Padbandh (Phrases): The Five Types — Patwari Notes
What a padbandh (phrase) is, how it differs from a pad and a sentence, and its five types are explained on this page with examples — each type's examples are given with special care, so that exam questions on identifying phrases can be solved easily.
- Class 6-8 level
- 8 min read
What is a Padbandh (phrase)?
When two or more pad (words in their grammatical form) combine in a fixed order to do the job of a single word class (such as a noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, or adverb), that group is called a padbandh (phrase). For example, in 'भारत के प्रधानमंत्री' ('the Prime Minister of India'), several words together are doing exactly the job of a noun, so this is a noun phrase (sangya-padbandh).
A shabd (word) is an independent unit with no fixed grammatical form. When that same word is used in a sentence with a case marker, number, gender, etc., it is called a pad (an inflected word-form). When several pad combine to function like a single word, that is a padbandh (phrase); and when a group of pad conveys a complete meaning (including a karta and a verb), that is called a vakya (sentence). Remember this sequence: word → pad → phrase → sentence.
The five types of Padbandh
| Type | Identification | Example |
|---|---|---|
| संज्ञा-पदबंध — Noun phrase | The whole phrase does the work of a noun | भारत के प्रधानमंत्री एक सभा को संबोधित कर रहे थे (The Prime Minister of India was addressing a gathering). |
| सर्वनाम-पदबंध — Pronoun phrase | The whole phrase does the work of a pronoun | दैव का मारा वह अकेला भटकता रहा (Struck by fate, he wandered alone). |
| विशेषण-पदबंध — Adjective phrase | The whole phrase describes a quality of a noun | शेर के समान बलवान व्यक्ति यहाँ रहता था (A man as strong as a lion used to live here). |
| क्रिया-पदबंध — Verb phrase | Auxiliary verbs combine with the main verb to form one unit | वह बाजार की ओर आया होगा (He must have come towards the market). |
| क्रियाविशेषण-पदबंध — Adverb phrase | The whole phrase describes a quality of the verb (how/when/where) | उसने साँप को पीट-पीटकर मारा (He beat the snake repeatedly and killed it). |
The type of a phrase is decided by the word class of its head (main) word.
Additional examples
Another example of a noun phrase is 'राजस्थान की राजधानी जयपुर एक ऐतिहासिक नगर है' ('Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, is a historic city') — here the entire phrase 'राजस्थान की राजधानी जयपुर' together does the job of a noun. An example of an adjective phrase is 'फूलों से लदा हुआ बगीचा सुंदर लगता है' ('a garden laden with flowers looks beautiful') — here 'फूलों से लदा हुआ' describes a quality of the garden.
Another example of a verb phrase can be seen in 'बच्चे खेल चुके होंगे' ('the children must have finished playing'), where 'खेल चुके होंगे' — several verb forms together — form one verb unit. Another example of a pronoun phrase is 'जो कोई भी वहाँ गया' ('whoever went there'), in which the whole phrase 'जो कोई भी' does the work of a pronoun.
Method of identification
To identify the type of a phrase, first see which word class the whole phrase is standing in for in the sentence — if it answers 'who/what', it's a noun or pronoun phrase; if it describes a quality of a noun, it's an adjective phrase; if it is doing the work of the verb, it's a verb phrase; and if it tells 'how/when/where', it's an adverb phrase.
Often, phrases that look similar change type when their head word changes — so paying attention to the phrase's final or main (head) word is the most reliable method. For example, in 'भारत के प्रधानमंत्री', the head word is 'प्रधानमंत्री' (a noun), so this is a noun phrase.
A useful exercise is to temporarily replace the phrase with a single word and see what happens — if the meaning stays roughly the same, that phrase is a phrase of that same word class. For instance, 'भारत के प्रधानमंत्री बोले' ('the Prime Minister of India spoke') can be replaced with 'वे बोले' ('they/he spoke' — in place of the noun/pronoun), while replacing 'तेज चलने वाली गाड़ियाँ' ('vehicles that move fast') with 'तेज गाड़ियाँ' ('fast vehicles') still leaves it doing the work of an adjective.
Memory trick
The type of a phrase is always decided by its head/final main word, not its first word. For example, in 'शेर के समान बलवान' ('as strong as a lion'), the last main word 'बलवान' ('strong') is an adjective, so this is an adjective phrase — reading the whole phrase and spotting its main word is the fastest trick.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many types of Padbandh are there?+
There are five types of phrase — noun phrase, pronoun phrase, adjective phrase, verb phrase, and adverb phrase.
What is the difference between a pad and a padbandh?+
A pad is a single word used in a sentence with a grammatical form (case marker, etc.), while a padbandh is a group of several pad that together do the work of a single pad.
What is the difference between a padbandh and a vakya (sentence)?+
In a sentence, the karta and the verb together give a complete meaning, while a phrase alone doesn't give a complete meaning — it does the job of a single word class (such as a noun) inside a sentence.
How do I identify the type of a Padbandh?+
Look at the phrase's main/head word — whichever word class (noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, or adverb) it belongs to decides the type of the phrase.