He should admonish, he should advice, and he should restrain one from evil.
He is indeed dear to the good ones and he is not agreeable to the bad ones.

ovadeyya anusāseyya asabbhā   ca     nivāraye
|                      |              |           |            |
V.act.          V.act.      Adj.m.  conj. V.act.caus.
3.Sg.opt.    3.Sg.opt.   Abl.Sg.     |       3.Sg.opt.
|                      |              |______|_______|
|                      |                         |___|
|____________|________________|

List of Abbreviations

sataṃ    hi       so         piyo        hoti       asataṃ     hoti         appiyo
|             |         |              |             |              |            |               |
Adj.m. part. Pron.m.   Adj.m.   V.act.in.   Adj.m.   V.act.in.   Adj.m.
Gen.Pl.   |    Nom.Sg. Nom.Sg. 3.Sg.pres. Gen.Pl. 3.Sg.pres. Nom.Sg.
|_______|         |________|_______|               |_______|________|
      |_________________|      |                             |___|
                      |____________|

ovadeyya, V.: to instruct, exhort, admonish. The verb root is vad- (to speak) with the prefix o- (shortened for ava-, down). 3.Sg.act.opt. = ovadeyya.

anusāseyya, V.: to teach, to advice, to instruct. The verb root is sās- (to teach) with the prefix anu- (according to). 3.Sg.act.opt. = anusāseyya.
Euphonic combination: ovadeyya + anusāseyya = ovadyānusāseyya.

asabbhā: asabbha-, Adj.: bad, low, impolite. Abl.Sg.m.n. = asabbhā.

ca, conj.: and.

nivāraye, V.: to keep back, to restrain. The verb root is var- (to obstruct) with the prefix ni- (out, from). 3.Sg.act.caus.opt. = nivāraye.

List of Abbreviations

sataṃ: sant-, Adj.: real, good, true. It is an a.pr.p. of the verb root as- (to be). Thus sant- means literally means "existing", "being". Gen.Pl.m. = sataṃ.

hi, part.: indeed.

so: tad-, Pron.n.: it. Nom.Sg.m. = so.

piyo: piya-, Adj.: dear, agreeable. Nom.Sg.m. = piyo.

hoti, V.: is. The verb bhū- (to be). 3.Sg.act.in.pres. = hoti.

List of Abbreviations

asataṃ: asant-, Adj.: untrue, bad. It is the word sant- (see above under sataṃ), negated by the negative prefix a-. Gen.Pl.m. = asataṃ.

hoti: see above.

appiyo: appiya-, Adj.: unpleasant, not agreeable. It is the word piya- (see above under piyo) negated by the negative prefix a-. Euphonic combination: a- + piya- = appiya-. Nom.Sg.m. = appiyo.

List of Abbreviations

    The first line of this verse is composed of three parts. In all of them, the subject is omitted, because the verb form indicates the third person singular personal pronoun. 1) ovadeyya (he should admonish, 3rd person, singular, active, optative). 2) anusāseyya (he should give advice, 3rd person, singular, active, optative). 3) asabbhā ca nivāraye (and he should restrain one from evil). Here the noun asabbhā (from evil, ablative singular) is the object and the conjunction ca (and) connects this sentence to the previous two.
    In the second line there are two sentences. 1) sataṃ hi so piyo hoti (he is indeed dear to the good ones). The subject is the pronoun so (he, nominative singular). The verb is hoti (is, 3rd person, singular, active, indicative, present tense). The object is the adjective piyo (dear, nominative singular) with its attribute, the active present participle sataṃ (for the good ones, genitive plural). This word is stressed by the particle hi (indeed). The second sentence is asataṃ hoti appiyo ([he] is not agreeable to the bad ones). The subject is omitted; the pronoun so from the previous sentence is implied. The verb is again hoti (as above). The object is the adjective appiyo (not agreeable, nominative singular) with its attribute, the active present participle asataṃ (for the bad ones, genitive plural).

    There were two monks, Assaji and Punabhasuka, staying in the village of Kitāgiri together with their disciples. They planted trees for personal gain and violated some other minor monks' precepts. Thus, the monastery became noisy and not suitable for spiritual development.
    When the Buddha heard about it, he sent Sāriputta and Moggallāna to advise these monks. After the admonition from the two Buddha's chief disciples, most of the monks changed their way of life. But some of them were not happy and returned to the household life.
    The Buddha reacted with this verse, saying that admonishing and instructing is always fine with the good ones, whereas the bad ones never agree to being advised.

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

ovadeyyānusāseyya
ovadeyya
anusāseyya
asabbhā
ca
nivāraye
sataṃ
hi
so
piyo
hoti
asataṃ
appiyo