Every word wears its part

The eight parts · tap one to find it in the scene

{{ r.num }} {{ r.en }} {{ r.deva }}

One word — वृक्ष, a tree — wearing all eight costumes. Tap to hear each; the tail changes, the tree does not.

✦ Wonder 2 · विस्मयः

Shuffle the words. The Sanskrit still says exactly what it said. Watch what the very same shuffle does to the English.

Sanskrit · same meaning

{{ w.stem }}{{ w.end }}

{{ w.tag }}

{{ lineEn }}

↻ Shuffle the words ▶ Hear this order

Why it works

English has to keep its words in line, because position is the only thing telling you who did what. Sanskrit puts that information in the tail of each word instead, so the words are free to stand anywhere — for emphasis, for meter, for beauty. A poet can bend a line to fit a metre without bending its sense. This is what the eight costumes buy you.

School grammar usually teaches that case seven is the place and case three is the tool. Sanskrit's own grammarians keep the two apart: the role in the action is one thing, the ending the word wears is another, and they do not line up one to one.

Two of the eight endings carry no role in the action at all. षष्ठी ties one noun to another — गुरोः गृहम्, the teacher's house — and the verb is not involved. सम्बोधनम् is how you call someone, standing outside the sentence rather than acting in it. That is why the count of roles is six and the count of endings is seven.

One role, two endings

The same sentence, said the other way round. Rāma is the doer in both — nobody else does the reading — but his ending changes, and so does the book's.

{{ w.stem }}{{ w.end }}

{{ w.role }}

{{ w.vib }}

{{ turnEn }}

{{ flipLabel }} ▶ Hear this one

{{ turnNote }}

One ending, two roles

And the other way about. Both of these words wear तृतीया. They are doing entirely different jobs.

{{ x.line }}

{{ x.iast }}

तृतीया {{ x.role }}

{{ x.note }}

▶ Hear it

Knowing the ending tells you how the word is dressed. Knowing the role tells you what it is doing. A reader needs both, and the second one is not printed anywhere — you work it out from the verb.