Relative Clauses: who, which, that
संबंधवाचक उपवाक्य: who, which, that
English attaches extra information to a noun with a relative clause placed directly after the noun — Hindi instead prefers a two-part जो...वह (jo...vah) correlative construction, where the relative clause can even move to the front of the sentence.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
जो...वह correlative pair vs. a single relative pronoun after the noun
the man who is standing there (a single pronoun, who, fixed right after the noun, with nothing matching it elsewhere)
वह आदमी, जो वहाँ खड़ा है (जो marks the description; Hindi can also front the whole clause with a resumptive वह later: जो आदमी वहाँ खड़ा है, वह...)
Hindi's most natural relative structure is a correlative pair: जो marks the relative clause and वह (or वो) picks the noun back up, and this जो-clause is free to move to the very front of the sentence, with वह resuming the noun afterward — जो आदमी वहाँ खड़ा है, वह मेरा दोस्त है, literally 'which man is standing there, he is my friend.' English never does this: the relative clause is fixed immediately after its noun, and a single pronoun (who for people, which for things, that for either) does the whole job with nothing echoing it later in the sentence. When translating a fronted Hindi जो-clause into English, expect to collapse the two-part correlative into one clause right after the noun and drop the resumptive वह entirely.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
| English | Pronunciation | Hindi |
|---|---|---|
| the man who is standing there | thuh man hoo iz STAN-ding thair | वह आदमी, जो वहाँ खड़ा हैvah ādmī, jo vahāñ khaṛā hai |
| the book which I bought | thuh book wich eye bawt | वह किताब, जो मैंने ख़रीदीvah kitāb, jo maiñne kharīdī |
| the woman that I met | thuh WUM-an that eye met | वह औरत, जिससे मैं मिलाvah aurat, jisse maiñ milā |