Indefinite Pronouns: man, jemand, niemand, etwas, nichts
ಅನಿಶ್ಚಿತ ಸರ್ವನಾಮಗಳು
German leans on man constantly for impersonal statements — 'one does', 'you do', 'people do' — filling a gap Kannada closes with its own impersonal verb habits, plus a small set of somebody/nobody/something/nothing words.
Grammar Comparison
ವ್ಯಾಕರಣ ಹೋಲಿಕೆ
man as the all-purpose impersonal subject
Man kann hier gut essen. (One/you can eat well here — man is a genuine grammatical subject, conjugates like er/sie/es)
ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಊಟ ಮಾಡಬಹುದು. (no subject at all needed — the -ಬಹುದು suffix already implies 'one/anyone can')
Kannada expresses the same impersonal, generic statement by simply dropping the subject entirely and letting a suffix like -ಬಹುದು ('one/anyone can') carry the impersonal sense. German grammar insists on a genuine subject in every sentence, so it invents one, man, that conjugates exactly like er/sie/es (man kann, man muss, man geht) but refers to no one in particular. Reach for man whenever your Kannada instinct wants to build a subjectless sentence — English 'you'/'people'/'one' in generic statements is your other cue that man belongs here.
Vocabulary
ಪದಗಳು
- Kannada
- ಒಬ್ಬರು (ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ ಕರ್ತೃ)obbaru (saamaanya kartru)
- English
- one / you / people (in general)
- Kannada
- ಯಾರೋ ಒಬ್ಬರುyaaro obbaru
- English
- someone
- Kannada
- ಯಾರೂ ಇಲ್ಲyaaroo illa
- English
- no one
- Kannada
- ಏನೋ ಒಂದುeno ondu
- English
- something
- Kannada
- ಏನೂ ಇಲ್ಲenoo illa
- English
- nothing
- Kannada
- ಎಲ್ಲರೂellaroo
- English
- everyone / all