February 2012
4 posts
5 tags
Problems with the Audio Files?
I’ve just updated all the audio code on the site - which should mean that it now works a lot better. However if you’re having problems with the audio files then this page should help
You can’t learn a language without hearing it actually being spoken right? That’s why you’ll find there’s a whole bunch of audio files posted around this site, with more being...
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Lesson #127: प्यासा कौआ The Thirsty Crow
We’ve seen a few Hindi stories on this site so far. Can you remember any of them? Well right back in Lesson #66 we saw The Elephant’s Friendship, then we had a Popeye episode in Lesson #93 and then finally a video called The Loyal Mongoose in Lesson #112. Be sure to check them out if you haven’t seen them yet. Stories are such a great and fun way to learn and practice Hindi,...
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Anonymous Asked: Hi! I have a question I’d like to clarify. A friend told me that to say “She does not understand Hindi”, it is not “Vo hindi nahi aati” but rather, “Usko hindi nahi aati” I find this rather confusing as I’ve always thought that usko was a possessive pronoun? Also, is usko a different form of uska? Please help me out! Thank you so...
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Paypal Donations
You may have noticed a Paypal “Donate” button has appeared on the side of the site recently. If you haven’t seen it this is what it looks like….
I wanted to take the opportunity here to be completely honest with every single one of my readers and let you know why I have added this to the site. From the very first day I created this site I’ve always had the mindset...
December 2011
1 post
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Lesson #8: Vowels Recap
Apologies everyone, I’ve been incredibly busy recently so haven’t had time to update the blog. Here’s the newly finished completely updated version of Lesson #8. Be sure to work through the Vowels Section first! Enjoy.
Phew! If you’ve been working all the way through the Vowels Section then I’ve got some great news; we’ve now covered every single Hindi vowel! This means you should be able to...
November 2011
1 post
1 tag
Anonymous asked: I admire your great effort and the joyful spirit, which can be felt in every lesson and every sentence in your blog. However, I am an elderly person and can’t sit at my PC for long. Therefore, would like to request your permission to print your lessons and bind them in a small booklet, which I can use in my bed or while sitting in a comfortable couch. It is going to be for...
October 2011
2 posts
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Lesson #126: Urdu Vowels Part 4: e
Remember the Urdu lessons are only for those interested in the language. Be sure to check out the Urdu Section if you haven’t already!
I do admit it’s unfortunately been a while since we last saw a lesson on Urdu, can you still remember everything we’ve covered so far? Let’s recap quickly then! We’ve seen six Urdu vowels; a and aa, i and ee and finally u and oo....
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Lesson #125: तो to - So, Then + Comparing
In today’s lesson we’re going to look at a very common little Hindi word, but a word that can often be quite tricky to understand and use correctly. The word is; तो to. Have you ever seen it before? You should have because for a start it came up last lesson! Anyway hopefully by the end of this lesson you should understand this word perfectly so are you ready to get into it?
तो to has...
September 2011
4 posts
1 tag
semipolyglot asked: I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to type the कृपया in "kripaya". What is the letter that is conjoined with 'ka' to make it? I love these lessons! Thank you so much for posting them!
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Lesson #124: Tujh Men Rab Dikhta Hai
We’ve seen a few lesson based around Bollywood before; in Lesson #31 we saw just how helpful Bollywood really is for every single Hindi learner, then in Lesson #99 we looked at a very popular Bollywood song - Aati Kya Khandala. Be sure to check them out if you haven’t seen them already!
Anyway today we’re going to look at another great Bollywood song, one which is actually one...
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Anonymous asked: How can you tell if a lifeless thing in Hindi, like pen or house, is masculine or feminine?
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We're back!
नमस्ते namaste and hello there everyone! It’s great to see you all again. Firstly I want to offer my greatest apologies to all my wonderful readers for my long and unexplained absence.
Don’t worry though, I wasn’t killed or abducted by aliens or anything, I was just very busy working over summer which unfortunately left me very little time to keep the site updated. But,...
August 2011
1 post
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Anonymous asked: What does 'aaj barish ho rahi hai' mean?
July 2011
5 posts
3 tags
Anonymous asked: How do you write 'shukriyaa' using a Hindi keyboard?
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Can You Help This Blog?
By far the biggest request I get on this blog is for me to put audio files online so that the readers can listen to the words spoken and improve their essential Hindi listening skills. Of course I truly understand just how useful this would be for every learner of the language and so I have been working behind the scenes for a long time trying to figure out a solution to this. Only now have I made...
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Lesson #123: Hindi Survival Phrases!
Are you planning a trip to India in the near future? Maybe you’re going site-seeing, visiting long lost family or maybe you’re just off on a bit of an adventure! Whatever the reason, if you are going then as well as knowing some Hindi Conversational Phrases it’s probably a good idea to know some Survival and Emergency Hindi phrases.
So that’s what we’re going to...
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Lesson #122: More about को ko - 'to'
We first met the Postposition को ko a long, long time ago; right back in Lesson #50 Postposition. Can you remember it? It usually means ‘to’, but unfortunately sometimes it isn’t that simple. Ever since that lesson को ko has been cropping up all over the place, sometimes quite unexpectedly!
Today we’re going to refresh ourselves and have a short...
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Lesson #121: Indian McDonald's Advert
Who says that learning can’t be fun? Every so often you have to take a break from Grammar exercises and vocab lists, let your hair down and do something a little different!
So today we’re going to watch a very cute McDonald’s TV advert from India. It’s only 44 seconds long so you really have a no excuse not to watch it. In case you haven’t realised it is in Hindi!...
June 2011
8 posts
6 tags
Lesson #120: जब... तब jab... tab - When... Then
In today’s lesson we’re going to look at two very simple, yet very common and important Hindi words. So are you ready? Great! Let’s go! The words are; जब jab and तब tab.
But now what do these words mean and how to we use them? Well actually it’s ever so easy! जब jab means ‘when’ and तब tab means ‘then’ and together they are used to make sentences...
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Lesson #119: Vocabulary Builder: रसोईघर - The...
We’ve seen two Vocabulary lessons so far, can you remember them? That’s right, we had Lesson #106: Animals, and Lesson #109: Fruit and Veg. Did you enjoy those lessons?
Today we’re going to have another Vocabulary lesson, we’re going to see a whole bunch of words related to The Kitchen! So are you ready to get straight into it? अच्छा acchaa - Great!
First of all then,...
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Lesson #118: The Past Perfect Tense
Do you think you’re ready to learn all about one more tense in Hindi? Don’t worry, after this one there’s only a few more to go! Today we’re going to look at what we call the Past Perfect Tense. So what is the Past Perfect Tense? Well it’s easy, it’s just sentences that use the word ‘had’ like, ‘I had gone’, ‘They had eaten’,...
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Lesson #117: What Time is it? Part 3
So far we’ve seen two lessons on telling the time in Hindi. Can you remember what we’ve covered? That’s right, in What Time is it? Part 1 we learnt the phrase कितने बजे हैं? kitne baje hain - What Time is it? We also learnt how to reply with ‘It’s ___ o’clock’! Then in What Time is it? Part 2 we saw how to say ‘It’s half past ___’ and we...
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Lesson #116: Urdu Vowels Part 3: u and oo
Can you remember what Urdu we’ve covered so far? That’s right, we’ve seen the vowels a and aa in Vowels Part 1, the vowels i and ee in Vowels Part 2 and the consonant ب be in Consonants Part 1. Be sure to head back to those lessons if you’ve forgotten anything!
Today we’re going to learn two more Urdu vowels - u and oo. By the end of this lesson you should be able to...
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Lesson #115: भी bhee - Too, Also
In today’s lesson we’re going to cover just one single word (how easy can one lesson be hey!). The word we’re going to look at is भी bhee. Have you ever seen it or heard it before? It’s a really common word so I bet you have! As usual there’s a few questions at the end to test your knowledge from today so give them a go once you’ve finished!
So what does भी...
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Lesson #114: Compound Verbs Part 2
Can you remember what we covered last time in Compound Verbs Part 1? That’s right, we began to discover about a great feature of Hindi known as Compound Verbs. These are simply the combination of two verbs; the first verb, which we call the Main Verb, tells us what was done and the second, the Auxiliary, tells us roughly ‘how’ it was done. In the last lesson we learnt our first...
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Lesson #113: Compound Verbs Part 1
Today we’re going to begin to learn about a fantastic feature of Hindi grammar known as Compound Verbs. So what are these ‘Compound Verbs’ and why do we use them? Well basically Compound Verbs are two verbs used together to create a kind of combined meaning. They are very common in both speech and writing and are used to express the manner in which something is or was done. They...
May 2011
11 posts
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Lesson #112: The Loyal Mongoose
Today we’re going to do some more Hindi listening practice with a great little Hindi story I’ve found! Remember that whatever your level of Hindi you might be at, listening to the language being spoken in real life situations is simply one of the best ways to practice and to improve your understanding!
The most important thing with this exercise is to just listen, absorb the Hindi...
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Lesson #111: Imperatives Part 4: Negatives -...
Can you remember what Imperatives are? That’s right, it’s when we use a verb as an instruction or a command to basically tell someone to do something. And can you remember how we form these in Hindi? We actually have three different ways of doing it, one for each of the ways of saying ‘You’ - आप aap, तुम tum and तू too. So for example, using the verb खाना khaanaa - To eat,...
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Anonymous asked: Sometimes I come across words that are repeated for seemingly no reason. The phrase that made me think to ask you was “क्या आप और धीरे-धीरे बोल सकते है?” - Can you speak more slowly? The “Dheere-Dheere” as the site (Livemocha) calls it, means “slowly”. However, I have seen repetition of words elsewhere, such as in “Thiik-Thiik” or...
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Lesson #110: The Present Perfect Tense
Today we’re going to cover yet another tense in Hindi; the Present Perfect Tense. So firstly, what is the Present Perfect Tense? Well I can assure it’s a lot easier than it sounds! In English it’s simply sentences like ‘I have eaten’, ‘She has returned’, ‘They have bought’, ‘Ram has spoken’ etc etc. They use the word...
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Anonymous asked: Namaste! Question... What's the different between "Shukhriya" and "Dhanyavaad"
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Lesson #109: Vocabulary Builder: Fruit and...
Can you remember back to Lesson #106 where we learnt a whole bunch of Animal names in Hindi? Well today we’re going to do something similar, but we’re going to learn the names of some Fruits and Vegetables in Hindi! Again just like in the Animals lesson, we’ve actually seen plenty of these already in other lessons so you should hopefully know some of them!
Are you ready to get...
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Anonymous asked: Namaste! Aap kaise hain? I want to know what is "Hum thik ha"
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Lesson #108: Urdu Consonants Part 1; ب be
So what did we learn last time we looked at Urdu? That’s right, we learnt all about two more Urduvowels, which were i and ee. We also learnt another letter of the Urdu alphabet, ی chotee ye - Small Y. If you’ve forgotten anything (and I do admit it was quite a while ago!) then head back over to Urdu Vowels Part 2 and revise over what we did! In today’s lesson we’re going to...
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Lesson #107: More on Compound Postpositions
Today we’re going to learn a bit more about Compound Postpositions. We first looked at these back in Lesson #96. Can you remember what they are? That’s right, they’re just like normal Postpositions but they’re made of two words, the first of which is usually के ke. So for example we learnt how to say something like…
...
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chale-jaise-havai asked: Hi! Thank you so much for your blog, it's a great resource.
I have been wondering about the phrase "hota hai." What is the literal translation of it, and why can it be used both in "yeh kya hota hai," to ask "what is that?" and "kuch kuch hota hai" to mean "something happened"? They seem like very different sorts of sentences to me.
I have been wondering about the phrase "hota hai." What is the literal translation of it, and why can it be used both in "yeh kya hota hai," to ask "what is that?" and "kuch kuch hota hai" to mean "something happened"? They seem like very different sorts of sentences to me.
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Anonymous asked: Namaste! Aap kaise hai? I want to know how do you say "I don't speak Hindi, I'm learning though" and what is "Kya tumhe Hindi aati hai"
April 2011
10 posts
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Lesson #106: Vocabulary Builder; प्राणी Animals
So today we’re going to do something a little different! I’ve been asking everyone on Facebook and Twitter (click the links to follow Learning Hindi! on those sites) what kind of lessons you’d like to see on this site. Something that came up was that you wanted to see more lessons just focused on learning vocabulary! Clearly learning vocab is very important when learning any...
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Lesson #105: The Past Imperfect Tense
Today we’re going to learn all about yet another tense in Hindi, The Past Imperfect Tense! So firstly, what is the Past Imperfect Tense? Well it’s simple, in English it’s sentences that include ‘used to’. It shows something used to happen in the past and doesn’t happen anymore. For example we might say “I used to eat meat”, “We used to play...
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The Hindi Alphabet Game!
Every so often I come across some really great online resources that will help everyone with their Hindi learning. You can see all of these on the Links page! Today I want to share with you something else that I’ve recently found, The Hindi Alphabet Game courtesy of Digital Dialects. This is perfect for anyone trying to learn the Hindi Alphabet!
...
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Anonymous asked: Can you explain why karna is karni in this sentence and other times when this occurs? किसी से तो शादी करनी ही होगी तुम्हें
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Anonymous asked: Namaste! Aap kaise hain? I have a little question. Lots of times when I read Hindi articles, I come across the word "लिए", or some conjugation of it. What does it mean exactly and what is it's purpose? For example: माता पिता अपने बेटे के लिए खुश हैं. What does "Liye" mean here?
Thank you :D!
Thank you :D!
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Lesson #104: कुछ kuch - Something and कोई koee -...
Today we’re going to learn all about two very common little Hindi words! These are; कुछ kuch - which means Something, and कोई koee - Someone. They also have a few other uses that we’ll see as we go through! As usual there’s some questions as the end of the lesson so after you’ve read it see if you can answer them!
So are you ready to get straight into an example? अच्छा...
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Anonymous asked: hi. i am trying to learn a few words in Hindi. i keep seeing sahi hai bachee. i'm curious to know what they mean? ty, for your help.
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Anonymous asked: how do i say im 41 years old in hindi
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Anonymous asked: Good evening ! Could you tell me how to say in Hindi : "I am going to eat (or to sleep, or something else), meaning "I will eat now". Thanks in advance!
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Lesson #103: The Future Conditional Tense
In today’s lesson we’re going to learn all about Future Conditional Tense in Hindi. So what is the Future Conditional Tense? Well basically it’s sentences that say something ‘may’ or ‘might’ happen in the future. So we could say; I might go to India, He may eat, They may learn Hindi etc. It’s sometimes referred to as the ‘Subjunctive...
March 2011
9 posts
9 tags
Lesson #102: Brothers and Sisters
In today’s lesson we’re going to learn how to talk about our brothers and sisters in Hindi. However today we’re going to do things a little differently - instead of me just listing the phrases to you I’m going to show you a conversation between two people and we’ll learn by simply observing and then copying them! At the end of this lesson there’s a bonus...
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Lesson #101: Let's Get Talking!
Today I want to do something completely different so I hope you’re ready for it!
One of the major differences between online learning and classroom learning is that when you learn online you don’t usually have ‘class mates’ to learn with. If you think about it in a classroom you always have other people there learning with you, but online it’s just you and your...
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Anonymous asked: 've kuch bechate the' this sentence is in which tense?