पानी ठंडा है।

The water is cold.

Breakdown of पानी ठंडा है।

• होना: to be
• पानी: water
• ठंडा: cold

Questions & Answers about पानी ठंडा है।

How do you pronounce पानी ठंडा है?

A common transliteration is pānī ṭhaṇḍā hai.

A rough English-friendly guide is paa-nee thun-daa hai, but a few sounds are not exactly English:

• ठ is a retroflex, strongly aspirated ṭh, not the th of thin or this
• ड is a retroflex ḍ
• है is written hai, though in natural speech it is often pronounced closer to heh than English high

So the whole sentence is roughly paa-nee thun-daa heh/hai.

What is each word doing in the sentence?

• पानी = water
• ठंडा = cold
• है = is

So the literal order is water cold is.

Grammatically:

• पानी is the subject
• ठंडा is a predicate adjective describing the subject
• है is the present-tense form of to be

Why is the word order पानी ठंडा है instead of an English-like order?

Hindi usually puts the main verb at the end of the clause. That is why है comes last.

With a sentence like this, the pattern is:

subject + adjective/complement + है

So:

• पानी ठंडा है = The water is cold

This is very normal Hindi word order.

Why is it ठंडा and not ठंडी?

Because ठंडा agrees with the gender and number of पानी.

In Hindi, many adjectives change form:

• masculine singular: ठंडा
• feminine singular: ठंडी
• masculine plural: ठंडे

Since पानी is masculine singular, the correct form here is ठंडा.

Compare:

• पानी ठंडा है। = The water is cold.
• चाय ठंडी है। = The tea is cold.

But पानी ends in -ी. Doesn’t that usually mean a noun is feminine?

It often does, but not always.

Hindi noun endings give useful clues, but they are not perfect rules. पानी is a very common exception: it ends in -ी but is masculine.

So this is something learners simply have to memorize:

• पानी = masculine
• therefore ठंडा

What exactly does है mean here?

है is the singular present-tense form of the verb होना, which means to be.

In this sentence, it works like English is:

• पानी ठंडा है = water is cold

You will see related forms too:

• हूँ = am
• हो = are
• है = is
• हैं = are

For example:

• मैं ठंडा नहीं हूँ would be grammatically odd in meaning, but it shows हूँ
• वे ठंडे हैं = They are cold

Can I leave out है?

In a full, standard sentence, you normally keep है.

So the normal form is:

• पानी ठंडा है।

If you say only पानी ठंडा, it can sound incomplete, though in very casual speech, headlines, notes, or certain conversational contexts, Hindi sometimes drops the copula.

For a learner, the safest rule is:

• in normal present-tense sentences like this, use है

Why is there no word for the in the Hindi sentence?

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

So पानी ठंडा है can mean:

• The water is cold
• Water is cold
• sometimes even This water is cold, depending on context

If Hindi needs to be more specific, it can use words like:

• यह = this
• वह = that

For example:

• यह पानी ठंडा है। = This water is cold.

How would I say cold water instead of the water is cold?

You would say:

ठंडा पानी

This is because Hindi uses different structures for:

• attributive adjective: adjective directly before the noun
  
  • ठंडा पानी = cold water
• predicate adjective: noun first, then adjective, then है
  
  • पानी ठंडा है = the water is cold

So:

• ठंडा पानी = cold water
• पानी ठंडा है = the water is cold

How do I make this sentence negative?

Add नहीं before है:

पानी ठंडा नहीं है।

This means:

• The water is not cold.

A very common pattern in Hindi is:

subject + complement + नहीं + है

How do I turn this into a question?

For a yes/no question, the most common way is to add क्या at the beginning:

क्या पानी ठंडा है?
= Is the water cold?

In conversation, Hindi can also sometimes use just intonation:

• पानी ठंडा है?

But for learners, क्या + sentence is the clearest pattern.

What punctuation mark is used at the end?

The traditional Hindi sentence-ending mark is ।, called the danda.

So the sentence is written:

• पानी ठंडा है।

In modern informal writing, especially online, many people also use a regular period:

• पानी ठंडा है.

But । is the standard traditional mark in Devanagari.