Chapter Overview

Chhattisgarhi (छत्तीसगढ़ी) is tested twice in the CGPSC State Service Exam. Prelims Paper II (CSAT) includes “knowledge of Chhattisgarhi language”, and those questions are set in Chhattisgarhi only, without a translation. Mains Paper I (Language) has a separate Chhattisgarhi part, usually described as 50 marks, with grammar, word correction and translation between Hindi and Chhattisgarhi.

This chapter is the working-skills half of the subject: the words, rules and translation habits you need to read and write the language under time pressure. The GK half (language family, the 2007 Official Language Act, the Rajbhasha Aayog, the first grammar, writers) lives in the Chhattisgarh section: read Chhattisgarhi Language and Grammar Basics alongside this chapter. Every grammar form here is kept consistent with that page.

Which Chhattisgarhi?

Chhattisgarhi changes from district to district: the north (Surguja), the Odisha border and the central plains differ in words and verb endings, and writers spell the same word in different ways (मैं / मँय, म / मा). This chapter uses the central-plains forms (Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur) that most textbooks and exam papers follow. If you grew up with a different form, it is not “wrong”; just recognise the standard one in an MCQ.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this chapter, you’ll be able to:

Recognise more than 100 high-frequency Chhattisgarhi words and their Hindi equivalents
Convert tatsam (तत्सम) words into their Chhattisgarhi tadbhav (तद्भव) forms using four sound rules
Use the pronoun set, the plural marker -मन and the case markers ला, ले, के, म, बर correctly
Conjugate a verb in the present, continuous, past and future, and form negatives and prohibitions
Translate sentences and short passages from Hindi into Chhattisgarhi and back, without the classic errors

Prerequisites

Before starting this chapter, you should be comfortable with:

Reading Devanagari and basic Hindi grammar terms: संज्ञा, सर्वनाम, क्रिया, कारक, काल (Hindi Language (Class X level))
The background facts in Chhattisgarhi Language and Grammar Basics

Learning Path

Follow these topics in order — each builds on the one before:

graph TD
    A[Language GK: family, status, first grammar] --> B[1. Vocabulary]
    B --> C[2. Grammar]
    C --> D[3. Translation]
    D --> E[Quick Revision sheet]
    E --> F[Idioms and proverbs - hana]
    B -.-> D

Topics in This Chapter

Topic	Description	Time
Vocabulary	Family, body, food, village, time and place words; greetings; tatsam-tadbhav sound rules; word-building suffixes	15 min
Grammar	Gender and number, pronouns, the eight cases, verb tenses, negation, participles and postpositions	15 min
Translation	A six-step Hindi-to-Chhattisgarhi method, the reverse method, a 20-sentence bank and two worked passages	15 min
Quick Revision	All tables and rules from the chapter on one page	5 min

Where It Is Asked

Paper	How Chhattisgarhi appears
Prelims Paper II (CSAT)	Objective questions on “knowledge of Chhattisgarhi language”, printed in Chhattisgarhi without translation: word meanings, correct forms, grammar and sentence sense. 100 questions in the paper, 200 marks, 2 hours.
Mains Paper I (Language)	Part 3 of the 200-mark language paper (Part 1 General Hindi, Part 2 General English). Commonly listed topics: history and development of the language, literature and writers, grammar (gender, number, tense, prefixes, suffixes, sandhi), word correction (tatsam, tadbhav, deshaj, foreign words), proverbs, and translation from Hindi to Chhattisgarhi and Chhattisgarhi to Hindi.

Paper II is qualifying, but these are easy marks

Prelims Paper II marks are not added to your merit, but you must cross the qualifying mark (commonly cited as 33%; check the current notification). Wrong answers cost one-third of the question’s marks. For a candidate from Chhattisgarh, language questions are among the fastest in the paper, because the answer is either known or not; there is nothing to calculate. Do them first.

The language also connects to the GK and essay papers: Idioms and Proverbs (Muhavare and Hana), Riddles of Chhattisgarh (Janaula), Festivals, Fairs and Special Traditions and Social Aspects of Chhattisgarh.

Quick Reference

Core grammar in one table

Feature	Hindi	Chhattisgarhi
Plural marker	-ए, -ओं, लोग	-मन (लइकामन, हमन)
को	राम को	राम ला
से	घर से	घर ले
का / के / की	राम का, राम की	राम के (one form)
में	खेत में	खेत म
के लिए	तुम्हारे लिए	तोर बर
Agent marker ने	राम ने खाया	not used: राम खाइस
Not / don’t	नहीं / मत	नइ / झन
He goes / is going / went / will go	जाता है / जा रहा है / गया / जाएगा	जाथे / जावत हे / गिस / जाही

Exam Focus

High-yield: case markers, pronoun forms (मोला, तोर, ओकर), verb endings by tense, नइ vs झन, everyday vocabulary (दाई, ददा, बिहनिया, अब्बड़, सुग्घर), tatsam to tadbhav conversion.
Favourite traps: keeping Hindi ने in a Chhattisgarhi sentence, changing के by gender, confusing काली (yesterday or tomorrow, by context), mixing up झन “don’t” with झन used for counting people.
Speed target: each word or form question in under 30 seconds; every topic page ends with a timed drill.

Start Learning

Ready to begin? Start with the first topic:

→ Vocabulary