifiers used to represent the grammatical subject of a sentence.

Question 29

number

Answer 29

the determination of nouns, their modifiers, verbs, and verbal derivatives by way of the distinction of singular or plural.

Question 30

optative

Answer 30

the form of a verb that expresses what should be done, can be done, or might happen.

Question 31

past participle

Answer 31

a verbal derivative based on an action that has already occurred whose effect continues; it can function as an adjective or a noun, or it may take the place of the verb of the sentence. Some past participles (such as nisinna, ṭhita, and paṭipanna) function almost as present participles.

Question 32

person:

Answer 32

the determination of pronouns and verbs as referring to oneself and those in one’s group (first person), another person or persons whom one is addressing (second person), or another person, persons, or things to whom or to which one is referring (third person).

Question 33

present participle

Answer 33

a verbal derivative used to describe an action performed by a subject or occurring to an object at roughly the same time as the action denoted by the main verb of the sentence; in English it corresponds to forms ending in -ing.

Question 34

prohibitive

Answer 34

a sentence (or part of speech) that forbids an action.

Question 35

samāhāra

Answer 35

a dvanda in which the joined terms constitute a neuter singular; some, however, take the case ending of the last term, for instance, chandarāgo and lābhasakkārasiloko.

Question 36

sandhi

Answer 36

the changes that letters undergo in their combinations and encounters with other letters, both within a word and when words meet.

Question 37

syntactical compound

Answer 37

a compound of two or more words joined together, in which some components retain the syntactical form they would have had in a non-compounded statement.

Question 38

tappurisa

Answer 38

a dependent determinative compound, a compound made up of two members with the first dependent on the second.

Question 39

vocative

Answer 39

the case of a noun as it is used to address someone or a group of people.