Complex Classes

This lesson is very long, but it won't take much time. A summary of all of the material here will appear at the very bottom of the page.

Introduction

For simplicity, let's refer to the four verb classes that we've studied so far as the simple verb classes. Let's call the other six classes the complex verb classes. As you might be able to tell, the "complex" verb classes are more difficult. They differ from the simple verb classes in three main ways:

First, the complex verb classes use stems that don't end in -a. Four classes form stems that end in vowels, but two classes form stems that end in consonants. We have to keep consonant sandhi in mind when we use these stems.
Second, the complex verb classes use two stems — a strong stem and a weak stem — instead of just one. The use of the strong stems vary from verb form to verb form. In the present tense of P verbs, the strong stem is used for the singular of all three persons: first, second, and third.
Third, the complex verb classes use slightly different endings for the atmanepada verb forms. These differences are quite small, and they're easy to remember.

Overview of the lesson

Here, we will study five of the six complex verb classes. First, we'll learn how each of these five classes behaves. Then, we'll study some common and irregular verbs from these classes. Finally, we'll study the ātmanepada endings that these classes use.

Verbs with consonant stems

These two classes form stems that end in consonants.

Verb class	Strong stem	Weak stem
root	medium-strengthened root	root
nasal	root with inserted na	root with inserted n

The verb that is usually used to demonstrate the root-class verbs is ad, which means "eat" or "consume." But although ad is a good example of some internal sandhi rules, it does not do a good job of showing the difference between strong and weak stems. For that reason, I've used dviṣ, meaning "despise" or "hate," below. In this chart, the strong forms are larger than the weak forms.

dviṣ (consonant, P, present tense)
द्विष्	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	द्वेष्टि dveṣṭi	द्विष्टः dviṣṭaḥ	द्विषन्ति dviṣanti
Second Person	द्वेक्षि dvekṣi	द्विष्ठः dviṣṭhaḥ	द्विष्ठ dviṣṭha
First Person	द्वेष्मि dveṣmi	द्विष्वः dviṣvaḥ	द्विष्मः dviṣmaḥ

This verb follows sandhi rules that we've already studied.

Now for the nasal-class verbs. The nasal sound is inserted right before the final consonant.

rudh (nasal, P/A, present tense (P))
रुध्	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	रुणद्धि ruṇaddhi	रुन्द्धः runddhaḥ	रुन्धन्ति rundhanti
Second Person	रुणत्सि ruṇatsi	रुन्द्धः runddhaḥ	रुन्द्ध runddha
First Person	रुणध्मि ruṇadhmi	रुन्ध्वः rundhvaḥ	रुन्ध्मः rundhmaḥ

All of the roots in the nasal class have a final consonant. So, you will always know where the nasal sound should be inserted.

Verbs with -o stems

Verb class	Strong stem	Weak stem
no	root + no	root + nu
o	root + o	root + u

These two classes are essentially identical. The -o class only has ten verb roots.

su (no, P, present tense)
सु	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	सुनोति sunoti	सुनुतः sunutaḥ	सुन्वन्ति sunvanti
Second Person	सुनोषि sunoṣi	सुनुथः sunuthaḥ	सुनुथ sunutha
First Person	सुनोमि sunomi	सुनुवः sunuvaḥ	सुनुमः sunumaḥ

tan (o, U, present tense (P))
तन्	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	तनोति tanoti	तनुतः tanutaḥ	तन्वन्ति tanvanti
Second Person	तनोसि tanosi	तनुथः tanuthaḥ	तनुथ tanutha
First Person	तनोमि tanomi	तनुवः tanuvaḥ	तनुमः tanumaḥ

nā class

Verb class	Strong stem	Weak stem
nā	root + nā	root + nī

The -nā-class verbs are quite simple. They are similar to the verbs from the -no and -o classes. But, note that the 3rd-person plural form uses n instead of nī.

krī (nā, U, present tense (P))
क्री	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	क्रीणाति krīṇāti	क्रीणीतः krīṇītaḥ	क्रीणन्ति krīṇanti
Second Person	क्रीणासि krīṇāsi	क्रीणीथः krīṇīthaḥ	क्रीणीथ krīṇītha
First Person	क्रीणामि krīṇāmi	क्रीणीवः krīṇīvaḥ	क्रीणीमः krīṇīmaḥ

Irregular verbs

The complex verb classes contain many irregular verbs, and the irregular verbs are among the most common.

Root class

One of the most common irregular verbs is the P verb as, meaning "be." as is so important that many grammar books introduce it before all other verbs. Its strong stem is as and its weak stem is s, but the 2nd-person singular is asi, not assi.

as (consonant, P, present tense)
अस्	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	अस्ति asti	स्तः staḥ	सन्ति santi
Second Person	असि asi	स्थः sthaḥ	स्थ stha
First Person	अस्मि asmi	स्वः svaḥ	स्मः smaḥ

Another is han, a P verb meaning "kill" or "slay." Its strong stem is han and its weak stem takes one of three forms:

ghn in front of vowels
ha in front of stop consonants. (We will see examples of this behavior later.)
han everywhere else

han (consonant, P, present tense)
हन्	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	हन्ति hanti	हतः hataḥ	घ्नन्ति ghnanti
Second Person	हन्सि hansi	हथः hathaḥ	हथ hatha
First Person	हन्मि hanmi	हन्वः hanvaḥ	हन्मः hanmaḥ

Another important irregular verb is brū, which means "speak," "say," or "tell." When strong, his verb has an ī added to the end of the stem. So, we get bravīmi instead of bromi. However, the 3rd-person plural is bruvanti, not brvanti. This is a product of an internal sandhi rule, which is below.

A vowel, when after a consonant cluster and followed by another vowel, usually changes like this:

i and ī become iy.
u and ū become uv.

This sandhi rule exists to make the result easier to say. Here, brvanti is hard to say because the brv at the front is a consonant cluster with 3 consonants in a row. So, the rule breaks the word into bruvanti, which is not so difficult.

Due to internal sandhi, the second person singular of brū is bravīṣi and not bravīsi.

o and nā

The most important verb from the o class is kṛ, which means "do" or "make." Its strong form is karo, and its weak form is kuru.

One of the most important verbs from the nā class is jñā, meaning "know." It forms regularly, but we remove the ñ sound. So, we get conjugations like jānāti and jānīmaḥ.

The ātmanepada endings

The verbs in the complex classes use only the weak stem when they're in ātmanepada. Take a look at the endings below.

su (no, A, present tense)
सु	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	सुनुते sunute	सुन्वाते sunvāte	सुन्वते sunvate
Second Person	सुनुषे sunuṣe	सुन्वाथे sunvāthe	सुनुध्वे sunudhve
First Person	सुन्वे sunve	सुनुवहे sunuvahe	सुनुमहे sunumahe

Do they look familiar? The complex verb classes use the same endings as the simple verb classes, with some small changes. If you've forgotten the other endings, they're featured below:

labh (a+, A, present tense)
लभ्	Singular	Dual	Plural
Third Person	लभते labhate	लभेते labhete	लभन्ते labhante
Second Person	लभसे labhase	लभेथे labhethe	लभध्वे labhadhve
First Person	लभे labhe	लभावहे labhāvahe	लभामहे labhāmahe

The changes are listed below:

āmahe → mahe, āvahe → vahe (the initial vowel is removed)
nte → ate (see the blue box below)

Do you remember the explanation we used to show why gam becomes gata?

gam weakens to gm to produce gmtvā. This can't be pronounced; but instead of gm becoming gam, it becomes ga instead. So, we get gatvā.

This behavior appears here as well. Consider a nasal-class verb like rudh, which becomes rundh in its weak form. The normal -nte is used in the 3rd-person plural, producing *rundhnte. This cannot be pronounced; so, just as the *gmta becomes gata, *rundhnte becomes rundhate. This -ate is thus used for all of the complex verb classes.

Summary

Verb classes

Verb class	Strong stem	Weak stem
root	medium-strengthened root	root
nasal	root with inserted na	root with inserted n
no	root + no	root + nu
o	root + o	root + u
nā	root + nā	root + nī

Irregular Verbs

Verb root	Verb class	Strong stem	Weak stem
as	root	as	s
han	root	han	han, ha, ghn
brū	root	bravī	brū, bruv
kṛ	o	karo	kuru
jñā	nā	jānā	jānī

Sandhi

Review the sandhi for dviṣ and rudh.