A2 · Small words with a big job
The one who, the one with: -वाला
the suffix -वाला
-वाला after a noun, an adjective or an infinitive makes a describing word: सब्ज़ीवाला, लाल वाली, जाने वाला.
At a glance
- Remember
- Vala means "the one": it agrees like an adjective, and after a verb it takes the -ne form.
- Form
- सब्ज़ीवाला, दूधवाला, टैक्सीवालाa noun + वाला
- Signal words
- -वाला
- -वाली
- -वाले
- -ने वाला
- Trap
- Wrong:मुझे लाल वाला साड़ी दिखाइए।Right:मुझे लाल वाली साड़ी दिखाइए।
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
| a noun + वाला | सब्ज़ीवाला, दूधवाला, टैक्सीवाला |
| a noun in -ा: oblique first | केलेवाला |
| a place of origin | दिल्लीवाले, मुंबईवाली |
| the … one | बड़ा वाला, लाल वाली |
| place and time | ऊपर वाला कमरा, कल वाली बात |
| the one who does | हिंदी बोलने वाले लोग |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
After a noun, -वाला names a person by trade or origin.
सब्ज़ीवाला रोज़ सुबह आता है।The vegetable seller comes every morning.
It agrees with its noun like an adjective.
मुझे नीली वाली क़मीज़ पसंद है।I like the blue shirt.
After an adjective it means “the … one”.
बड़ा वाला दीजिए, छोटा नहीं।Give me the big one, not the small one.
After an oblique infinitive it means “the one who does”.
यहाँ हिंदी बोलने वाले लोग बहुत हैं।There are a lot of Hindi speakers here.
Example sentences
हमारे पड़ोसी मुंबईवाले हैं।Our neighbours are from Mumbai.
चायवाला स्टेशन पर चाय बेचता है।The tea seller sells tea at the station.
ऊपर वाले कमरे में कौन रहता है?Who lives in the room upstairs?
कल वाली बात भूल जाइए।Forget about yesterday’s business.
दिल्ली जाने वाली ट्रेन कहाँ से जाती है?Where does the train to Delhi leave from?
मुझे सस्ता वाला फ़ोन चाहिए।I want the cheap phone.
7 more example sentences
दूधवाला आज नहीं आया।The milkman didn’t come today.
नीचे वाली दुकान में सब कुछ मिलता है।You can get everything in the shop downstairs.
घरवाले मेरा इंतज़ार कर रहे हैं।My family are waiting for me.
यह किताब हिंदी सीखने वालों के लिए है।This book is for people learning Hindi.
केलेवाले से दो दर्जन केले लीजिए।Get two dozen bananas from the banana seller.
मुझे दूधवाली चाय पसंद है।I like tea with milk.
पीछे वाली सीट पर बैठिए।Please sit in the back seat.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
-वाला agrees with the noun it describes. साड़ी is feminine, so it is लाल वाली; लाल itself never changes.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
-वाला attaches to almost anything and means “the one connected with it”. After a noun it often names a person by their trade or origin: सब्ज़ीवाला, “the vegetable seller”; दूधवाला, “the milkman”; दिल्लीवाले, “people from Delhi”. A masculine noun in -ा goes into the oblique first: केला → केलेवाला, “the banana seller”.
It agrees like an adjective in -ा: वाला, वाली, वाले. सब्ज़ीवाली is a woman selling vegetables; लाल वाली साड़ी is “the red sari”, because साड़ी is feminine.
After an adjective or a word of place or time it picks one thing out from others: बड़ा वाला, “the big one”; ऊपर वाला कमरा, “the room upstairs”; कल वाली बात, “yesterday’s business”. English “the … one” is exactly this.
After an oblique infinitive it means “the one who does”: हिंदी बोलने वाले, “Hindi speakers”; दिल्ली जाने वाली ट्रेन, “the train to Delhi”. With है or था it also means “about to”, which has a topic of its own: ट्रेन जाने वाली है. This course joins -वाला to a noun (सब्ज़ीवाला) and writes it apart after an adjective, an adverb or an infinitive (लाल वाली, बोलने वाले); both spellings are found in print.
A closer look
Seller, owner, or simply “of”
A noun with -वाला can be the person who sells it (फलवाला), who drives or runs it (टैक्सीवाला), who belongs to it (घरवाले, “the family”, literally “the house people”) or who comes from it (गाँववाले, “the villagers”). Context decides.
On things it works the same way: दूधवाली चाय, “tea with milk”.
About to: -ने वाला है
With a form of होना after it, the infinitive with वाला says that something is about to happen: बारिश होने वाली है, “it is about to rain”; मैं निकलने ही वाला था, “I was just about to leave”. That use is covered with the future.
Worth knowing (2)
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The oblique वाले
Before a postposition, वाला takes its oblique form like any adjective in -ा: सब्ज़ीवाले से, “from the vegetable seller”; ऊपर वाले कमरे में. In the plural before a postposition it is वालों: गाँववालों के लिए.
मैंने टैक्सीवाले को पैसे दे दिए।I paid the taxi driver.
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Standing alone
Without its noun, the -वाला word stands for the whole thing, as English “the red one” does: लाल वाली दिखाइए, “show me the red one”, when everyone knows it is a sari.
यह नहीं, वह वाला दीजिए।Not this one — give me that one.
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