For a singular or number-unspecified referent, Hindi जो changes to the oblique stem जिस- when it combines with ने, को, से, or another postposition. Its usual correlative partner is built from उस-: जिसने–उसने, जिसको–उसको, जिससे–उससे. Explicit plural or honorific reference instead uses जिन- and उन- forms. The essential rule, however, is not “make both sides look alike.” Each form receives the case required by its own clause.
That local-case principle is the major difference from English. English who may become whom, but the relative pronoun appears in only one clause. Hindi can overtly mark the same referent twice, and each occurrence can have a different syntactic role.
The जिस- and उस- forms
| Role | Relative form | Correlative form |
|---|---|---|
| unmarked subject | जो | वह / वो |
| perfective transitive agent | जिसने | उसने |
| human object / recipient | जिसको / जिसे | उसको / उसे |
| source, means, companion | जिससे | उससे |
| location | जिसमें / जिस पर | उसमें / उस पर |
| beneficiary | जिसके लिए | उसके लिए |
| plural/honorific perfective agent | जिन्होंने | उन्होंने |
| plural/honorific object or recipient | जिन्हें / जिनको | उन्हें / उनको |
| plural/honorific source, means, companion | जिनसे | उनसे |
| plural/honorific location | जिनमें / जिन पर | उनमें / उन पर |
| plural/honorific beneficiary | जिनके लिए | उनके लिए |
जिसको and जिसे are ordinary alternatives, as are उसको and उसे. The shorter forms are extremely common in both speech and writing; the longer forms can make contrast or parallelism more audible.
Plural जिनको / जिन्हें and उनको / उन्हें show the same alternation. The plural series can also refer respectfully to one person when the surrounding agreement and context support an honorific reading.
If the shape of a noun before a postposition is unfamiliar, review postpositions and oblique complements; the same oblique logic underlies जिस- and उस-.
जिसने खिड़की खोली थी, उसने जाते समय उसे बंद भी किया।
jisne khiṛkī kholī thī, usne jāte samay use band bhī kiyā.
The person who opened the window also closed it when leaving.
जिसको तुम ढूँढ़ रहे हो, वह आज छुट्टी पर है।
jisko tum ḍhū̃ṛh rahe ho, vah āj chuṭṭī par hai.
The person you are looking for is on leave today.
जिन्होंने आवेदन भेजे हैं, उन्हें कल साक्षात्कार के लिए बुलाया जाएगा।
jinhoṃne āvedan bheje haiṃ, unheṃ kal sākṣātkār ke lie bulāyā jāegā.
Those who submitted applications will be called for an interview tomorrow.
The first sentence happens to use ने on both sides because the person is agent of two perfective transitive actions. The second does not repeat को: the person is the object of ढूँढ़ना in the relative clause but the unmarked subject of है in the main clause.
ने marks a local perfective agent
Use जिसने when the relative referent is the agent of a perfective transitive verb. It is not a general marker meaning “who.”
जिसने ये तस्वीरें खींची हैं, उससे मेरा परिचय करा दो।
jisne ye tasvīreṃ khī̃cī haiṃ, usse merā paricay karā do.
Introduce me to the person who took these photographs.
जिसने is licensed by तस्वीरें खींची हैं. The main verb परिचय करा दो treats the person as someone to whom the introduction is made, so उससे is natural. The feminine plural object तस्वीरें controls खींची हैं; the gender of the photographer is irrelevant to that agreement.
When the relative verb is habitual, progressive, intransitive, or nonperfective, an unmarked जो may be required instead:
जो रोज़ सबसे पहले आता है, वही दुकान खोलता है।
jo roz sabse pahle ātā hai, vahī dukān kholtā hai.
The person who arrives first every day is the one who opens the shop.
Here आता है is habitual and आना is intransitive, so जिसने would not be licensed.
को marks an animate object or recipient
Use जिसको / जिसे when the relative referent is a definite animate object, experiencer, or recipient:
जिसे तुमने निमंत्रण भेजा था, वह शाम को आएगी।
jise tumne nimantraṇ bhejā thā, vah śām ko āegī.
The woman you sent the invitation to will come this evening.
जिसको यह कमरा पसंद आया, उसको ऊपर वाला कमरा भी दिखा दीजिए।
jisko yah kamrā pasand āyā, usko ūpar vālā kamrā bhī dikhā dījie.
Please also show the upstairs room to whoever liked this room.
In the first sentence, the same referent is marked by को only inside the relative clause and is an unmarked main-clause subject. In the second, को is independently licensed on both sides: an experiencer with पसंद आना, then a recipient with दिखाना.
Do not use को merely because English has whom. Hindi differential object marking depends on animacy, definiteness, and the selecting predicate, not on an English case label.
से can express several relations
जिससे can mean “with whom,” “from which,” “by means of which,” or “than which,” because those are ordinary functions of से:
जिससे तुमने कल बात की थी, उसने आज मुझे फ़ोन किया।
jisse tumne kal bāt kī thī, usne āj mujhe fon kiyā.
The person you spoke with yesterday phoned me today.
जिस बस से हम आए थे, उसी से वापस चलेंगे।
jis bas se ham āe the, usī se vāpas caleṅge.
We will return on the same bus that we came on.
The second uses उसी से, with emphatic ही attached inside the inflected correlative: “by that very one.” The meaning of से changes with the predicate and noun, while the relative architecture remains stable.
Compound postpositions keep के
With compound postpositions, use the possessive-looking linker के after जिस- / उस-:
जिसके लिए यह दवा मँगाई थी, उसके लिए डॉक्टर ने नई पर्ची लिख दी है।
jiske lie yah davā maṅgāī thī, uske lie ḍokṭar ne naī parcī likh dī hai.
The doctor has written a new prescription for the person for whom this medicine was ordered.
जिसके बारे में तुम पूछ रहे थे, वह ख़बर झूठी निकली।
jiske bāre meṃ tum pūch rahe the, vah xabar jhūṭhī niklī.
The news you were asking about turned out to be false.
In the second, जिसके बारे में modifies ख़बर, while the main-clause referent is unmarked वह ख़बर. Hindi does not strand बारे में at the end in imitation of English “the news which you were asking about.”
Clause order and resumptive clarity
The correlative clause can precede the relative clause when the discourse starts with an accessible referent:
उससे मेरी बात हो गई जिसे तुमने कल संदेश भेजा था।
usse merī bāt ho gaī jise tumne kal sandeś bhejā thā.
I managed to speak with the person you messaged yesterday.
This order is grammatical, though the relative-first version is often easier to process in isolation: जिसे तुमने कल संदेश भेजा था, उससे मेरी बात हो गई। In long sentences, speakers may repeat a noun instead of using bare उस-:
जिस संस्था ने यह सर्वेक्षण कराया था, उस संस्था से हमने मूल आँकड़े माँगे हैं।
jis sansthā ne yah sarvekṣaṇ karāyā thā, us sansthā se hamne mūl ā̃kaṛe mā̃ge haiṃ.
We have requested the original data from the organization that commissioned this survey. (formal)
The repetition is not clumsy in formal Hindi; it protects the reference across a dense clause.
The wider correlative system
Case-marked जिस-–उस- belongs to a larger productive family, not a special “who/whom” rule. Compare person or thing जो–वह, place जहाँ–वहाँ, time जब–तब, quality जैसा–वैसा, and degree जितना–उतना.
जो मेहनत करेगा, वो आगे बढ़ेगा; जैसा काम करेगा, वैसा फल पाएगा।
jo mehnat karegā, vo āge baṛhegā; jaisā kām karegā, vaisā phal pāegā.
Whoever works hard will move ahead; as one works, so will one receive the result. (proverb-like, informal)
Common Mistakes
❌ जिसने तुम बात कर रहे थे, वह मेरे शिक्षक हैं।
Incorrect — बात करना selects से for the conversation partner, so use जिससे.
✅ जिससे तुम बात कर रहे थे, वह मेरे शिक्षक हैं।
jisse tum bāt kar rahe the, vah mere śikṣak haiṃ.
The person you were speaking with is my teacher. (honorific)
❌ जिसको तुमने बुलाया था, उसको अभी बाहर खड़ा है।
Incorrect — the person is the unmarked subject of खड़ा है in the main clause, so उसको is not licensed there.
✅ जिसको तुमने बुलाया था, वह अभी बाहर खड़ा है।
jisko tumne bulāyā thā, vah abhī bāhar khaṛā hai.
The man you called is standing outside now.
❌ जो कि मुझे रास्ता दिखाया, उससे मैं फिर मिला।
Incorrect — कि does not replace the ergative marker required with the perfective transitive verb दिखाया.
✅ जिसने मुझे रास्ता दिखाया, उससे मैं फिर मिला।
jisne mujhe rāstā dikhāyā, usse maĩ phir milā.
I met again with the person who showed me the way. (male speaker)
❌ जिस आदमी ने मेरी मदद की, वह फ़ोन किया।
Incorrect — the main-clause agent of perfective transitive फ़ोन किया requires ergative उसने, not unmarked वह.
✅ जिस आदमी ने मेरी मदद की, उसने फ़ोन किया।
jis ādmī ne merī madad kī, usne fon kiyā.
The man who helped me phoned.
Key Takeaways
Use singular or number-unspecified जिस- and plural/honorific जिन- before case markers and postpositions, choosing the exact form from the relative clause alone. Then independently choose वह / उस- or plural/honorific वे / उन- from the main clause. जिसने / जिन्होंने are perfective-agent forms, not universal “who”; जिसको / जिसे and जिनको / जिन्हें mark roles that take को; and जिससे / जिनसे carry the ordinary meanings of से. This local-case logic lets Hindi connect the same referent across two clauses without erasing either clause’s grammar.
Related Topics
- जो–वह relative-correlative overviewA2 — Build Hindi relative-correlative sentences by pairing जो with वह/वो and matching each pronoun's case to its role in its own clause.
- जो–वो in conversational HindiA2 — Use the everyday जो–वो pairing to identify people and things while keeping each pronoun's case tied to its own clause.
- जिसका–उसका possessive relativesB1 — Connect owners across clauses with जिसका–उसका while making each possessive ending agree with the noun possessed in its own phrase.
- जो without an overt correlativeB1 — Recognize when Hindi can leave वह or उस- unspoken after a जो-clause, and distinguish recoverable omission from free-relative meaning.
- Postpositions and oblique complementsA1 — Build Hindi relational phrases by placing a postposition after an oblique noun or special pronoun form instead of translating English prepositions word for word.