Page:Simplified grammar of Hindustani, Persian and Arabic.pdf/43

30 to unity, expressing one (specified or not) of the species and no more, by adding. When this is the yū-e majhūl (see p. 28) it makes the word indefinite, whether it be a noun or a verb.

All nouns are concrete, that is, substantive.

A noun only exercises the functions of an adjective by being used in a subserviant manner as qualifying another word; e.g. mard i khūb, "a good man," not as in English (where good is abstract and meaningless without the substantive being expressed), but "a man (I mean) a good one:" hence we can use a so-called "adjective" as a substantive as  murda, "a good (man),"  murda, "a dead (man)," whereas in English, to say "a good," "a dead," is nonsense. There is, in fact, no such thing as an adjective, though one substantive may be used to qualify another.

The plural is formed by affixing

as mardān, "men,"  sanghā, "stones."

When the word ends in silent h an euphonic  is inserted; as  banda, "a slave,"  bandagūn, "slaves." If it end in ā, an euphonic  y is introduced; as  dānā, "wise,"  dānāyān.