Comparing High School and Practical Grammar with Sanskrit together with Russian Grammar

Comparative Table – Grammar Terms
Comparative Table – Grammar Terms
Grammar Term Wren & Martin (English) Thomson & Martinet (English) Macdonell (Sanskrit) V. Wagner (Russian)
1. Noun Proper, common, collective, abstract Countability; singular/plural; determiners Gender (m/f/n), declensions (5 groups) 3 Genders (m/f/n); 6 cases; animate/inanimate nouns
2. Pronoun Personal, demonstrative, reflexive, relative Detailed (including substitution & emphasis) Declined for case; demonstrative & relative types Case-marked; reflexive, demonstrative, interrogative forms
3. Verb Transitive/intransitive; simple-present-past forms Tense, aspect, mood; regular/irregular Verb roots; 10 tense/mood forms (liṭ, laṭ, etc.) Aspect (perfective/imperfective), person, number, tense
4. Tense Present, past, future (3 primary) 12 tense forms (simple, perfect, continuous, etc.) 10 traditional tense/mood systems 3 tenses (past, present, future); tied to aspect
5. Aspect Barely touched on Shown via continuous/perfect forms Not explicitly named; visible in present vs. aorist constructions Core part of verb system; perfective/imperfective
6. Mood Indicative, imperative Adds subjunctive, conditional Imperative, optative, potential, benedictive Indicative, imperative, subjunctive, conditional (particles)
7. Voice Active, passive only Also reflexive and causative forms implied Parasmaipada (active), Ātmanepada (middle) Active, passive, reflexive (often suffixal -ся/-сь)
8. Case Pronoun cases only (subjective, objective) Case roles loosely referred in relative clauses 8 Vibhaktis (cases); full paradigm for nouns/pronouns 6 grammatical cases (nom, gen, dat, acc, instr, prep)
9. Gender Not grammatical; only natural Some reference in noun/pronoun agreement 3 Genders (m/f/n) determine declension and agreement 3 Genders (m/f/n); affects adjective & verb agreement
10. Number Singular, plural Verb-noun agreement Singular, Dual, Plural Singular, Plural; dual in archaic forms
11. Adjective Degrees of comparison: good-better-best Attributive/predicative position; non-gradable adjectives Must agree with noun in gender, case, and number Full agreement with nouns in gender, case, and number
12. Prepositions Static list, explained with examples Usage with cases; idiomatic patterns Postpositions or implied via case endings Always govern cases; vital for sentence meaning
13. Articles a, an, the – usage rules explained Zero article contexts included ❌ No articles; definiteness via context ❌ No articles; demonstratives (этот, тот) used instead
14. Negation Use of “not” and “no” explained “Not,” “never,” “hardly” – placement rules Negative particles: na, mā Negative particles: не, ни, никто, ничего
15. Question Formation Inversion rules; WH-questions Question tags, indirect questions Interrogative pronouns + particles (kim, nu) Inversion and interrogative particles (что, кто, когда…)
Comparative Table – 8 Linguistic Entities
Comparative Table – 8 Linguistic Entities
Linguistic Entity Wren & Martin Thomson & Martinet Macdonell (Sanskrit) V. Wagner (Russian)
1. Morphology Basic inflection of verbs and nouns Verb morphology emphasized Rich morphology – nouns, verbs, participles, compounds Agglutinative and fusional (noun & verb endings)
2. Syntax Emphasizes SVO word order Varied clause types, conditionals Flexible word order, case-driven Free word order with case marking
3. Agreement Subject-verb agreement Subject-auxiliary agreement Agreement in number, case, gender (Sanskrit syntax) Gender-case-number agreement across constituents
4. Inflection Verbs and pronouns Verbs mainly Nouns, verbs, adjectives – highly inflected Nouns, pronouns, verbs inflected for function
5. Word Classes Noun, pronoun, verb, adjective… Functional and content word classification Rich categorization incl. indeclinables (avyayas) Includes particles, prefixes, aspectual pairs
6. Sandhi/Phonology Rare mentions Some discussion in pronunciation units Extensive (internal/external sandhi rules) Assimilation in fast speech; some vowel reduction
7. Derivation -ness, -ly, un- Formation of adjectives/adverbs Upasargas (prefixes), suffixes like -in, -ta Suffixes/prefixes; aspect changes by derivation
8. Compounds (Samāsa) Rarely discussed Not emphasized Samāsa types (Tatpurusha, Bahuvrihi, Dvandva) Many compound nouns; genitive chaining
Comparative Table – Core Linguistic Features
Comparative Table – Core Linguistic Features
Feature English Sanskrit Russian
Articles Definite articles used ❌ Not used ❌ Not used
Word Order Strict SVO Flexible, default SOV SVO (can be flexible)
Case System Minimal (object case for pronouns) Full eight-case system Six-case system
Verb Conjugation Simple tense + subject agreement 10 tenses/moods + voice + pada Aspect + tense + agreement
Gender Natural gender Grammatical gender (m/f/n) Grammatical gender (m/f/n)
Inflection Low High High

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