The adverbs यूँ and यों express manner.
They can be translated into English as “in this manner”, “in such a manner”, “in this way”, etc.
उसने मुझे यों देखा कि मुझे उससे डर लगा – “He looked at me in such a way that I became scared of him!”
These adverbs are somewhat emphatic.
They are used in a variety of idioms also.
The idiom यूँ + ही means “for no particular reason”:
मैं यूँ ही दुकान को चला गया – “I just went to the store for no reason really”
The adverb ऐसे is also used with ही to express “just like that”, “for no particular reason”, etc: बच्चा ऐसे ही रो रहा था – “The child was crying for no reason”.
यूँ ही can also express “simply”, “effortlessly”, “easily”, etc:
उसने बहुत भारी डिब्बा यूँ ही उठा लिया – “He lifted a very heavy case easily”
5 replies on “यूँ”
1. It might be a good idea to mention ऐसे (adverbial) here, यूँ functions as short. colloquial form of this pronoun.
2.यूँ ही / ऐसे ही can also be used to express ‘without much effort’ : वह ५० किलो भार तो यूँ ही उठा लेता है ।
भवदीय
विधु
Thanks for the suggestion! I will add another example sentence, and I will mention ऐसे.
Hi David,
Do the following: यों, यूँ, ऐसे ही, यूँ ही have to be placed at any specific point in a sentence for the sentence to be grammatically correct?
Yes; I’d have to think about it to prescribe any rules, but adverbs in general have certain orders; for instance, they precede the verb they modify, etc. – “उसने यूँ ही किया”, etc.
In the example sentence “मैं यूँ ही दुकान को चला गया,” why is “ko” used? I thought that “ko” is not used when talking about destination of movement.