Here are the first two sentences of the first
paragraph of the first sutta in the first vagga of the
first nipata of the Anguttara Nikaaya (phew!),
translated with a detailed grammatical analyis of each
word.
This is an illustration of what Yong Peng was
referring to in his post. Don't anyone take this as
"gospel truth" - it is my working out of it, and I'm
just a learner here like most of you. I welcome all
comments, suggestions, corrections, improvements, etc.
Eva.m me suta.m.
eva.m - adv - thus
me - 1st pers pro, ins/sg, enc - by me
suta.m - su V, pp, n/nom/sg - it was heard
eka.m - num pro, m/acc/sg - one
samaya.m - m-a/acc/sg - time
bhagavaa - m-ant/nom/sg - the Blessed One
Raajagahe - m-a/loc/sg - at Raajagaha
viharati - vi+har I, pres act, 3rd/sg - he was living
jeta-vane - gen TP cpd, n-a/loc/sg - in Jetas Grove
jeta - m-a/stem - of Jeta
vane - n-a/loc/sg - in the grove, wood, forest
anaathapi.n.dikassa - m-a/gen/sg of Anaathapi.n.dika
aaraame - m-a/loc/sg - in the monastery
On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at
Saavatthii in Anaathapi.n.dikas Monastery within
Jetas Grove.
----------------------
I've used a number of abbreviations and conventions
here which bear explaining [see inside square brackets
below]:
eva.m - adv[adverb] - thus
me - 1st pers[person] pro[pronoun], ins/sg
[instrumental/singular], enc[enclitic] - by me
suta.m - [root]su, [conjugation]V, pp[past
participle], n/nom/sg [neuter/nominative/singular] -
it was heard
eka.m - num[numerical] pro[pronoun], m/acc/sg
[masculine/accusative/singular] - one
samaya.m - m-a/acc/sg [masculine(-a
stem)/accusative/singular] - time
bhagavaa - m-ant/nom/sg [masculine(-ant
stem)/nominative/singular] - the Blessed One
Raajagahe - m-a/loc/sg [masculine(-a
stem)/locative/singular] - at Raajagaha
viharati - [prefix]vi+[root]har [conjugation]I, pres
act[present active], 3rd/sg[3rd person/singular] - he
was living
jeta-vane - gen TP cpd[genitive Tappurisa compound],
n-a/loc/sg [neuter(-a stem)/locative/singular] - in
Jetas Grove
jeta - m-a/stem [masculine(-a stem)/stem] - of Jeta
vane - n-a/loc/sg [neuter(-a
stem)/locative/singular] - in the grove, wood, forest
anaathapi.n.dikassa - m-a/gen/sg [masculine(-a
stem)/genitive/singular] of Anaathapi.n.dika
aaraame - m-a/loc/sg [masculine(-a
stem)/locative/singular] - in the monastery
As you can see, this would take a long, long time for
a whole Nikaaya, but as I said before, I think it can
be a very good learning tool. Any comments?