Lesson 2.B 2.B.1 More on Verbs As well as the division into purusa (person), the verbs are divided into number (vacana): in English there is singular and plural, while in Sanskrit there is singular (eka-vacana), dual (dvi- vacana) , and plural (bahu- vacana). The personal endings are used to indicate both person and number, for example: eka-vacana dvi-vacana bahu-vacana prathama- tisthati tisthatah tisthanti purusa he/she/it stands they (two) stand they (pi.) stand madhyama- tisthasi tisthathah tisthatha purusa you (sing.) stand you (two) stand you (pi.) stand uttama- tisthami tisthavah tisthamah purusa I stand we (two) stand we (pi.) stand Note that when the subject is dual, the dual form of the verb must be used. A dhatu belongs to one of ten classes (gana); this classification is according to variations in the formation of the stem (ariga) from the dhatu. The verbs used to form simple sentences in this section are all from the first class (bhvadi-gana). As in English, a verb may express time (past, present, future tense) and mood (indicative, imperative, benedictive, conditional, etc.): English makes extensive use of auxiliaries (might, ought, should, had, etc.) to express these, whereas in Sanskrit these are all included in the form of the verb itself. There are ten tense/mood classifications in Sanskrit: these are called lakara or 1-affixes because their technical names all begin with the letter 1. The conjugations given here are all in the present indicative (simple present tense) called lat.
