Pronoun (Sarvanam) — Patwari Notes
Sarvanam are words used in place of a noun. Exams repeatedly give an underlined word from a passage and ask you to identify its word class (whether or not it's a pronoun), testing the fine distinction between a pronoun and a pronominal adjective.
- Class 6-8 depth level
- 8 min read
What is Sarvanam (a pronoun)?
Words used in place of a noun, to avoid repeating it again and again, are called sarvanam (pronouns) — for example, instead of 'राम स्कूल गया, राम ने किताब पढ़ी', it's more natural to say 'राम स्कूल गया, उसने किताब पढ़ी' ('Ram went to school, he read a book'); here 'उसने' is a pronoun. Hindi recognises 11 basic pronoun words — मैं, तू, आप, यह, वह, जो, सो, कौन, क्या, कोई, कुछ — from which all the other forms (मेरा, तुम्हारा, उसका, हमने, etc.) are built.
Hindi grammar recognises six types of pronoun: purushvachak (personal: मैं, तू, वह), nishchayvachak (demonstrative: यह, वह), anishchayvachak (indefinite: कोई, कुछ), sambandhvachak (relative: जो...सो), prashnavachak (interrogative: कौन, क्या), and nijvachak (reflexive: आप, स्वयं, खुद).
The verb's form also changes according to the pronoun's number and person, so choosing the right pronoun matters for grammatical correctness too — for example, in 'मैं जाता हूँ', the verb 'हूँ' follows the first-person singular, while in 'हम जाते हैं', 'हैं' follows the plural. In the exam, sentence-correction questions sometimes ask you to spot an incorrect pronoun-verb match (such as 'वह जाते हैं' where it should be 'वह जाता है'), so it helps to practise pronouns together with their verbs.
The word 'आप' is used in two ways — as a respectful second-person pronoun (as in 'आप कैसे हैं?' — 'how are you?') and as a reflexive pronoun for oneself (as in 'मैं आप ही यह काम करूँगा' — 'I will do this work myself'); the sentence's context alone decides which sense applies. Most pronouns are themselves gender-neutral, and the verb in the sentence follows the gender of whichever noun the pronoun stands in for — by sparing you from repeating the noun again and again, pronouns keep the language brief and natural.
For practice, take any short passage, underline every pronoun in it, and practise writing down its type (personal/demonstrative/etc.) — this improves both the speed and the accuracy of identifying an underlined word's type in passage-based questions.
The six types of Sarvanam
| Type | Example words | Usage | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| पुरुषवाचक सर्वनाम — Personal pronoun | मैं, तू, तुम, हम, वह, वे | Used in place of the speaker, the listener, or whoever is being spoken about | मैं स्कूल जाता हूँ। |
| निश्चयवाचक सर्वनाम — Demonstrative pronoun | यह, वह, ये, वे | Used to point to a specific person/thing | यह मेरी किताब है। |
| अनिश्चयवाचक सर्वनाम — Indefinite pronoun | कोई, कुछ | Used for an unspecified person/thing, when the name isn't certain | कोई दरवाजे पर खड़ा है। |
| संबंधवाचक सर्वनाम — Relative pronoun | जो, सो | Used to connect two sentences/clauses to each other | जो मेहनत करता है, सो सफल होता है। |
| प्रश्नवाचक सर्वनाम — Interrogative pronoun | कौन, क्या | Used to ask a question | तुम कौन हो? |
| निजवाचक सर्वनाम — Reflexive pronoun | आप, स्वयं, खुद | Used by the subject to refer to themselves | मैं अपना काम स्वयं करता हूँ। |
The difference between Sarvanam and Sarvanamik Visheshan (pronominal adjective)
This distinction causes the most confusion in the exam. When a pronoun word (यह, वह, कोई, कुछ) stands alone in place of a noun, it is a pronoun — as in 'वह आया' ('he came'). But when the same word comes right before a noun and describes it, grammar calls it a sarvanamik visheshan (pronominal adjective) — as in 'वह लड़का आया' ('that boy came'), where 'वह' comes before the noun 'लड़का' and functions like an adjective.
Forms like 'हमारा', 'हमने', 'उसका' are built by adding a case marker (का, ने) to the base pronoun (हम, वह). In the exam, when 'sarvanamik visheshan' isn't among the options and you must choose only between noun/pronoun/adjective/verb, such forms are treated as pronouns, since they are fundamentally built from a word that stands in for a noun (a person).
The personal pronoun (purushvachak) is further divided into three sub-types — uttam purush (first person, the speaker: मैं, हम), madhyam purush (second person, the listener: तू, तुम, आप), and anya purush (third person, the one being spoken about: वह, वे). Exam questions on personal pronouns sometimes also test these sub-types, so it's useful to remember 'हम' as first-person plural and 'वे' as third-person plural.
Once this distinction is properly understood, it also becomes easier to study pronominal adjectives under the Adjective topic, since the underlying rule is the same in both places.
Memory trick / exam tip
If a noun (the name of a person/thing) comes right after 'यह/वह/कोई', check whether 'sarvanamik visheshan' is among the options — if not, choose pronoun. If these words stand alone in place of a noun (with no noun accompanying them), they are definitely pronouns.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Sarvanam (a pronoun)?+
Words used in place of a noun, to avoid repeating it again and again, are called sarvanam (pronouns) — for example, मैं, तू, वह, यह, कोई.
How many types of Sarvanam are there?+
Hindi grammar recognises six types of pronoun — personal, demonstrative, indefinite, relative, interrogative, and reflexive.
What is the difference between Sarvanam and Sarvanamik Visheshan?+
When a pronoun word stands alone in place of a noun, it is a pronoun; when the same word comes before a noun and describes it, it is called a sarvanamik visheshan (pronominal adjective).
How many sub-types does the personal pronoun have?+
The personal pronoun has three sub-types — first person (मैं, हम), second person (तू, तुम, आप), and third person (वह, वे) — representing the speaker, the listener, and the one being spoken about, respectively.