most common sandhi situationsmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1529

The best way to study the sandhi rules is starting with the ones that are used most often. The following list shows the most common situations in order, with the percentage of the time you'll be meeting each. The pages explain the results of the combinations.

Start by reading the pages with high percent numbers.

The pages also show the paNini rules that work in those situations, but in a first reading you do not need to know the rules.

Sandhi situations are traditionally divided in three groups --

vowel sandhi 55 percent

visarga sandhi 20 percent

consonant sandhi 25 percent

how to study these pages

The other situations appear, together, less than 0.3 percent of the time --

uncommonly used rules

vowel sandhimmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1530

total 55 percent

About half of the Sanskrit words choosen at random from any text end in a vowel. If the next word starts with a consonant, there is no change. Otherwise two vowels come together and strange things can happen. These two situations are called vowel sandhi.

vowel + consonant 45

vowel + vowel 9

visarga sandhimmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1531

" visarga sandhi" are the changes caused by wordfinal s and r.

Roughly one fifth of words chosen at random from any text end in s or r. This s or r will change into something else most of the time. These changes are called " visarga sandhi", because the s or r always changes into visarga before a pause.

(8 percent) When the second word starts with a khar, the s always do the same thing, no matter it it is after a, A or other vowels--

s before khar 8

(6 percent) When the second word starts with a haz, then as, As and other final s do different things --

as + /haz 4

As + /haz 1

other s + /haz 1

(4 percent) When the second word starts with a vowel, then as As and other s do different things too --

as + vowel 2

As + vowel 0.6

other s + vowel 1

consonant sandhimmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1532

About one fourth of words choosen at random end in a consonant that is not s. Of those 25 percent, 18 end in m, 7 end in d or n, and less than one percent end in one D g b G.

No other consonants even appear at the end, see permitted finals .

wordfinal m 18

d + cons 3

n + cons 3

d + vowel 1

n + vowel 1

For D g b G, see uncommonly used rules .

As + vowelmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1539

0.6 percent.

When As is before any vowel the s turns into hiatus.

ajAs + anayam →bhobhago ajAyanayam →lopazzA ajA_anayam "I brought the she-goats"

The s may also turn into y. You won't see that in print, but you will hear it --

ajAs + anayam → ajAyanayam "I brought the she-goats"

Back to visarga sandhi .

other s + vowelmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1541

1 percent

When a words ends in r, or in a s that does not follow a A, this r or s turns into r before all vowels --

gatis + atra →sasaju gatir atra "the way is here"

punar + atra → punar atra "again here"

Back to visarga sandhi .

d + vowelmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1542

0.8 percent

d stays before vowel --

tad + apazyam → tadapazyam "I saw it"

Remember that the words that appear to end in t actually end in d --

apazyat + azvam →jhalAJjazonte apazyad azvam

Back to consonant sandhi .

n + vowelmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1543

0.8 percent

n stays before vowel --

tAn + apazyam → tAnapazyam "I saw them"

But the n doubles if it follows a short --

rAjan + Agaccha →Gamohra rAjannAgaccha "please come here, your majesty"

tasmin + eva → tasminneva "only in that one"

Back to consonant sandhi .

d + consmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1544

3 percent

d changes into

t before k kh t th p ph s S

tad + khadati →kharica tatkhadati "he eats it"

c before c ch

tad + ca →kharica tatca →stozz tacca "that too"

c plus z adds up to cch

tad + zrutvA →kharica tat + zrutva →stozz tac + zrutvA →zazchoTi tacchrutvA "after hearing that"

n before n m

harSAd + nRtyanti →yaronu harSAnnRtyanti "they dance from joy"

l before l

tad + lilekha →torli tallilekha "he wrote it"

and stays d before the other consonants (but d plus h makes ddh, by jhayoho).

Back to consonant sandhi .

n + consmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1545

3 percent

n changes into

Ms Mz MS before t th c ch T Th (by nazchavya)

tAn + tarati → tAMz tarati "he crosses those"

tAn + codayati → tAMz codayati "he motivates them"

J before z (and the z either stays, or becomes ch)

tAn + zobhayati →stozz tAJzobhayati "he decorates them"

tAn + zobhayati tAJchobhayati "he decorates them" (applying zituk and other rules)

nasalized l~ before l

tAn + lopayati →torli tal~lopayati "he erases them"

and stays n before the other consonants

Back to consonant sandhi .

other s + hazmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1546

1.5 percent

When a word ends in an s that does not follow a or A, and the next word starts with a haz, the s becomes r --

kapes + lAGgUlas →sasaju kaper lAGgUlaH "the monkey has a tail"

but if the haz is another r, then the first r disappears --

gaus + ramate → gaur ramate →rori gau ramate "the cow has fun"

and if the vowel before that disappeared r lengthens if it is short --

kapis + ramate → kapir ramate →rori kapi ramate →Dhralope kapI ramate "the monkey has fun"

A very few words such as punar "again" and pitar "hi dad" end in a r that does not come from a wordfinal s. This r works exactly like the above s, making r before haz letters --

pitar + nRtyAmi → pitar nRtyAmi "dad, I'm dancing"

and disappearing before r --

pitar + ramasva → pita ramasva → pitA ramasva "dad, have fun!"

Back to visarga sandhi .

vowel + vowelmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1547

In these four situations two vowels turn into one --

same color vowels

i u R L before different color

a A before different color

wordfinal e o before a

However, sometimes two vowels turn into two --

e o ai au before vowels

Back to vowel sandhi .

same color vowelsmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1548

Two vowels of the same color make a long. The vowels of the same color are --

(1) a and A

atra + adya → atrAdya "today here"

(2) i and I

asti + iti → astIti "there is, unquote"

(3) u and U

teSu + upaviSTeSu → teSUpaviSTeSu "when they were seated"

(4) R, L and RR

hotR + LkAras → hotRRkAraH "the L letter of the hotR (or his R or his RR)"

Back to vowel + vowel .

i u R L before different colormmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1549

The letters i u R L turn into y v r l before all vowels that are not of the same color --

asti + uttarasyAm → astyuttarasyAm "there is in the northern..."

Back to vowel + vowel .

e o ai au before vowelsmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1552

e o ai au turn into ay av Ay Av before all vowels (except wordfinal e o before a ) --

vande + indram →ecoya vandayindram "I praise indra"

dadAmi sarasvatyai + aham →ecoya dadAmi sarasvatyAy aham "I give to sarasvatI"

saha nau + avatu →ecoya saha nAv avatu "may he protect both of us"

according to pANini this v or y optionally becomes hiatus --

vande + indram →ecoya vandayindram →lopazzA vanda_indram "I praise indra"

sarasvatyai + aham → sarasvatyAy aham → sarasvatyA_aham "I to sarasvatI"

saha nau + avatu → saha nAv avatu →lopazzA saha nA_avatu "may he protect both of us"

however, in practice, the v y almost always becomes hiatus, except in the Av case, where the v usually stays. So, vandayindram and nA_avatu are kosher, but never seen in print and seldom heard.

Back to vowel + vowel .

s before kharmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1553

This situation is called " visarga sandhi". It happens about 8% of the time (one fifth of all words end in s, and 40% of all words start with a khar, 0.2 multiplied by 0.4 is 0.08).

Before a khar, a wordfinal s or r changes into --

s before s t th

z before z c ch

S before S T Th

H before k kh p ph ts

Examples --

namas + te → namas te "salutation to you; hello"

namas + zivAya → namazzivAya "salutation to ziva" (spelled namaHzivAya)

punar + zapati → punazzapati "he curses again" (spelled punaHzapati)

(The sounds ss zz SS are spelled Hz HS Hs as if the sound change had not happened.)

In this website I mostly spell namazH zivAya. The blue z letter means a z sound that must be spelled H, or an H letter that must be pronounced as z.

how to study these pagesmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1554

When you read the above pages, keep in mind that no one is going to ask you "please join together the words vipras and hasati" (if anyone asks, cheat and use the inria sandhi gadget , that's what it is for). What you need to learn first is not how to apply the rules, but how to UNAPPLY them. So that you will slowly learn to guess where a word ends and the next begins.

For instance, the page as + !haz tells you that as plus h adds up to oh. But you are not in a hurry to learn to join as and h. You are in a hurry to learn that if you read viprohasati somewhere, that o might be as plus h, so maybe the first word is vipras.

These things cannot be guessed with 100 percent accuracy, yet you must get used to throw guesses anyway. While you are still a bad guesser, do not be ashamed, and just throw the viprohasati thing into the inria reader gadget whenever you want. That gadget almost always guesses right, and will most likely tell you that viprohasati comes from vipraH plus hasati, while athopagataH comes from atha plus upagataH.

If the inria reader gadget shows gray letters, there are words it does not know. Even when it shows no gray letters, it might guess wrong, but it works right at least ninety nine percent of the time.