LESSON 2 First conjugation active verbs in present tense The basis of a Sanskrit verb form is a verbal-root (UG) which is a grammatical abstraction from which a full verb form is derived. A Sanskrit verb is conjugated in three numbers: singular (WAT), dual (FAT) and plural MAHA; and three persons, i.e. first person (GAH FE, second person FLAT FEW and third person HIT FEN . There are two basic sets of terminations, ic. active RATT = P) and middle GIST = A). In active voice aft yan, some verbs havo active (TEEN) terminations, some have middle terminations (TGR), while a few can have either. In passive voice Gif watt, MA wah), all verbs take middle (MEHTA) terminations. While the terminology of the Sanskrit grammarians is clearer in some respects, the terminology in English uses the word “active” in two different contexts, a) active voice @aft FATN and b) active terminations (TANI). One must carefully distinguish these two concepts. In this lesson, we will deal only with those verbs which take active (7eetqg) terminations. According to structural characteristics verbs are classified into ten conjugations GTP). Of these, the first, fourth, sixth and tenth conjugations form a related group. Here we will deal with the active (= P) verbs of the first conjugation. The active terminations (P) for the present tense are as follows: Sing. Dual PL. Ist person ft a a mi wh -mah 2nd person & i: q ost tha ‘3rd person & aT oti -anti 29Before the final terminations, the root in this conjugation is followed by an infix -3t, Such infixes in conjugations 1, 4, 6, and 10 are lengthened to -ail- before the terminations f%, #4: and -%:. With several predictable internal sandhis, the final forms are produced. The verb A (vad) “to speak” is conjugated as: Sing. Dual PL Ist person, wart agra: war: 1 speak we two speak we (pl.) speak 2nd person aa agu: aaa vadasi vadathah vadatha you speak you two speak you (pl,) speak Srd person aaft aaa: wat vadati vadatak vadanti he speaks they two speak they (pl.) speak Using this paradigm, other verbs of the Ist conjugation can be conjugated. A verb root should always be remembered along with its 3rd-person singular present form, which can be used as a model from which the rest of the forms can be derived, eg. 4 (root), aR (ard sing). Formation of simple sentences The agent Gf) of @ sentence, in active voice Gate Fabn, takes the nominative case (HT FAY, lit the first case). The nominative forms of the personal pronouns in the first, second and third persons are presented below. Sanskrit nouns and pronouns, except the first and the second person pronouns, have one of the three genders, i.e, masculine, feminine or neuter. ‘The gender is purely grammatical and unpredictable. At this point, we may temporarily translate #, @ and @q as “he’, “she” and ‘it’, respectively. However, these pronouns in actual discourse may refer to inanimate objects as well 308 D P 1st wey aay a aham avam vayam I we two we (pl) 2nd ay ct Ty toam yuntin viyam you two you (pl) ard M at a sah taw te he they two they (pl.) F a a a ca te tah she they two they (pl) N mq a at tad te tani it those two they In an active voice sentence, the number and person of the agent agrees with the verb. At this preliminary stage, one may say that the word order is grammatically not important, but in general the word order is agent + object + verb. Examples: wey aah or wet HEY aham vadimi vadami aham “I speak” am arate or arate a 88 vadati vadati si “She speaks” Vocabulary Verbs of class 1P aR meft to eat a ‘emafe to abandon khid — khaidati tyaj—tyajati a ae to conquer UI, uaft to run co Jayati dhiv dhivati al