Pronominal Adjectives

In a sentence, adjectives can be replaced with a special class of pronouns called pronominal adjectives. In Hindi, the principal pronominal adjectives are as follows:

क्या kyaa 'what?'

कैसा kaisaa 'what kind of?'

कितना kitnaa 'how much/ many?'

कौनसा kaunsaa 'which?'

किस का / किसका kis kaa/ kiskaa 'whose?'

ऐसा aisaa 'such, of this kind'

वैसा vaisaa 'such, of that kind'

जैसा jaisaa 'such as'

इतना itnaa 'this much/ many, so'

उतना utnaa 'that much/ many'

जितना jitnaa 'as much/ many'

All these adjectives, except क्या kyaa, belong to the declinable group.

क्या kyaa has special forms for the oblique case. See the table of its inflexion:

	Singular	Plural
Direct	क्या? kyaa?	क्या? kyaa?
Oblique	किस? kis?	किन? kin?

In the plural, a pronominal adjective may be reduplicated in order to emphasize plurality:

Ex: थैले में क्या क्या चीज़ें हैं?

thaile meN kyaa kyaa ciizeN haiN?

'What (literally: 'what what') things are there in the bag?'