Gender
There are two genders in Hindi: masculine and feminine. If a noun is animate, it has a natural gender, such as औरत (f.) ‘woman’, लड़का(m.) ‘boy’ and माँ (f.) ‘mother’. In the case of inanimate and abstract nouns, gender is based on convention, e.g. कमरा(m.) ‘room’, दीवार (f.) ‘wall’, and ख़ुशी (f.) ‘happiness’. Sometimes, a noun’s gender can be understood from its form: There are two forms for feminine nouns(ई -ending and consonant ending ) and two for masculine nouns (आ-ending and consonant ending). However, there are always exceptions. Thus, it is advised to memorize the noun’s gender when you learn a new noun.
आ-ending masculine nouns: कमरा ‘room’, बेटा ‘son’, चश्मा ‘eyeglasses’
(exceptions: माता ‘mother’, भाषा ‘language’).
Consonant –ending masculine nouns: मकान ‘house’, हाथ ‘hand’, मौसम ‘weather’.
ई-ending feminine nouns: लड़की ‘girl’, चाबी ‘key’, कुरसी ‘chair’
(exceptions: पानी ‘water’, घी ‘clarified butter’, दही ‘yogurt’).
Consonant-ending feminine nouns: बहन ‘sister’, गाय ‘cow’, मेज़ ‘table’
. For the sake of simplicity, the term ‘consonant ending’ will be used throughout this book even though final consonants are followed by अ, an inherent but inaudible vowel.
Nouns
| आदमी (m.) | aadmii | man |
| औरत (f.) | aurat | woman |
| लड़का (m.) | laRkaa | boy |
| लड़की (f.) | laRkii | girl |
| पिता (m.) | pitaa | father |
| माता (f.) | mataa | mothen |
| बेटा (m.) | beTa | son |
| बेटी (f.) | beTi | daughter |
| भाई (m.) | bhaaii | brother |
| बहन (f.) | behen | sister |
| मौसम (m.) | mausam | weather |
| कॉपी (f.) | kaapii | notebook |
| काग़ज़ (m.) | kaagaz | paper |
| क़लम (m.) | qalam | pen |
| पेंसिल (f.) | pensil | pencil |
| हाथ (m.) | haath | hand |
| चश्मा (m.) | chashmaa | glasses |
| चाबी (f.) | chaabii | key |