The suffix वाला has many uses in Hindi. It is therefore a very common suffix. It inflects like adjectives – its forms are वाला / वाली / वाले / वालों (oblique plural).

Qualifier

वाला may serve as a simple qualifier. It can be used with many parts of speech.

With Adjectives

वाला can be used with adjectives.

लाल वाला – “the red one”

बड़ा वाला – “the big one”

कौनसा वाला – “which one?”

ऊपर वाला – “The One Above” (i.e., God)

Example:

“तुम्हें कौनसा जूता सबसे अच्छा लगता है”? (Which shoe do you like the best?)

“मुझे नीली वाला सबसे अच्छा लगता है” (I like the blue one the best)

With Nouns

शादी वाला खाना बहुत अच्छा है – “Wedding food is very nice”

In the previous example, वाला was used to treat a noun like an adjective.

Agentive Suffix

वाला can be used as an agentive suffix with nouns and other parts of speech.

ऑटो वाला – “The auto (rickshaw) driver”

चाय वाला – “The chai server”

काम करने वाले – “The workers”

Participle Suffix

वाला is the suffix used with future participles, passive participles, and habitual participles. The suffix may be attached or detached, as in जानेवाला or जाने वाला.

Future Participle

The future participle is formed as follows:

[masculine singular oblique form of an infinitive] [inflected form of वाला]

For instance, जानेवाले

दिल्ली जानेवाले लोग यहाँ खड़े हुए हैं – “The people who are going to go to Delhi are standing over there”

The future participle may indicate a future action, or an imminent action (i.e., something that is about to happen).

For more information, refer to the article about future participles.

Habitual Participle

The habitual participle is identical in form to the future participle, yet indicates a habitual action in context:

रोनेवाला बच्चा – “The crying baby”

For more information, refer to the article about habitual participles.

Passive Participle

The passive participle is formed as follows:

[perfect participle of main verb] [masculine singular oblique of जाना = जाने] [inflected from of वाला]

For instance, बोली जानेवाली – “spoken”.

हिंदी भारत की सबसे अधिक बोली जानेवाली भाषा है – “Hindi is India’s most widely spoken language”.

See the article about passive participles for more information.

Verb Form

A future participle formed with वाला can be used with a form of होना to create a periphrastic future tense verb form. Just like the future participle, it can indicate a future action or an imminent action.

मैं दुकान को जानेवाला हूँ – “I’m going to go to the shop”

It can also be used with a past tense form of होना to indicate a future action from the perspective of the past:

मैं दुकान को जानेवाला था – “I was going to go to the shop”

This can be used to indicate something that was intended.