Articles & Gender (Nominative)
ಲಿಂಗ ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರಥಮಾ ವಿಭಕ್ತಿ
German nouns take one of three articles — der, die, das — based on grammatical gender, shown here in the nominative (subject) form. Kannada doesn't put a gender word in front of nouns, but grouping nouns by 'kind' isn't a foreign idea — Kannada grammar already sorts every noun into two big classes.
Grammar Comparison
ವ್ಯಾಕರಣ ಹೋಲಿಕೆ
der/die/das ~ Kannada's mahat / amahat split, taken further
der Mann (masc.), die Frau (fem.), das Kind (neut.)
ಮಹತ್ (rational: humans, gods) vs. ಅಮಹತ್ (irrational: animals, objects, ideas)
Kannada grammar already sorts every noun into two classes: ಮಹತ್ for humans and gods, ಅಮಹತ್ for everything else. German's three-way der/die/das split is finer: it divides ಮಹತ್ further into masculine and feminine, and assigns ಅಮಹತ್-type nouns (objects, ideas) to any of the three genders, often for no logical reason at all — das Mädchen ('the girl') is famously neuter, not feminine, purely because it ends in the diminutive suffix -chen. Expect to memorize the article together with each new noun, the way you'd memorize its spelling.
Nominative marks the subject — the doer of the action
Der Mann isst. (The man eats — der marks 'the man' as the subject)
ಮನುಷ್ಯ ಊಟ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾನೆ. (No separate marker — the noun's bare form is the subject)
In Kannada, a sentence's subject is usually just the bare, unmarked noun — case suffixes get added only when a noun becomes an object, location, or instrument instead. German's nominative der/die/das plays that same 'default, unmarked role,' but as a separate word placed in front of the noun rather than as the noun's plain form. Think of it as Kannada's 'no suffix needed here' rule, expressed as a mandatory little word instead of silence.
Vocabulary
ಪದಗಳು
- Kannada
- ಮನುಷ್ಯmanushya
- English
- the man
- Kannada
- ಹೆಂಗಸುhengasu
- English
- the woman
- Kannada
- ಮಗುmagu
- English
- the child
- Kannada
- ನಾಯಿnaayi
- English
- the dog
- Kannada
- ಬೆಕ್ಕುbekku
- English
- the cat
- Kannada
- ಕಾರುkaaru
- English
- the car
- Kannada
- ಮೇಜುmeju
- English
- the table
- Kannada
- ಬಾಗಿಲುbaagilu
- English
- the door
- Kannada
- ಪುಸ್ತಕpustaka
- English
- the book
- Kannada
- ದಿನdina
- English
- the day