Sylheti language/Adjectives
Adjectives in Bengali, similar to their English counterparts, do not inflect for gender or case. Additionally, they do not inflect for number either! This means that once you know an adjective, you can apply it to any noun(s) without any consideration.
To take an example, consider the adjective tall'; the Sylheti word for it is "lampa"'. Observe how the adjective (in bold letters) remains the same in the example below:
| English | Sylheti Bengali |
|---|---|
| the tall boy | lampa fua-gu |
| the tall girl | lampa furi-gu |
| the tall boys | lampa fua-in/fua-int okhol |
| the tall girls | lampa furi-n/furi-nt okhol |
Notice how only the definite markers (indicating singular/plural noun) change in the example above.
Demonstrative Adjectives
[edit | edit source]We have already seen how demonstrative pronouns (see chapter on pronouns for details) function in Sylheti. Demonstrative adjectives follow exactly the same pattern with only one difference: the definite article is attached to the noun instead of the adjective. Let's look at some examples:
| English | Sylheti Bengali |
|---|---|
| This is mine | igu amar |
| This book is mine | i kitab-gu amar |
| That is mine | ogu amar |
| That book is mine. | ou kitab-gu amar |
So while the pronouns 'this' and 'that' translated to igu and ogu, the demonstrative adjectives translate to i and ou, with the definite singular/plural markers attached to the noun following these adjectives. So "this book" is ou kitab-gu, "these books" is ou kitab-okhol; "this boy" is ou fua, and "these boys" is ou fuain/fuaint okhol.