LESSON 30
8th Class: -ओ/-उ (तन् तनोति)

The strong/weak suffixes for the 8th Class are -ओ/-उ (e.g., तन् तनोति, तन्वन्ति). As Deshpande notes, this class in general is identical with the 5th class but is even simpler. Since consonant-final roots won’t lead to hard-to-pronounce consonant clusters, you needn’t worry about extending [C]न्व् into [C]नुव् as in the 5th class (e.g., √आप् आप्नुवन्ति). So, we only have two rules here:

• -उ opt. lost // म्- or व्- (e.g., तनु+मः = तनुमः / तन्मः “we extend”)
• 2nd sg. impv. -हि is lost (e.g., तनु+हि = तनु “extend!”)

Here the root to spend time on is the all-important √कृ, “to do, make.” While its strong stem is regular (करो), its weak stem is not (कुरु). Note that not only is the dropping of उ // म्- and व्- mandatory here (कुर्वः, कुर्मः), but also that -उ is lost in the weak before the optative या-suffix: कुर्यात् कुर्याताम् कुर्युः, etc. (not *कुरुयात्)

Test Yourself

As with the 5th Class, without looking at the paradigms in Deshpande, take a few roots—e.g., तन् and कृ—and add the endings in the 2nd row of the handout below to derive the paradigms yourself. (Remember that all athematic classes, with a few minor exceptions as in the 3rd class, take the same set of endings.) Be sure to use strong stems (तनो / करो) in the boxed conjugations, and weak (तनु / कुरु) in the rest, and to apply the 2 rules listed above. Check the paradigm in the book if you get stuck and to correct the paradigms you come up with. By the end—in a matter of minutes—you’ll also feel confident with the 8th class.

Macdonell’s treatment of 8th Class roots:

The 10 Verb Classes

Present System Verb Classes
Pres. Stem	-अ (Thematic)				Non-अ (Athematic)
Class	1 भू	10 चुर्	4 दिव्	6 तुद्	2 अद्	3 हु	5 सु	8 तन्	7 रुध्	9 क्री
Root	→ guṇa	→ heavy	as is		guṇated in strong		as is (+ strong/weak affixes)
Affix	अ	अय	य	अ	-	redup	नो/नु	ओ/उ	न/न्	ना/नी
Place	suffix				-	prefix	suffix		infix	suffix
Ex.	भू भवति	चुर् चोरयति	नृत् नृत्यति	तुद् तुदति	इ एति	हु जुहोति	सु सुनोति	तन् तनोति	रुध् रुणद्धि	क्री क्रीणाति

• 1 and 10: strengthened thematic classes
  
• 4 and 6: unstrengthened thematic classes
  
• 2 and 3: athematic, with guṇated strong stem
• 5 and 8: athematic, with guṇa in strong affix (नो/नु and ओ/उ)
• 7 and 9: athematic, with similar strong/weak affixes (न/न् and ना/नी)

These verb classes get their number (1st Class, 2nd Class, etc.) simply from the order in which they are listed in traditional grammars. For our purposes, it will be much more intuitive to always think of these classes in terms of the related pairs: 1/10, 4/6, 2/3, 5/8, 7/9.