कौन kaun asks for a person or people: “who?” क्या kyā asks for a thing, content, category, or activity: “what?” At the beginning of a clause, क्या can also mark a yes–no question without filling an argument role.
Hindi normally leaves interrogatives in the position where the answer would appear. They need not move to the beginning as English who and what do in ordinary discourse. Yes–no marking is expanded on the clause-initial क्या page.
Core paradigm
| Question | Direct | Oblique | को form |
|---|---|---|---|
| person, singular/general | कौन kaun | किस kis | किसे kise / किसको kisko |
| people, selected plural | कौन लोग kaun log | किन kin | किन्हें kinheṃ / किनको kinko |
| thing/content | क्या kyā | किस (before a noun) | क्या / किस चीज़ को |
दरवाज़े पर कौन है?
darvāze par kaun hai?
Who is at the door?
तुम क्या पढ़ रहे हो?
tum kyā paṛh rahe ho?
What are you reading? (familiar, to a man)
आपने कल किससे बात की?
āpne kal kisse bāt kī?
Who did you speak with yesterday? (respectful)
Agreement with कौन
Agreement reflects the expected or revealed referent.
कौन आया है?
kaun āyā hai?
Who has come? (default masculine singular when unknown)
कौन आई हैं?
kaun āī haiṃ?
Who has come? (respectful, asking about a woman)
कौन-कौन आए हैं?
kaun-kaun āe haiṃ?
Who all have come?
Default masculine singular is common when nothing is known. Context can license feminine or plural-honorific agreement. Reduplicated कौन-कौन asks for an enumeration of multiple individuals.
क्या as a content word
मीटिंग में क्या हुआ?
mīṭiṅg meṃ kyā huā?
What happened in the meeting?
आपका नाम क्या है?
āpkā nām kyā hai?
What is your name? (respectful)
क्या can ask identity/classification even when English uses what. For a person, non-honorific यह कौन है? and respectful ये कौन हैं? both ask “who is this person?”; इनका काम क्या है? asks what the respected person's work is.
क्या as a yes–no marker
Clause-initial क्या can mark the whole sentence as yes–no.
क्या आप कल आएँगे?
kyā āp kal āẽge?
Will you come tomorrow? (respectful)
Here क्या is not the object “what.” The answer is yes or no. In आप क्या लाएँगे? “What will you bring?”, क्या is the object and stays near its answer position.
Formal and informal minimal pair
तुम किससे मिलने आए हो?
tum kisse milne āe ho?
Who have you come to meet? (familiar)
आप किससे मिलने आए हैं?
āp kisse milne āe haiṃ?
Who have you come to meet? (respectful, to a man)
The interrogative stays किससे; second-person agreement changes हो to हैं.
A natural dialogue
आपके साथ कौन-कौन आए हैं? — मेरे माता-पिता और मेरी बहन।
āpke sāth kaun-kaun āe haiṃ? — mere mātā-pitā aur merī bahan.
Who all came with you? — My parents and my sister. (respectful)
Common Mistakes
1. Asking a person's identity with क्या
❌ दरवाज़े पर क्या है? — राहुल।
Incorrect for asking which person is there: use कौन.
✅ दरवाज़े पर कौन है? — राहुल।
darvāze par kaun hai? — rāhul.
Who is at the door? — Rahul.
2. Keeping कौन before a postposition
❌ आप कौन से बात कर रहे थे?
Incorrect: before से, कौन becomes किस.
✅ आप किससे बात कर रहे थे?
āp kisse bāt kar rahe the?
Who were you speaking with? (respectful, to a man)
3. Treating आप as singular
❌ क्या आप तैयार है?
Incorrect: आप takes plural हैं.
✅ क्या आप तैयार हैं?
kyā āp taiyār haiṃ?
Are you ready? (respectful or plural)
4. Reading every initial क्या as “what”
❌ क्या तुम घर जाओगे? — मैं किताब जाऊँगा।
Incorrect interpretation: initial क्या asks yes or no here.
✅ क्या तुम घर जाओगे? — हाँ, जाऊँगा।
kyā tum ghar jāoge? — hā̃, jāū̃gā.
Will you go home? — Yes, I will. (familiar, male speaker)
कौन-सा for selection
When the alternatives form a known set, Hindi often uses agreeing कौन-सा/कौन-सी/कौन-से “which.”
आपको कौन-सी तारीख़ ठीक लगेगी?
āpko kaun-sī tārīx ṭhīk lagegī?
Which date would suit you? (respectful)
इनमें कौन-से दस्तावेज़ ज़रूरी हैं?
inmeṃ kaun-se dastāvez zarūrī haiṃ?
Which documents among these are required?
The ending agrees with the following noun. क्या तारीख़ asks more openly “what date,” whereas कौन-सी तारीख़ highlights selection from imaginable options.
Question words also remain in place in embedded questions:
मुझे नहीं पता कि बैठक में कौन आया था।
mujhe nahīṃ patā ki baiṭhak meṃ kaun āyā thā.
I don't know who came to the meeting.
Hindi does not add English-style subject–auxiliary inversion inside the embedded clause.
Questions without an overt pronoun
Hindi often omits a recoverable second-person subject, but agreement still identifies the intended level.
किससे मिलने आए हो?
kisse milne āe ho?
Who have you come to meet? (familiar)
किससे मिलने आए हैं?
kisse milne āe haiṃ?
Who have you come to meet? (respectful, to a man)
The omitted तुम/आप remains grammatically active through हो/हैं. Question-word choice cannot replace this agreement evidence, and the respectful sentence must not be analyzed as singular merely because English you is number-neutral in context.
Key Takeaways
- कौन asks for people; क्या asks for things or content.
- Before postpositions, कौन uses किस or plural किन.
- Initial क्या may mark a yes–no question rather than mean “what.”
- Agreement with कौन follows the expected referent and honorific level.
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- क्यों and किसलिएA2 — Distinguish the broad reason question क्यों from the purpose-focused किसलिए and use both with natural Hindi word order and appropriate politeness.
- Yes-no questions with clause-initial क्याA1 — Form neutral and biased yes–no questions with initial क्या while preserving ordinary Hindi word order, agreement, and interrogative intonation.
- Yes-no questions by intonation aloneA1 — Ask neutral, polite, and echo yes-no questions with ordinary Hindi word order and questioning intonation, without an overt question word.
- Pronouns with कोA2 — Use the conventional को-series मुझे, तुझे, तुम्हें, आपको, इसे, उसे, इन्हें, and उन्हें for objects, recipients, and experiencers.