इस सतह पर पानी है।

A very literal breakdown is:

• इस = this
• सतह = surface
• पर = on
• पानी = water
• है = is

So the literal order is:

this surface on water is

That sounds unnatural in English, but it matches normal Hindi structure.

Because इस is the oblique form of यह.

In Hindi, when a noun phrase is followed by a postposition such as पर, में, से, को, the demonstrative usually changes to its oblique form:

• यह सतह = this surface
• इस सतह पर = on this surface

So पर is the reason you get इस, not यह.

A similar pattern happens with:

• वह → उस
• ये → इन
• वे → उन

Because Hindi uses postpositions, not prepositions.

English:

• on the surface

Hindi:

• surface on = सतह पर

So पर works like English on, but it comes after the noun phrase.

This is one of the most important word-order differences between English and Hindi.

Both are possible, but they sound slightly different in focus.

• इस सतह पर पानी है = There is water on this surface / On this surface, there is water
• पानी is this surface on is? No. Correctly: पानी इस सतह पर है = The water is on this surface

The version with the location first, इस सतह पर, is very natural for an existence/location statement. It introduces the place first and then says what is there.

So this sentence pattern is common:

[place] + [thing] + है

Examples:

• मेज़ पर किताब है। = There is a book on the table.
• कमरे में लोग हैं। = There are people in the room.

Because पानी is treated as a singular mass noun.

Even though water is not a single countable object, Hindi usually treats पानी grammatically like a singular noun, so you use है, not हैं.

Compare:

• इस सतह पर पानी है। = There is water on this surface.
• इस सतह पर बूँदें हैं। = There are drops on this surface.

Here बूँदें is plural, so the verb becomes हैं.

Yes, सतह is generally feminine.

In this particular sentence, you do not see much visible effect from that, because:

• है does not show gender here
• इस does not show a masculine/feminine difference in this form
• सतह itself does not visibly change here

So even though the noun has gender, this sentence does not strongly display it.

You would notice gender more clearly in other contexts, especially with agreeing adjectives or participles.

Hindi does not have articles like English a, an, and the.

Instead, Hindi usually shows definiteness through:

• context
• word order
• demonstratives such as यह, वह, इस, उस

In this sentence, इस already makes the noun specific: this surface.

So Hindi does not need a separate word for the.

Yes. पे is a very common spoken variant of पर.

So these both work:

• इस सतह पर पानी है।
• इस सतह पे पानी है।

The difference is mainly style:

• पर = more standard, careful, neutral
• पे = very common in everyday speech

Learners should recognize both.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

is satah par paani hai

Roughly:

• इस = is
• सतह = suh-tuh or sə-təh
• पर = par or lightly pər
• पानी = paa-nee
• है = hai

So the whole sentence sounds approximately like:

is suh-tuh par paa-nee hai

If you are just starting, saying it slowly in chunks helps:

इस सतह पर / पानी है

That symbol is called the danda.

It is used in Devanagari as a sentence-ending mark, similar to a period in English.

So:

• इस सतह पर पानी है।

means the same as writing a full stop at the end of the sentence.