Pronominal Adjectives

Introduction

We have studied many different adjectives and many different pronouns. Interestingly, there are some adjectives that use the same endings as pronouns. You can find the most common of these adjectives below. Some of them may be familiar to you.

अन्य

anya

mfn

other, another [alias, allo-phone, else]

उभ

ubha

mfn

both

एक

eka

mfn

one

पर

para

mfn

above, beyond

पूर्व

pūrva

mfn

former, prefious

सर्व

sarva

mfn

all

स्व

sva

mfn

own

Such adjectives can be called pronominal adjectives, where the word "pronominal" means "connected to pronouns."

How To Use Them

As mentioned above, all of these word use pronoun endings. However, there is an irregularity in the case 1 and case 2 neuter singular. For all pronouns but anya, case 1 and case 2 will behave like the neuter -a noun, not like the neuter tad.

• अन्यत्

  anyat

  other (neuter singular, cases 1 and 2)

• एकम्, परम्, सर्वम्, पूर्वम्, स्वम्

  ekam, param, sarvam, pūrvam, svam

  both, one, above, former, all, own (neuter singular, cases 1 and 2)

  Since ubha refers to two things, it never appears in the singular.

You can remember this exception because anya, which means "other," is different from the other pronouns.