asmad and yuṣmad

Also known as: personal pronouns

Pronouns are words like “I,” “you,” “he,” “they,” and so on. They can often replace other nominal words:

• रामो नगरं गच्छति।
  rāmo nagaraṃ gacchati.
  Rama goes to the city.
  

• स नगरं गच्छति।
  sa nagaraṃ gacchati.
  He goes to the city.
  

We can often leave out a pronoun entirely if it is clear from context:

• स नगरं गच्छति।
  sa nagaraṃ gacchati.
  He goes to the city.
  

• नगरं गच्छति।
  nagaraṃ gacchati.
  (He) goes to the city.
  

But even so, pronouns are still expressive and useful words.

In this topic, we will learn about the common Sanskrit pronouns. Pronouns use many of the same endings as other nominals. But generally, they follow very different patterns and must be learned individually.

asmad

First, let's consider the first-person pronoun asmad (“I”, “we”):

There are a few points worth noting here. First, notice that asmad does not appear in case 8. Many pronouns appear only in the first 7 cases. Next, these words use multiple different stems:

• अहम्
  aham
  I
  

• माम्
  mām
  me
  

• आवाम्
  āvām
  the two of us
  

• वयम्
  vayam
  me
  

• अस्मान्
  asmān
  us
  

Also, notice that many of these words are similar to the words we use in English:

yuṣmad

yuṣmad (“you”) follows the same general pattern as asmad:

Again, note that many of these words have English counterparts: