Gatha | Sentence Translation | Sentence Structure
Vocabulary&Grammar | Commentary | Pronunciation

List of Abbreviations

# dhammaj care sucaritaj na taj duccaritaj care

# dhammacari sukhaj seti asmij loke paramhi ca

# (DhP 169)

Sentence Translation:

Practice the good teaching; don't practice the bad one!
One living in truth dwells happily, both in this world and in the next one.

Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

dhammaj care sucaritaj na taj duccaritaj care
| | | | | | |
N.m. V.act. Adj.m. neg. Pron.m. Adj.m. V.act.
Acc.Sg. 3.Sg.opt. Acc.Sg. | Acc.Sg. Acc.Sg. 3.Sg.opt.
|__________|_______| |_____|______|_______|
|____| |______| |
|______|

List of Abbreviations

dhamma+cari sukhaj seti asmij loke paramhi ca
| | | | | | | |
N.m. Adj.m. Adv. V.act.in. Pron.m. N.m. Adj.m. conj.
| Nom.Sg. | 3.Sg.pres. Loc.Sg. Loc.Sg. Loc.Sg. |
|_________| |_____| |_______|______| |
| | | |________|
| | |_______|
| |______________________|
|________________________|

Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

dhammaj: dhamma-, N.m.: Dharma, The Law, the teaching of the Buddha. Acc.Sg. = dhammaj.

care, V.: should practice. The verb root is car- (to walk). 3.Sg.act.opt. = care.

sucaritaj: sucarita-, Adj.: well-conducted, right, good. It is the word carita-, Adj.: behaving, acting (the p.p. of the verb car-, to walk, to act), with the prefix su- (good, well). Acc.Sg.m. = sucaritaj.

na, neg.: not.

taj: tad-, Pron.: that. Acc.Sg.m. = taj.

duccaritaj: duccarita-, Adj.: wrongly-conducted, wrong, bad. It is the word carita-, Adj.: behaving, acting (the p.p. of the verb car-, to walk, to act), with the prefix du- (wrong, bad).
Acc.Sg.m. = duccaritaj.

care: see above.

List of Abbreviations

dhammacari: dhammacarin-, N.m.: living in truth. It is a compound of:
dhamma-, N.m.: Buddha's Teaching, The Law, truth.
carin-, Adj.: living, acting. Derived by the suffix -in from the verb car- (to walk, to act).
Nom.Sg. = dhammacari.

sukhaj, Adv.: happily. It is the word sukha-, N.n.: happiness. Acc.Sg. = sukhaj. Here as an adverb.

seti, V.: lays, dwells. The verb root is si- (to lay). 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = seti.

asmij: idaj-, Pron.: this. Loc.Sg.m. = asmij.

loke: loka-, N.m.: world. Loc.Sg. = loke.

paramhi: para-, Adj.: different, other. Loc.Sg.m. = paramhi.

ca, conj.: and.

List of Abbreviations

This verse consists of three syntactically separate sentences. They are:
1) dhammaj care sucaritaj (one should practice the good teaching). The subject is omitted, implying the third person singular pronoun. The verb is care (one should practice, 3rd person, singular, active, optative). The object is the noun dhammaj (teaching, accusative singular). It has an attribute, the adjective sucaritaj (good, well-conducted; accusative singular).
2) na taj duccaritaj care (one should not practice that bad one). The subject is omitted, implying the third person singular pronoun. The verb is care (one should practice, 3rd person, singular, active, optative). It is negated by the negative particle na (not). The object is the pronoun taj (that, accusative singular) with its attribute, the adjective duccaritaj (bad, accusative singular).
3) dhammacari sukhaj seti asmij loke paramhi ca (one living in truth dwells happily, both in this world and in the next one). The subject is the compound dhammacari (one living in truth, nominative singular). The verb is seti (dwells, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). It has two attributes. One is the adverb sukhaj (happily), one is the noun loke (in the world, locative singular). This last word has two attributes, the pronoun asmij (in this, locative singular) and the adjective paramhi (in the other, locative singular). They are connected by the conjunction ca (and).

Commentary:

The story for this verse is identical with the story for the preceding one (DhP 168).

Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

dhammaj
care
sucaritaj
na
taj
duccaritaj
dhammacari
dhamma
cari
sukhaj
seti
asmij
loke
paramhi
ca