Hindi's Perso-Arabic vocabulary contains recurring ना- nā- “not, without,” हम- ham- “co-, fellow, sharing,” and -दार -dār “having, holding, associated with.” They remain visible in productive-looking families such as नाकाम, हमउम्र, and ज़िम्मेदार, but they are not universal slots into which any Hindi or English base can be placed. Speakers inherit many formations from the wider Hindi-Urdu lexicon and extend only some patterns in restricted, register-sensitive ways.
ना-: lexical negation and absence
ना- occurs in established words such as नाकाम “unsuccessful,” नापसंद “disliked; dislike,” नाख़ुश “unhappy,” नाक़ाबिल “incapable/unworthy,” and नामुमकिन “impossible.” It is written directly with its base. The whole word may be an adjective or a noun, and its meaning is not always a plain logical “not X.”
पहली कोशिश नाकाम रही, इसलिए टीम ने तरीक़ा बदल दिया।
pahlī kośiś nākām rahī, islie ṭīm ne tarīqā badal diyā.
The first attempt failed, so the team changed its method.
अगर कोई बात नापसंद हो, तो साफ़-साफ़ बताइए।
agar koī bāt nāpasand ho, to sāf-sāf batāie.
If you dislike something, say so clearly.
इतने कम समय में सारा काम पूरा करना लगभग नामुमकिन है।
itne kam samay meṃ sārā kām pūrā karnā lagbhag nāmumkin hai.
Finishing all the work in so little time is almost impossible.
These words are normally invariant when adjectival: नाकाम कोशिश, नाकाम प्रयास, नाकाम कोशिशें. Hindi gender agreement appears elsewhere in the clause—कोशिश नाकाम रही versus प्रयास नाकाम रहा—but नाकाम itself does not change.
नाराज़ “angry/displeased” is historically related to this layer, yet a modern learner should store it as one lexical item; there is no ordinary free adjective राज़ in this contrast from which speakers regularly form it. This is the general lesson: visible history and live word formation are not the same thing.
हम-: a shared relation, identity, or circumstance
Persian हम- builds labels for people or things that share something: हमउम्र “of the same age; peer,” हमनाम “having the same name,” हमवतन “compatriot,” हमसफ़र “traveling companion,” हमदर्द “sympathetic person; sympathizer,” and हमक़दम “companion moving toward the same goal” (literary/formal). Unlike Hindi pronoun हम “we,” the bound element receives no independent stress or case marking.
हम दोनों हमउम्र हैं, लेकिन वह मुझसे एक कक्षा आगे था।
ham donoṃ hamumr haiṃ, lekin vah mujhse ek kakṣā āge thā.
We are the same age, but he was one grade ahead of me.
सूची में मेरा एक हमनाम भी है, इसलिए पहचान-संख्या देख लीजिए।
sūcī meṃ merā ek hamnām bhī hai, islie pahcān-saṅkhyā dekh lījie.
Someone else on the list has the same name as me, so please check the identification number.
लंबे सफ़र में वह केवल हमसफ़र नहीं, अच्छा दोस्त भी बन गया।
lambe safar meṃ vah keval hamsafar nahīṃ, acchā dost bhī ban gayā.
On the long journey he became not only a traveling companion but also a good friend.
The semantic relation differs by base. A हमनाम shares a name; a हमवतन shares a homeland; a हमसफ़र shares a journey. English co- is more institutionally productive—co-author, co-owner, co-chair. Hindi does not automatically translate all of these with हम-. सह- is the common Sanskritic competitor in formal compounds such as सह-लेखक “co-author” and सह-अध्यक्ष “co-chair,” while everyday Hindi may use साथ काम करने वाला.
वह शोध-पत्र की सह-लेखिका हैं और कई सालों से मेरी हमक़दम भी रही हैं।
vah śodh-patra kī sah-lekhikā haiṃ aur kaī sāloṃ se merī hamqadam bhī rahī haiṃ.
She is the paper's co-author and has also been my companion in the cause for many years.
Here सह-लेखिका is an official role (formal/academic), whereas हमक़दम presents an expressive relationship (literary/formal). They cannot be exchanged mechanically.
-दार: possessing, characterized by, or holding a role
-दार is the broadest and most productive-looking of the three. It appears in adjectives of possession or effect—ईमानदार “honest,” ज़िम्मेदार “responsible,” असरदार “effective,” दमदार “powerful/impressive” (informal)—and in person nouns such as दुकानदार “shopkeeper,” किरायेदार “tenant,” हिस्सेदार “stakeholder/partner,” and रिश्तेदार “relative.”
मकान-मालिक और किरायेदार ने नया समझौता कर लिया है।
makān-mālik aur kirāyedār ne nayā samjhautā kar liyā hai.
The landlord and tenant have reached a new agreement.
दुकानदार ने बिल देते समय अपनी ग़लती मान ली।
dukāndār ne bil dete samay apnī ġaltī mān lī.
The shopkeeper acknowledged his mistake while giving the bill.
नई दवा असरदार है, लेकिन हर मरीज़ पर एक जैसा असर नहीं करती।
naī davā asardār hai, lekin har marīz par ek jaisā asar nahīṃ kartī.
The new medicine is effective, but it does not affect every patient in the same way.
A small family makes the semantic range clear: असर “effect” → असरदार “effective,” ज़िम्मेदारी “responsibility” ↔ ज़िम्मेदार “responsible/person responsible,” किराया “rent” → किरायेदार “tenant.” The boundary may coincide with stem adjustment: किराया + दार is conventionally किरायेदार, not a mechanically spelled किरायादार. Learn the attested whole word.
Many -दार adjectives are invariant: ज़िम्मेदार लड़का, ज़िम्मेदार लड़की, ज़िम्मेदार लोग. Person nouns can refer to any gender without changing form: दुकानदार आईं can refer respectfully to a woman shopkeeper. Gender is revealed by agreement and context, not by altering -दार.
नई दुकानदार बहुत मिलनसार हैं; उन्होंने दुकान भी पूरी तरह बदल दी है।
naī dukāndār bahut milansār haiṃ; unhoṃne dukān bhī pūrī tarah badal dī hai.
The new shopkeeper is very friendly; she has completely changed the shop too.
Some outputs have specialized meanings. रिश्तेदार means a relative, not simply anyone “possessing a relationship.” थानेदार is the officer in charge of a police station in the relevant administrative tradition, not any person who happens to be at a station. This lexicalization blocks word-by-word guessing.
Spelling, sound, and morpheme boundaries
The common forms are closed compounds: नाकाम, हमदर्द, ईमानदार. Preserve nukta letters where careful standard spelling has them: नाख़ुश, हमक़दम, ज़िम्मेदार. In less careful digital writing the dots are often omitted, but a grammar reference should not teach that omission as the standard.
Do not insert an English-style hyphen into ordinary lexical items. A hyphen may appear in transparent, editorially managed compounds such as सह-लेखक, but हम-सफ़र and ईमान-दार misrepresent conventional Hindi spelling. Likewise, not every initial हम or final दार is necessarily being assembled online by the speaker; lexical words can preserve an analyzable shape without being freely generated.
Choosing across Hindi's lexical layers
The same broad idea can be expressed through different resources. नाकाम is a common Perso-Arabic adjective, असफल is its highly established Sanskritic counterpart, and फ़ेल is an English loan common for examinations and attempts (informal). They overlap but differ in collocation. A student can परीक्षा में फ़ेल हो; a plan can be नाकाम; an official report may call a mission असफल.
बातचीत में उन्होंने कोशिश को नाकाम कहा, जबकि रिपोर्ट में अभियान को असफल बताया गया।
bātcīt meṃ unhoṃne kośiś ko nākām kahā, jabki riporṭ meṃ abhiyān ko asaphal batāyā gayā.
In conversation they called the attempt unsuccessful, while the report described the campaign as unsuccessful.
Similarly, everyday दुकानदार and productive दुकान वाला can name the same person. दुकानदार is a conventional occupation noun; दुकान वाला can mean the shopkeeper, someone from a particular shop, or “the one with the shop,” depending on context. Sanskritic विक्रेता “seller/vendor” is frequent in legal or commercial writing (formal).
बाज़ार में सब उन्हें दुकानदार कहते हैं, लेकिन लाइसेंस पर ‘विक्रेता’ लिखा है।
bāzār meṃ sab unheṃ dukāndār kahte haiṃ, lekin lāisens par ‘vikretā’ likhā hai.
Everyone in the market calls him a shopkeeper, but the license says ‘vendor.’
This layered choice is one of modern Hindi's central resources. A Perso-Arabic formation is not automatically rare or poetic, and a Sanskritic equivalent is not automatically more correct.
Compare these formations with negative अ-, अन-, and बे-, and see agent nouns with वाला for the agreement of the productive alternative दुकान वाला.
Common Mistakes
❌ योजना ना काम रही।
Incorrect—lexical नाकाम is written as one word; separate ना would be clausal negation in another construction.
✅ योजना नाकाम रही।
yojnā nākām rahī.
The plan failed.
❌ वे मेरी हमउम्री सहकर्मी हैं।
Incorrect—हमउम्र is invariant; do not add feminine -ई.
✅ वे मेरी हमउम्र सहकर्मी हैं।
ve merī hamumr sahkarmī haiṃ.
She is my coworker of the same age.
❌ वह बहुत ज़िम्मेदारा कर्मचारी है।
Incorrect—ज़िम्मेदार does not take masculine -आ agreement.
✅ वह बहुत ज़िम्मेदार कर्मचारी है।
vah bahut zimmedār karmcārī hai.
He is a very responsible employee.
❌ मेरी बहन एक दुकानदारनी है।
Incorrect in ordinary standard Hindi—do not freely add a feminine ending to दुकानदार; agreement can identify the woman.
✅ मेरी बहन एक दुकानदार है।
merī bahan ek dukāndār hai.
My sister is a shopkeeper.
❌ वह मेरा हम-नाम निकला।
Incorrect conventional spelling—हमनाम is normally written together.
✅ वह मेरा हमनाम निकला।
vah merā hamnām niklā.
It turned out that he has the same name as me.
Key Takeaways
- ना- forms lexical negatives, हम- expresses a shared relation, and -दार forms adjectives and social-role nouns.
- Their outputs are commonly invariant, while agreement elsewhere identifies gender and number.
- Closed spelling and established stem shapes matter: learn किरायेदार, हमसफ़र, and नाख़ुश as whole words.
- Perso-Arabic, Sanskritic, inherited, and English alternatives coexist; their register and collocations matter more than a one-word English gloss.
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Start learning Hindi →Related Topics
- Negative prefixes a- an- and be-B1 — Learn how अ-, अन-, and बे- build conventional negative words without confusing lexical negation with sentence negation.
- Agent nouns with -vālāA2 — Build natural Hindi labels for people associated with an object, place, or action by using the agreeing forms वाला, वाली, and वाले.
- Gender of tatsama and Perso-Arabic loansA1 — Learn how Sanskrit tatsama and Perso-Arabic nouns enter Hindi gender, number, case, agreement, and vocative patterns.
- Loan adjectives and invariabilityA2 — Use most Perso-Arabic and English loan adjectives invariantly while recognizing integrated loans that have entered Hindi agreement paradigms.
- Sanskritic versus Urdu versus everyday vocabularyC1 — Choose among Sanskritic, Urdu-associated, and broadly everyday Hindi by domain, collocation, audience, and stance rather than by dictionary equivalence alone.