Author Archives: Nostalgoa
Plurals of Nouns – 1
Since we are going to deal with the plurals of nouns, which are obviously in the nominative case, this grammar topic is actually a subset of Declensions. Konkani nouns in our vocabulary list are going to include four principal parts: the nominative singular, singular flex stem, nominative plural and the plural flex stem. In this … Continue reading
Mãy-paygêr asat bara zotam, punn hanv bhik magun khatam
Mãy-paygêr asat bara zotam, punn hanv bhik magun khatam literally means, “My parents have a dozen yokes but I beg and eat”. The English word “yoke” here means, “a pair of animals yoked together” (Oxford Dictionary) and that’s the exact meaning of the Konkani word, zot . Zot is neuter in gender, and zotam is the plural of zot. … Continue reading
Declensions of Pronouns – 1
This case is particularly tricky and while the native Konkani speakers like me have no problem juggling the singular, plural, masculine, feminine and neuter on both sides of the pronouns — the inside as well as the outside (I’ll shortly explain what I mean), those who are learning Konkani are bound to feel lost in this … Continue reading
Declensions
As I have said earlier, the two most important sections of Konkani grammar are conjugations and declensions. It might perhaps appear more systematic to first cover the conjugations in their entirety and then move on to declensions. However, I don’t believe that would be a practical proposition. Instead, I have decided to treat both of them almost alternately and … Continue reading
Bhitorlê budicho
Bhitorlê budicho strictly means: of inner mind. The word bud has several meanings: it can stand for mind, advice, wisdom, and even lesson. It is equivalent to sly and hence is a pejorative phrase. The word bhitorlê takes a feminine ending because the word bud is feminine, but it is an adjectival phrase, and so … Continue reading
Fest kôrta ganv, pirjentichem nanv
The literal translation of the proverb would be: “The village celebrates the feast; the ‘president’ gets the name. ” When the people from a village celebrate their feast, someone from the village either volunteers or is elected or appointed to be the “pirjent” or president. A president is like the main “celebrator” (the … Continue reading
Irregular Verbs – 2
You are certainly aware that asonk, i.e., the Konkani verb to be, is intransitive, which means that the action is not passed on to an object, because it has no object. However, unlike many other languages, Konkani intransitive verbs agree with the subject both in number and gender in most tenses. And that is certainly … Continue reading
Irregular Verbs – 1
Just like in other languages, in Konkani there are regular and irregular verbs. As a rule, the most commonly used verbs tend to be irregular. My intention is to fully cover only the most fundamental verb, i.e., the verb to be or asonk. All other irregular verbs will then be treated together in one go … Continue reading
Konkani Grammar: An Outline
As has been mentioned earlier, this feature is not an attempt to teach Konkani. The main aim of this section is to give readers an idea of the structure of the language. Gone are the days when one used to learn a language by studying its grammar and vocabulary. I don’t recommend that method to learn … Continue reading
Donui vhoddeanr pãy, ekay vhoddear nãy
Donui vhoddeanr pãy, ekay vhoddear nãy literally means: “If you plant your feet across two boats, you will find yourself on neither”. Life’s choices are often limited. It is certainly frustrating not to have the object of your desire. But if there are two equally desirable and individually attainable objects which are mutually incompatible, it … Continue reading