1: The Pali Language Basics

Pali, like most other Indo-Aryan languages, is an oral language spoken as vākya (sentences) made up of vacana (words) which are a combination of akkhara (“sounds”, or “letters from an “alphabet”). {1}

There are debates about the origin of Pali, whether it was in fact a real language actually spoken by people, as opposed to an “invented” language specifically for the purposes of recording Buddhist doctrine. The term “Pali” actually just means “text”, and today “Pali” is used primarily for Buddhist literature.

Pali Alphabet and pronunciation {2}-{9}

The Buddha may have spoken a language similar to Pali, and when he died his sayings were collected and systematised so they can be transmitted orally generation to generation using memorisation techniques such as chanting. The Pali canon was not written down until hundreds of years after the Buddha has passed away.

As such, there is no “official” Pali alphabet or writing. Pali can be transcribed fairly faithfully in a number of alphabets, including Roman letters (with the addition of a few diacritical marks or accented characters similar to other European languages).

For this textbook, I will use Roman letters as the basis for the Pali alphabet since I am used to that.

Of course, no one knows for sure how Pali words would have been pronounced, and how Pali sentences would have been spoken, particularly with regards to tonality. Modern day Pali pronunciation is based on how the Buddhist Pali canon is chanted in various countries including Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.

Pali sentence structure

A Pali sentence (vākya) or Pali text (pali) is generally composed of multiple words (pada or vacana). Since Pali was an oral language, punctuation mark and upper/lower case conventions are typically not used, although modern editors have sometimes added these to aid reading.

Words also do not need to be separated by spaces, although modern Pali editions of text do add spaces, to aid reading. Later on, we will find out Pali has compound words, which consist of multiple words joined together to create a composite word.

To be able to distinguish words in a sentence, Pali relies heavily on paccaya (affixes to roots or word stems) to create distinctive word endings. Fluent Pali listeners will no doubt listen to the sound of these endings to distinguish the words. These endings also give additional meaning to the words and indicate how the words are used in a sentence.

Because of this, the word order in a Pali sentence is less important than many other languages, however there are conventions for how to arrange words in a typical sentence. Speakers can unconventionally reorder words, typically to give emphasis to certain words or to augment or add nuance to a sentence’s emotional meaning.

This is similar to our reaction when we hear “Yoda” speak in the “Star Wars” series of films. We appreciate who Yoda is as a personality, and we pay more attention to his words simply because of the different order.

dhātu (roots)

Fundamentally, all words in Pali are said to be derived from one or more dhātu (roots). These roots are similar to Sanskrit roots. Pali can be regarded as a simplified version of Sanskrit, however some of the roots may have different meanings, or nuances. There are some that say Sanskrit was a “sacred” language reserved for priests and members of the holy caste, whereas Pali, along with many other Indian languages, was spoken by the common people. The Buddha may have spoken in Pali because he wanted to convey his teachings to ordinary people, not just privileged members of a particular caste.

dhātu can have 1-3 syllables:

A series of transformations convert a root into a word by adding paccaya (affixes). Words can also be formed by combining a root with one or more upasagga (prefixes). Multiple upasagga and different forms of paccaya can be applied to a root before it becomes a word, thus creating multi-syllabic words. The result is a word that can be used in a sentence.

Altogether there are around 1700 roots in Pali. However, many many words can be made from them by attaching upasagga (prefixes) and various affixes (paccaya). In theory, fresh words can be formed by new combinations of roots with different prefixes so the adventurous Pali student can attempt to create Pali words for “modern” terms such as “computer” or “phone”.

It is not really necessary to memorise the 1700 roots, although it will be very useful if the reader chooses to do so. Knowing all the roots and the various prefixes and affixes will allow the reader to sometimes (not always) “guess” the meaning of a word not previously encountered, and will also help when applying the various transformation rules (see below).

sandhi (word transformations)

As Pali is a spoken language, when words are combined to form a sentence, changes may occur between words (or sometimes even within a word) to make the sentence “flow” or “sound” better.

In English, we often shorten words like “can not” to “can’t”, or “I will” to “I’ll”. This happens very frequently in Pali, especially when two vowels become adjacent to each other from two words next to each other, and there are complex rules governing how such transformations occur.

As a example {10} (don’t worry about the meaning of the words for now):

tatra + ayaṁ + ādi
= tatra + aā yaṁm + ādi
= tatrā’ya’mādi
= tatrāyamādi

As you can see, when there are two adjacent vowels when we join two or more words together, sandhi typically involves deleting one of the vowels, and then either retaining, lengthening or changing the remaining vowel. Sometimes the consonant next to the vowel may also be changed.

The overall effect is to make the words easier to say as a group. Although tatrāyamādi may seem like a single word because of sandhi, a listener should still regard them as separate words when trying to understand a sentence. However, some sandhi combinations of common words are so often encountered they have acquired distinctive meaning as combined words.

Another example {11}

tatra + abhiratiṁ + iccheyya
= tatra + aā bhiratiṁm + iccheyya
= tatrā’bhirati’miccheyya
= tatrābhiratimiccheyya
“… should prefer enjoying at that …”

For the time being, we are not going to go into detail on these rules but be aware that words may change in a sentence. Eventually, as you read more and more sentences in Pali, these changes will become easier to recognise.

nāmā (nouns) {52}

nāmā are the most common type of words in Pali, and roughly (but not exactly) correspond to the term “noun” in English. nāmā also means “name”, so these words represent things that we can “name” - including people, places, things, numbers, feelings and many other objects or concepts.

Example {53}

Here is a simple sentence, consisting of 3 nāma:

eso no satthā

which translates as:

that person/being / our / teacher
That person [is] our teacher.

Instead of satthā other examples may be:

• brahmā (God)
• attā (self)
• sakhā (friend)
• rājā (King)

liṅga (gender) {53}

nāma can be classified into 3 different types or liṅga. The word liṅga actually means “gender”, and traditionally each nāma is assigned a gender. The liṅga represents an “intrinsic property” of the nāma.

The notion of a Pali gender is similar to (but not quite the same as) genders in some European languages. However, there are differences that it’s best to regard liṅga as a classification scheme or grammatical construct rather than what we may think of as “gender”. I like to think of it this way:

• pulliṅga - the “major” or “default” type. Most nouns fall into this category. Generally associated with masculinity or masculine persons (but not always)
• napuṁsakaliṅga - the “special” type. Tend to be used for nouns that don’t quite fit with the notions of masculinity or feminity, or represent abstract concepts.
• itthiliṅga - the “minor” type, comparatively rare with respect to the other two types. Generally associated with feminity or feminine persons.

Note that for the remainder of this book, we may refer to the above liṅga by the following symbols for brevity:

• 🚹 = pulliṅga
• 🚻 = napuṁsakaliṅga
• 🚺 = itthiliṅga

Ancient India was a patriarchal society, and men were regarded as the “major” component of society, doing activities considered important, hence the tendency is to associate important words to pulliṅga.

Number

Like in English, Pali words are slightly different depending on whether they are used to refer to one thing vs many things.

• ⨀ = ekavacana (singular)
• ⨂ = bahuvacana (plural)

There used to be also a “dual” form but that is now largely obsolete and encountered in very rare instances. Examples include:

• to idh’āgato (these two having come)
• ubho (both)
• mātāpitu (father and mother)

vibhatti (case endings) {54}

Unlike English, words need to be “transformed” before they are used in a sentence. This is done by adding endings or “suffixes” to the word (vibhatti).

Altogether there are seven types of vibhatti, and they are conveniently numbered 1 to 7 {55}:

You may note the 4th and 6th case endings are the same, which means in practice we can only tell which case is being used by context (more later). Notice also the plural endings for some of the cases are the same. Again, which case is being used can only be determined by context.

Let’s start with an example. Suppose we have the word purisa (“man”, in the masculine gender or 🚹) and we want to use it in a sentence in singular form, and we wish to transform it using the 1st case ending (paṭhamāvibhatti). If we look up the above table, we should add the si ending (using rule of {55}):

purisa + si → puriso

Wait, what happened? Why does the transformation not result in purisasi?

This is where additional rules comes into play. By rule of {83}, any word ending in a will be transformed into the 1st case by deleting the a and by rule of {104} replacing the si with o. Kaccāyana has a whole chapter of such rules.

So the transformation becomes:

purisa + si
→ purisa + si {83}
→ puris + si(o) {104}
→ puriso

The plural form undergoes a similar transformation:

purisa + yo
→ purisa + si {83}
→ puris + yo(ā) {107}
→ purisā

This does make things interesting, because the transformation result for every word then depends on:

• kāra’nta (word ending)
• liṅga (gender)
• ekavacana (singular) vs. bahuvacana (plural)
• vibhatti (desired case ending)

Here is a table of purisa transformed in all the 7 cases and singular vs plural.

You will note that in some of the cases, there are multiple ways the word can be transformed. For example, singular purisa can be transformed in the 3rd case into either purisehi or purisebhi. Both are acceptable. Which should we use for a given sentence? It depends on the “sound” - a native speaker would have chosen the version that sounded the most pleasing, depending on surrounding words.

The rules can be quite complicated, so let’s not worry about them for now. In practice, you can rely on looking up a relevant table to determine the appropriate transformation (TBD). If you are just reading Pali, then with practice you will learn to recognise the various endings which will become familiar to you.

A much more important question to answer at this point is …

Why do we need vibhatti endings and what is their purpose?

In English, when we see a sentence like

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

We know that words “quick” and “brown” refers to the “fox”, which is the “subject” of the sentence, and “lazy” refers to the dog, which is the “object” of the sentence. The verb “jumped over” separates the subject and the object. Our brain automatically “collects” and “groups” the words, so we read the sentence as:

(The quick brown fox) jumped over (the lazy dog).

In English, as we can see, word order is important. If we mixed the words up, the sentence becomes far harder to read:

Over the quick lazy brown fox the dog jumped.

This sentence would imply quite a different meaning.

In Pali, all words with the same gender and the same case ending should be grouped together, and that’s how we distinguish which words belong to which entity. So the word order becomes far less important, we could mix the words up and the sentence would still have the same meaning!

In practice, the 1st case is usually reserved for the “most important” entity in a sentence, the 2nd for the “second most important” and so on.

So, in the above English sentence, were it to be translated the Pali, “the quick brown fox” would all be in the 1st case, and “the lazy dog” would all be in the 2nd case. If there are more entities, they would take the 3rd, 4th cases and so on.

In many sentences, the 1st case would usually refer to the entity or actor “performing” or “doing” the action (or, the “subject” of the sentence), and the 2nd case refers to the entity being impacted by the action (the “object”) of the sentence. Although this is a very common pattern, it is by no means rigid, and in theory any case ending can be used for any purpose. There are many examples in the Pali canon where the cases are used in unconventional ways. (TBD: need to include examples)

Vibhatti usage typical meanings {271}-{315}

The following meanings are usually associated with each case. However, as noted above, these are conventions only, and the author of a sentence may choose to adopt an unconventional approach of assigning words to cases (perhaps for emphatic or stylistic reasons).

⓪ ālapana (vocative) {57}

English Pali textbooks often refer to a “vocative” case, but this is not recognised as a separate case but a variant of the 1st case. The usual case ending si (for 1st case singular) is instead called ga but the transformation rules are similar to si.

Examples:

bhoti ayye! (Oh madam!)
bhoti kaññe! (Oh girl!)
bhoti kharādiye! (Oh the girl named Kharādiya!)

Contrast this to the normal 1st case form of ayyā (🚺⨀①):

sā ayyā (that lady)

In plural:

bhotiyo ayyāyo (Oh Madams!)

*️⃣ sabbanāma (pronouns)

sabba means “all” so sabbanāma are “common” or “generic” nouns that can apply in “all’ situations.

Examples of sabbanāma include the different vibhatti forms of ya (“who, what”), ta (“he/she/it”, “that”), eta (“this”), ima (“this”), amu (“that”), kiṁ (“what?”). One of the common usage of sabbanāma is as “pronouns”, where they can assume all genders to represent all things and persons of the different genders. But they can also function as adjectives, adverbs, honorifics and interrogatives.

Examples:

⏏️ nipāta (particles)

nipāta means “to fall. i.e. to be placed anywhere”, and refer to words that can be found placed in the beginning, in the middle or at the end of sentences and words, but not usually regarded as prefixes (see below).

Generally, the vibhatti endings of nipāta words are elided as these words are not related to other words in the sentence and therefore do not need to be matched with them. {221}

However, in some instances, the vibhatti endings may be retained, if the nipāta word play a role in the sentence meaning.

Examples

tvaṁ panā’vuso! tumhe panā’vuso!

you / (no specific meaning) / friend
you (plural) / (no specific meaning) / friend
How about you, my friend? And the rest of you (plural)?

padaso dhammaṁ vāceyya

by word / dhamma / teach (causative, optative)
(He) should teach and say Dhamma word by word.

vihāraṁ • sve upagaccheyya

to temple / tomorrow / should approach (optative)
(He) should come to the temple tomorrow.

The following is a brief descriptive list of some nipāta words. Some are plain nipātas without any affix, while some are with indeclinable affixes. Some may even have a sort of vibhatti-ending in them or may still have traces of vibhattis. Please note that the implied meaning of elided vibhatti still remains in effect for some nipāta words such as yathā, tathā and evaṁ etc.

nipāta as prefixes

However, there are quite a few nipāta that can be placed before some verbs or kita-affixed nouns and used in a way resembling prefixes.

🔼 upasagga (prefixes)

There are 20 upasagga words which are usually applied as prefixes to ākhyāta (verbs) and kita-affixed nouns (see below). Like nipāta, upasagga words also have their vibhatti endings elided, but in some cases where they are functioning as independent words (not attached to a verb or noun), they may retain their vibhatti endings.

There are three kinds of upasagga:

1. dhātva’tthā’nuvattaka - those that follow the meaning of the root, without affecting its original meaning.
2. dhātva’tthabādhaka - those that absolutely mean opposite of the root. These categorically change the original meaning of the root.
3. dhātva’tthavisesaka - those that enhance the original meaning of the root by adding more specific meaning and flavour to it.

Example:

parābhavo

🔼(parā) 🚹⨀①(bhava)
opposite / to be, being loss, ruin

Here are various words that can be formed from the word hara (“carrying”) together with various upasagga prefixes and the ṇa-suffix:

🆎 samāsa (compound nouns) {316}-{343}

Like German, Pali often combines many nouns to form a compound noun.

The following table summarises the major types of compound nouns, typical liṅga (gender) and examples:

The rules for constructing a samāsa can be complex:

rāja + putta (the King’s son)
→ rāja + sa + putta (⨀⑥)
→ rāja + sa + putta + si (⨀①)
→ rāja(ññ) + sa(o) + putta + si {135}
→ rāñño + putta + si(o) {83}
→ rāñño + putto
→ rāñño(ja) + putto(a) {317}
→ rājaputta {318}
→ rājaputta + si (⨀①)
→ rājaputta + si(o) {104}
→ rājaputta + o {83}
→ rājaputto

Fortunately, resources such as the Digital Pali Dictionary can deconstruct compound words into their individual words, which helps the beginner to understand such words encountered. So there is less of a need to learn the complex rules associated with them.

➡️ taddhita (affixes) {344}-{405}

Various affixes can be added to a noun to create derived nouns and adjectives.

Compare and contrast with English use of affixes such as “-al”, “-ly”, “-er”, “-or” etc. For example, “topic” vs “topical”, “true” vs “truly”.

In English, “navigate” is a verb, whereas “navigator” (with an “-or” affix) is a profession. Similarly, in Pali, nāvā is “boat”, nāvā with ṇika as an affix becomes nāviko (“traveller by boat”, or “sailor”). Note that the last vowel of the root and the ṇ are both elided, and then the noun is given the 🚹⨀① vibhatti ending.

The rules for constructing a tadhitta affixed noun can be rather daunting:

vasiṭṭha + apacca (Vasiṭṭha’s son)
→ vasiṭṭha + sa (⨀⑥) + apacca
→ vasiṭṭha + s + sa + apacca {61}
→ vasiṭṭhassa + apacca + si (⨀①)
→ vasiṭṭhassa + apacca + si(aṁ) {219}
→ vasiṭṭhassa + apacca + aṁ {83}
→ vasiṭṭhassa + apaccaṁ (of Vasiṭṭha / son)
→ vasiṭṭhassa + ṇa + apaccaṁ {344}
→ vasiṭṭhassa + ṇa + apaccaṁ {317}
→ vasiṭṭha + ṇa {396}
→ vasiṭṭha + a {318}
→ va(ā)siṭṭha + a {400}
→ vāsiṭṭha + a {83}
→ vāsiṭṭha {601}
→ vāsiṭṭha + si (⨀①)
→ vāsiṭṭha + si(o) {104}
→ vāsiṭṭha + o {83}
→ vāsiṭṭho

*ka is added sometimes. eg. dayāluko

Words with taddhita affixes are sometimes not recognised by Pali-English dictionaries, since these dictionaries may not cover the full range of possible affixes and their meanings. So it is probably worthwhile learning how to recognise taddhita affixed words and the associated meanings.

Numbers

Pali numbers have their own set of tadhikka affixes (to denote “first”, “second”, “third” etc.)

Abyaya (indeclinable affixes)

These are undeclinable (and no liṅga), and often used as adverbs or adjectives.

Abyaya affixes applied after Sabbanāma-nouns

These are often used as a substitute or replacement for case endings (particularly ⑤ and ⑦), since they are indeclinable. They also have no liṅga (gender).

ākhyāta (verbs) {406}-{523}

Like nouns, verbs also have vibhatti endings affixed to them when used in sentences, but the endings are different from those of nouns. These endings depend on:

• voice {406}-{407}
  • 🟢 = parassapada (active)
  • 🔵 = attanopada (middle) - impersonal
• number
  • ⨀ = ekavacana (singular)
  • ⨂ = bahuvacana (plural)
• person {408}-{412} (if more than one, the last applies)
  • 🤟 = paṭhama purisa (first person, equivalent to ’third person’ in English)
  • 🤘 = majjima purisa (middle person, equivalent to ‘second person’ in English)
  • 👆 = uttama purisa (primary person, equivalent to ‘first person’ in English)
• tense/mood {413}-{422}
  • ▶️ = vattamāna (present)*
  • ⏹ = piñcamī (imperative) - (used to express) āṇatti (command), āsīsa (wish) at a non-specific time-frame mode (anuttakāla)*
  • ⏯ = sattamī (potential/optative)*
  • 🔄 = parokkhā (past perfect)
  • ↩️ = hiyyattanī (past imperfect)*
  • ⏮ = ajjatanī(aorist)
  • ⏭ = bhavissanti (future)
  • 🔀 = kālātipatti (conditional)

* collectively referred to as sabbadhātuka vibhatti

verb terminations {423}-{430}

Here is an example of the root gamu (to go) with all the verb endings applied. A number of transformations need to happen prior to affixing the vibhatti:

gamu
→ gamu (elision of final vowel per rule {521})
→ gamm(cch) (m→cch per rule {476})
→ gacch

Here is an example for transforming into the parassapada (🟢), ekavacana (⨀), paṭhama purisa (🤟), vattamāna (▶️) form:

gamu + ti {414}
→ gamu + ti {521}
→ gam + a + ti {445}
→ gam(cch) + a + ti {476}
→ gacchati

The plural form bahuvacana (⨂) undergoes a similar transformation:

gamu + anti {414}
→ gamu + anti {521}
→ gam + a + anti {445}
→ gam(cch) + a + anti {476}
→ gacch + a + anti {510}
→ gacchanti

Note that some of the terminations are the same so in practice we will need to distinguish which tense is being used from context. Note also the irregular forms, particularly the aorist ones. The irregular aorists tend to be more commonly used than the regular forms. This is so prevalent other grammar books such as Moggalāṇa Vyākaraṇa and Rūpasiddhi created rules to accomodate them.

Voices

Like Sanskrit, Pali supports 3 different ways of expressing sentences, based on the “voice”:

1. the active voice (kattu) {444}-{452}
2. the passive voice (kamma)
3. the impersonal voice (bhāva)

However, in Pali literature, bhāva (middle, or impersonal, voice) is seldom used, probably because most of the literature is based on the Buddha (or a disciple) “speaking” to a group of monks, which has then been transformed into a structure suitable for memorisation and chanting.

🔴 Passive verb endings Vattamānā Vibhatti {440}-{443}

A passive verb is created by using the attanopada (🔵) endings together with an infix of ya in between the root and the ending.

Note that passive verbs can only be formed based on roots that can be expressed in a “passive” (kamma) sense - some roots can only result into “active” verbs and cannot be transformed this way.

Example transformation (based on the root paca (to cook)):

paca + ya + te {440}
→ paca + y(cc)a + te {441}
→ paccate (“is cooked”)

The full set of attanopada (🔵) endings of in the present tense vattamāna (▶️) across the 3 persons and plurality:

Because the middle voice is seldom used, rule {518} allows these verbs to be retransformed into “reversed” parassapada (🟢) endings:

Typically we would use the parassapada (🟢) endings for passive verbs.

Other examples (using different rules):

kara (“to do”)
→ kara + ya + te {440}
→ kara + ī + ya + te {442}
→ kara + ī + ya + te {521}
→ karīyate (“is done”)

vaḍha (“to grow”)
→ vaḍha + ya + te {440}
→ vaḍha + ya(ḍḍha) + te {443}
→ vuḍḍhate (“is grown”)

🟠 Causative verbs

There are two types of causative verbs:

1. Causative verb in the active voice
2. Causative verb in the passive voice

There 4 typical causative affixes (kārita) used to construct causative verbs {438}:

• ṇe
• ṇaya
• ṇāpe
• ṇāpaya

Just like for tadhikka noun affixes, the ṇ is typically elided when joined to a root, leaving the remaining letters. {523}

Various vowel gradation transformations may also take place when joining the affix to the noun as per rule {483}.

Example transformation (based on the root paca (to cook)) and the causative affix ṇe:

paca + ṇe + ti {438}
paca + ṇe + ti {521}
→ pac + ṇe + ti {523}
→ pa(ā)c + e + ti {483}
→ pāceti ("(he) causes to cook”)

🟠 Causative (active) verbs {438}

The full set of causative versions of the vattamāna (▶️) forms of the root paca (to cook) using parassapada (🟢) endings:

Note: not all forms of the above are encountered in Pali literature - they represent the full theoretical set of causative forms that can be generated.

🟠🔴 Causative passive verbs

It is also possible to construct causative verbs in the passive voice, just by adding the passive ya affix after the causative affix. The ṇaya and ṇāpaya causative affixes are rarely used in the passive voice.

Example transformation (based on the root paca (to cook)) and the causative affix ṇe and the passive affix ya:

paca + ṇe + ya + ti {438,440}
paca + ṇe + ya + ti {521}
→ pac + ṇe + ya + ti {523}
→ pa(ā)c + ya + ti {483}
→ pāciyati (“is caused to be cooked”)

ākhyāta examples

▶️ vattamāna {414}

(used to express actions or events which occur) at the present

pāṭaliputtaṁ gacchati

Pāṭaliputta (city) / he goes
He goes to Pāṭaliputta.*

sāvatthiṁ pavisati

Sāvatthi (city) / he enters
He enters Sāvatthi.

⏹ piñcamī {415}

(used to express)

• āṇatti (command)
• āsīsa (wish)

at a non-specific time-frame mode (anuttakāla)

karotu kusalaṁ

do / meritorious deed
(Please) do meritorious deed.

sukhaṁ te hotu

happiness / for you / be
May you be happy.

⏯ sattamī {416}

(to express)

• anumati (permission)
• parikappa (thought)

at a non-specific time (anuttakāla).

tvaṁ gaccheyyāsi you / can go You can go.

kima’haṁ kareyyāmi
what I (kiṁ + ahaṁ) / shoud do
What should I do?

🔄 parokkhā {417}

(to be applied to express things happened in one’s absence, in a situation where the speaker is not a witness to) at a past time-frame mode (atīta - past).

supine kila’māha

in the dream / apparently / (he) said (kila + āha)
(He is supposed to have) said.

evaṁ kila porāṇā’hu

thus / apparently / ancient sages / said (porāṇā + āhu)
Ancient sages are supposed to have said thus.

↩️ hiyyattanī {418}

(used to express events that took place) in past time (yesterday or before), either being witnessed or not witnessed (by the speaker)

so agamā maggaṁ

he / went / road
He went along the road.

te agamū maggaṁ

they / went / road
They went along the road.

⏮ ajjatanī {419}

(used to express things happened) in the near past starting from today, either being witnessed or not witnessed (by the speaker)

so maggaṁ agamī

he / road / gone
He has (just) gone along the road.

te maggaṁ agamuṁ they / road / gone
They have (just) gone along the road.

⏭ bhavissanti {421}

(to be used) in the (expression of) future

so gacchissati, karissati

he / will go / will do
He will go, will do.

te gacchissanti, karissanti

they / will go / will do
They will go, will do.

🔀 kālātipatti {422}

(to be used) in (the expression of) an action that was past (without being materialised due to adverse conditions or lack of the supporting causes)

so ce taṁ yānaṁ alabhissā, agacchissā

he / if / that / vehicle / should have got / might have gone already
If he had gotten that vehicle, he might have gone already.

te ce taṁ yānaṁ alabhissaṁsu, agacchissaṁsu

they / if / that / vehicle / should have got / might have gone already
If they had gotten that vehicle, they might have gone already.

Example sentence constructions

kattu-vācaka vākya (active voice sentences)

An active voice sentence is a subject-principal sentence where Kattā (the agent, doer subject) is much more dominant.

1. kattu (subject) - Kathita Kattā or `Vutta-kattā`` (predominant-subject) must be in 1st case (①)
2. kamma (object) - Akathita-kamma or Avutta-kamma (non-principal object) must be in 2nd case (②)
3. The verb must be either in the parassapada termination (🟢) in most cases or in the attanopada termination (🔵) with or without an affix of kattu sense. [Affixes of kamma sense such as ya, or kita affixes eg. tabba, ta, etc. cannot be used]
4. The persons (subjects) and verbs should be concordant.

Kamma-vācaka Vākya (passive voice sentences)

A passive voice sentence is a object-principal sentence where the Kamma (the thing being done, the object) is more visibly dominant by being in the 1st case (①).

The rules in a passive voice sentence are:

1. kamma (object) - Kathita Kamma or Vutta-kamma (predominant-object) must be in 1st case (①)
2. kattā (subject) - Akathita-kattā or an Avutta-kattā (non-principal subject) must be in 3nd case (③)
3. The verb should be mainly in the attanopada termination (🔵) or it can be in a reversed parassapada form (🟢) with an affix which has a Kamma-sense only. {440}-{443}.
4. The object (not the subject!) and verb should be in agreement.

bhāva (impersonal) middle voice sentences

It’s like a passive voice sentence except the focus is purely on the action and does not focus on either the subject or object. Therefore the verb tends to be in ⨀ (ekavacana) 🤟 (paṭhama purisa) form. If there is a subject, it can be (but not always) be in 3rd (③) or 6th case (⑥).

Causative sentences

There are four integral parts in a causative sentence:

1. Causative subject - Hetu-kattā (the prompter), or Payojaka-kattā (the mover)
2. Subordinate Object - Kārita-kamma (causative object)
3. Root-object - dhātu-kamma, the object of the root which has direct connection/meaning to the root
4. Causative verb

If the root is a dual-kamma-indicative root (dvikammaka) such as nī (to carry), duha (to milk), then there can be three objects.

🔽 kibbidhāna (kita-affixed nouns) {524}-{623}

This is a class of words which are verbs transformed into “verb nouns” through the addition of suffixes.

These “verb nouns” are nouns, and have noun vibhatti endings applied to them, but can function like verbs in a sentence, or as auxiliary verbs such as the absolutive (also called gerund), the present participle and past participle.

verbal affixes

gerund or auxiliary verbs

Individual noun affixes

All of these can be variable gender, even when a gender is specified in the following table.

Example

Here is a worked through example of how a root transforms into a kita-affixed noun (from caja, using the ṇa affix):

caja “to share generously”
→ caja {521}
→ caj + ṇa {529}
→ cajṇa (kārita) {621}
→ cajṇa {523}
→ ca(ā)ja (vuddhi) {483}
→ cāj(g)a {623}
→ cāga (noun) {601}
→ cāga + si (⨀①)
→ cāga + si(o) {104}
→ cāga + o {83}
→ cāgo (“charitable giving, sharing”)

Here is another example based on budha (to know):

budha “to know”
→ budha {521}
→ budh + ta {557}
→ budh + ta(dha) {576}
→ budh(d) + dha {611}
→ buddha (noun) {601}
→ buddha + si (⨀①)
→ buddha + si(o) {104}
→ buddha + o {83}
→ buddho (“The one who knows truth, who awakened”)

Given the complexity of the above rules, it’s probably better just to recognise the completed forms whenever you come across them, but try and recognise the affix and associated meaning if you can.

⏬ uṇādi (uṇādi-affixed nouns) {624}-{673}

These are also “verb nouns” that can behave like verbs or auxiliary verbs or future participles.

The majority of uṇādi-affixes, except some verbal affixes, are used mainly in the formation of individual nouns of varying genders.

Examples:

sama “to calm”
→ sama + tha {628}
→ samatha {601}
→ samatha + si (⨀①)
→ samatha + si(o) {104}
→ samatha + o {83}
→ samatho (“that which calms the mind, Samatha meditation”)

gaha “to take”
→ gaha {521}
→ ga(e)ha {629}
→ geha {601}
→ geha + si(aṁ) {104}
→ geha + aṁ {219}
→ gehaṁ (“home”)

sādhana

The process of attaching either kita or uṇādi affixes to create new words is called sādhana. Like kāraka (the syntax of case or vibhatti endings), sādhana affixed words can be associated with specific usage meanings.

sādhana-affixed word can be associated with a voice (kattu, kamma, bhāva), in which case their usage can affect the “voice” of a sentence. This is especially true when sādhana-affixed word is used as a verb-noun, ie. it carries the “action” of a sentence.

Example sentences of kattu sādhana-affixed words

dānaṁ dinno devadatto

🚻⨀②(dānaṁ) 🚹⨀①(⏬(ta)(dinno) devadatto)
alms / gave (past participle) / Devadatta
Devadatta gave alms.

kumaro antepuraṁ gato

🚻⨀②(antepuraṁ) 🚹⨀①(kumaro ⏬(ta)(gato))
King’s palace / prince / went (past participle)
The prince went into the King’s palace.

so bhagavā sayam’pi cattāri saccāni buddho

🚹⨀①(so bhagavā ⏬(ta)(buddho)) ⏏️(sayam api) 🚻⨂②(cattāri saccāni)
that / Bhagavā / understood (past participle) / by oneself / just / four / truths
That Bhagavā (Buddha) understood the four truths just by himself.

Example sentences of kamma sādhana-affixed words

buddhena dhammo desito

🚹⨀③(buddhena) 🚹⨀①(dhammo ⏬(ta)(desito))
by Buddha / dhamma / taught (past participle)
The Dhamma is taught by the Buddha.

bhotabbo odano bhavatā

🚹⨀①(⏬(tabba)(bhotabbo) odano) 🚹⨀③(bhavatā)
eaten (future passive participle) / rice / Your Honourable
That rice is to be eaten by Your Honourable.

Example sentences of bhāva sādhana-affixed words

tassa gītaṁ

🚻⨀⑥(tassa) 🚻⨀①(🔽(ta)(gītaṁ))
of that person / sung (past participle)
Sung of that person.

sayitabbaṁ bhavatā

🚻⨀①(⏬(tabba)(sayitabbaṁ)) 🚹⨀③(bhavatā)
eating (future passive particle) / by Your Honourable
Eating by Your Honourable.

sādhana associated meanings and usage

The associated meanings are rather weak compared to case endings (vibhatti) and can sometimes have no significant role.

Exercise

Our first exercise, and also a celebration for finishing this chapter, is to translate the Saraṇattaya Kp 1 PTS 1. This is a very well known sutta commonly referred to as the Three Jewels (also known as the Triple Gem or Three Refuges) and traditionally recited by disciples of the Buddha as part of a ceremony by which one formally declares oneself a Buddhist.

Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Dutiyampi buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Dutiyampi dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Dutiyampi saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Tatiyampi buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Tatiyampi dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Tatiyampi saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi

Let’s start by examining only the first line. Analysing each word by identifying the form of the vibhatti ending yields:

🚹⨀②(buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ) 🟢⨀🤟▶️(gacchāmi)

Translating each word into English yields:

Buddha / refuge / (I) go

Note that in Pali, all words in the same case refer to the same entity, so both “Buddha” and “refuge” refer to the same entity. In other words, the Buddha is the refuge and the refuge is the Buddha. In English, we can regard the equality as “Buddha as refuge”.

So, rearranging the words into a more idiomatic English sentence, we get:

I go to the Buddha as refuge.

For the exercise, translate the remainder of the sutta. It’s okay to leave words like “dhamma” and “sangha” untranslated (and use non-accented characters) as these are well known terms to Buddhists.

Answer

I go to the Buddha as refuge.
I go to the Dhamma as refuge.
I go to the Sangha as refuge.
For the second time too, I go to the Buddha as refuge.
For the second time too, I go to the Dhamma as refuge.
For the second time too, I go to the Sangha as refuge.
For the third time too, I go to the Buddha as refuge.
For the third time too, I go to the Dhamma as refuge.
For the third time too, I go to the Sangha as refuge.

Note that dutiyaṃ and tatiyaṃ are being used as nipāta. piis a nipāta meaning “too” or “also”.

The sentence structure of this sutta can also be represented as a pseudo UML class diagram:

classDiagram
  class sentence["dutiyampi/tatiyampi buddhaṃ/dhammaṃ/saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi"] {
    <<vākya>>
    english((For the second/third time) I go to the Buddha/Dhamma/Sangha as refuge)
  }
  namespace saṅkhyāpūraṇa {
    class dutiyaṃ {
      <<nāma>>
      ②
      english(second time)
    }
    class tatiyaṃ {
      <<nāma>>
      ②
      english(third time)
    }
  }
  class pi {
    <<nipāta>>
    english(too)
  }
  namespace saraṇa {
    class buddhaṃ {
      <<nāma>>
      🚹⨀②
    }
    class dhammaṃ {
      <<nāma>>
      🚹⨀②
    }
    class saṅghaṃ {
      <<nāma>>
      🚹⨀②
    }
  }
  class saraṇaṃ {
    <<nāma>>
     🚹⨀②
    english(as refuge)
  }
  class gacchāmi {
    <<ākhyāta>>
     🟢⨀🤟▶️
    english(I go)
  }
  sentence *-- dutiyaṃ
  sentence *-- tatiyaṃ
  sentence *-- pi
  sentence *-- buddhaṃ : kamma
  sentence *-- dhammaṃ : kamma
  sentence *-- saṅghaṃ : kamma
  sentence *-- saraṇaṃ : kamma
  sentence *-- gacchāmi: kiriya
  buddhaṃ .. saraṇaṃ
  dhammaṃ .. saraṇaṃ
  saṅghaṃ .. saraṇaṃ

We can also model the successive actions as a pseudo UML sequence diagram:

sequenceDiagram
participant ahaṃ as (ahaṃ)
participant buddhaṃ
participant dhammaṃ
participant saṅghaṃ
  loop (paṭhama), dutiyampi, tatiyampi
    ahaṃ ->> buddhaṃ : gacchāmi
    buddhaṃ ->> saraṇaṃ : (hoti)
    ahaṃ ->> dhammaṃ : gacchāmi
    dhammaṃ ->> saraṇaṃ : (hoti)
    ahaṃ ->> saṅghaṃ : gacchāmi
    saṅghaṃ ->> saraṇaṃ : (hoti)
  end

Finally, the different states of the refuges can be modelled as a pseudo UML state diagram:

stateDiagram-v2
  state fork_state <<fork>>
  state join_state <<join>>
  [*] --> fork_state : gacchāmi
  fork_state --> buddhaṃ
  fork_state --> dhammaṃ
  fork_state --> saṅghaṃ
  buddhaṃ --> join_state
  dhammaṃ --> join_state
  saṅghaṃ --> join_state
  join_state --> saraṇaṃ
  saraṇaṃ --> fork_state : dutiyampi, tatiyampi

Conclusion

Congratulations on finishing this chapter! It is compact and dense, and not every feature of Pali explained here will sink in initially. It may be worthwhile revisiting this chapter from time to time to check your understanding as you progress in your journey in learning Pali.

The good news is you now know enough of the basics of Pali to start reading the Tipiṭaka with the aid of a good dictionary, and looking up every word as you go along. You may encounter sentences that you can’t interpret very well, but that’s okay. Leave it for now, and study the next chapters, which will help you build confidence and skill in your ability to analyse sentences and deduce the correct meaning.

Remember, the sentences in the Tipiṭaka are often repetitive and used in similar forms again and again. They are intentionally structured this way to assist in memorisation and chanting. So, once you have learnt how to correctly interpret a complex sentence, you may encounter it again and again and reading will become easier and easier over time.