Sanskrit pronouns and determiners

Sanskrit pronouns are declined for case, number, and gender. The pronominal declension applies to a few adjectives as well.

Many pronouns have alternative enclitic forms.

First and Second Persons
The first and second person pronouns are declined for the most part alike, having by analogy assimilated themselves with one another.

Note: Where two forms are given, the second is enclitic and an alternative form. Ablatives in singular and plural may be extended by the syllable -tas; thus mat or mattas, asmat or asmattas.

Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives
Sanskrit does not have true third person pronouns, but its demonstratives fulfil this function instead by standing independently without a modified substantive.

There are four different demonstratives in Sanskrit: tat, etat, idam, and adas. etat indicates greater proximity than tat. While idam is similar to etat, adas refers to objects that are more remote than tat.

The tat paradigm is given below.

eta, is declined almost identically to ta. Its paradigm is obtained by prefixing e- to all the forms of ta. As a result of sandhi, the masculine and feminine singular forms transform into ' and '.

The ayam paradigm is given below.

The asau paradigm is given below.

Enclitic Pronouns
The enclitic pronoun ena is found only in a few oblique cases and numbers.

Interrogative Pronouns
Interrogative pronouns all begin with k-, and decline just as tat does, with the initial t- being replaced by k-. The only exception to this are the singular neuter nominative and accusative forms, which are both kim and not the expected *kat.

For example, the singular feminine genitive interrogative pronoun, "of whom?", is .

Indefinite Pronouns
Indefinite pronouns are formed by adding the participles api, cid, or cana after the appropriate interrogative pronouns.

Relative and Correlative Pronouns
All relative pronouns begin with y-, and decline just as tat does. The correlative pronouns are identical to the tat series.

Pronominal Declension
In addition to the pronouns described above, some adjectives follow the pronominal declension. Unless otherwise noted, their declension is identical to tat.


 * eka: "one", "a certain". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both ekam)
 * anya: "another".
 * sarva: "all", "every". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both sarvam)
 * para: "the other". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both param)
 * sva: "self" (a reflexive adjective). (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both svam)