Declension of Present Participles
Previously we saw that the masculine and neuter forms of the present participles are ‘a’-ending (ending in ‘nta’ or ‘māna’) and hence decline like the nouns buddha and phala.
The present participles ending in ‘nta’ also take up a few different forms than the abovementioned declined forms. Let us study the declension tables of the present participle ‘gacchanta’.
gacchanta (Masculine)
gacchanta = going (one who goes)
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | gacchaṃ, gacchanto | gacchantā, gacchanto |
| Acc. | gacchantaṃ | gacchante |
| Inst. | gacchatā, gacchantena | gacchantehi, gacchantebhi |
| Dat. | gacchato, gacchantassa | gacchataṃ, gacchantānaṃ |
| Abl. | gacchatā, gacchantasmā, gacchantamhā | gacchantehi, gacchantebhi |
| Gen. | gacchato, gacchantassa | gacchataṃ, gacchantānaṃ |
| Loc. | gacchati, gacchante, gacchantasmiṃ, gacchantamhi | gacchantesu |
| Voc. | gacchaṃ, gaccha, gacchā | gacchantā, gacchanto |
gacchanta (Neuter)
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | gacchaṃ, gacchantaṃ | gacchantā, gacchantāni |
| Acc. | gacchantaṃ | gacchante, gacchantāni |
| Voc. | gacchaṃ, gacchantaṃ | gacchantā, gacchantāni |
| The declension of neuter present participles is similar to that of masculine present participles from Instrumental to Locative cases. | ||
• Please note the similarities between the declension of ‘nta’-ending present participles and vantu-mantu ending nouns / adjectives (Please refer to the declension table of guṇavantu - Unit 11).
When the present participles take up feminine gender (when acting as adjectives to feminine nouns) their terminations change from
nta → ntī
māna → mānā
.
Thus the respective feminine present participles will be formed as such.
gaccha + ntī / mānā → gacchantī / gacchamānā = going (one who goes)
bhāsa + ntī / mānā → bhāsantī / bhāsamānā = speaking (one who speaks)
*suṇā + ntī / mānā → suṇantī / suṇamānā = listening (one who listens)
*dadā + ntī / mānā → dadantī / dadamānā = giving (one who gives)
* Please note that the long vowel ‘ā’ at the end of verbal bases suṇā and dadā changes into the short vowel ‘a’ when the terminations ntī and mānā are added.
The ntī-ending feminine present participles decline like the feminine noun itthī / nadī, and
the manā-ending feminine present participles decline like the feminine noun latā / vanitā.
The terminations added to the present participles and their declension pattern can be summarized as below.
Present Participles
| Gender | Termination added | Declines like | Variations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | nta | Buddha | Please refer to the declension of gacchanta |
| Masculine | māna | Buddha | |
| Neuter | nta | Phala | Please refer to the declension of gacchanta |
| Neuter | māna | Phala | |
| Feminine | ntī | Itthī / nadī | - |
| Feminine | mānā | Latā / vanitā | - |
Thus,
A boy who is going = gacchanto kumāro / gacchamāno kumāro
A girl who is going = gacchantī kaññā / gacchamānā kaññā
A man who is talking = bhāsanto puriso / bhāsamāno puriso
A woman who is talking = bhāsantī itthī / bhāsamānā itthī
Please Note :
The masculine and neuter present participles are always ‘a’-ending (nta / māna), irrespective of the nouns they modify.
The feminine present participles are always ‘ī’-ending or ‘ā’-ending (ntī / mānā), irrespective of the nouns they modify.
Let us understand this concept in detail with the help of a few examples.