Learning Hindi!

Lesson #128: चाहना caahnaa - To Want

Sun, 27 May 2012 19:06:00 +0000

Namaste everyone! Sorry there hasn’t been much going on here recently, but we’re back now! So without further ado…

Can you remember all the way back to Lesson #85? In that lesson we learnt all about the Hindi word चाहिए caahie - which is used to show that someone wants / needs something. So for example we might say…

अमित को नई चप्पलें चाहिए amit ko naee cappalen caahie
- Amit wants new sandals

This should just be revision so if you’re confused at all then simply head back over to Lesson #85. Now can you recall that in that lesson I told you that we only use चाहिए caahie when talking about wanting an object? Well in today’s lesson we’re going to learn how to talk about wanting to do something! So are you ready to get going…

The all important verb for today is चाहना caahnaa - to want. Can you see that it’s similar to the word चाहिए caahie that we’ve just been revising? So how do we use चाहना caahnaa? Well let’s start by seeing an example…

मैं सिनेमा जाना चाहता हूँ main sinemaa jaanaa caahtaa hoon
- I want to go to the cinema (said by a male)

So what’s going on here? Well can you see that we use चाहना caahnaa just like we would use any other verb (for more details on this see Lesson #28) and then we just throw सिनेमा जाना sinemaa jaanaa - ‘to go the the cinema’ in the middle of the sentence! Easy hey?! Ready for another example?

मैं अख़बार पढ़ना चाहती हूँ main akhbaar parhnaa caahtee hoon
- I want to read the newspaper (said by a female)

Can you see what we’ve done this time? It’s exactly the same structure as the last example, this time we’ve put अख़बार पढ़ना akhbaar parhnaa - ‘to read the newspaper’ in the middle of the sentence! Also remember that because it’s now a female talking we use चाहती caahtee.

Have you got that? Ok let’s try one more simple example together then, can you think how we would say ‘Mohindar wants to learn English’? Have you got it? That’s right, we’d say…

मोहिंदर अंग्रेज़ी सीखना चाहता है
mohinder angrezee seekhnaa caahtaa hai
- Mohindar wants to learn English

Have you understood everything so far? It’s nothing too extreme and complicated is it? Now, how do you think we use this verb in the past tense, so that’s sentences that use the word ‘wanted’?

Well actually it’s easier than you might think! चाहना caahnaa is a transitive verb, so that means we simply follow the rules we learnt back in Lesson #83 - and that means we have to use ने ne! So for example we might say…

उसने टीवी दिखना चाहा usne teevee dikhnaa caahaa
- She wanted to watch TV

Can you see what’s happened here? We’ve added the ‘thing’ we want to do in the middle again, टीवी दिखना teevee dikhnaa - ‘to watch TV’, and then we’ve used the masculine past tense of चाहना caahnaa - चाहा caahaa - to agree with the masculine word टीवी - TV. Are you still with me? Let’s see another example…

हमने नाचना चाहा hamne naachnaa caahaa
- We wanted to dance

Can you see what we’ve done here? Remember that ‘to dance’ is नाचना naacnaa. See it’s not that bad is it?

Now take a little breath, there’s just one more final rule to know, are you ready? If you want to say a sentence like ‘someone wants someone else to do something’ then you do it slightly differently. Let me show you an example…

माताजी चाहती है कि मैं पढ़ूँ maataajee caahtee hai ki main parhoon
- Mother wants me to study

Ok this is quite a complicated sentence here, so what’s going on? Well let’s break it down bit by bit…

Well we’ve started with माताजी चाहती है maataajee caahtee hai - ‘mother wants’, this is straightforward yeah?
Then we’ve used कि ki - which translates as ‘that’, so, this far we’ve got ‘mother wants that…’.
Finally then we finish with मैं पढ़ूँ main parhoon - this means ‘I should/may study’. If this looks familiar then it’s because this is the Future Conditional Tense we saw back in Lesson #103 so head back there if you can’t remember!

So in this example above we are literally saying “Mother wants that I should study” - Mother wants me to study! Got it? Let’s see another example. How would we say “Rajesh wants me to go to the shop”? Well like the example above, we’d literally say “Rajesh wants that I should go to the shop” so have you got it? Yeah that’s right…

राजेश चाहता है कि मैं दुकान जाऊँ
rajesh caahtaa hai ki main dukaan jaaoon
- Rajesh wants me to go to the shop

Can you see? Just like above we’ve literally said “Rajesh wants that..” and then followed by “I should go to the shop” using the Future Condition tense. With me?

Ok wow, phew, that’s the end of today’s lesson. Well done for making it all the way to the end, I know it hasn’t been easy! Hopefully you now know how to correctly use चाहना caahnaa in all your Hindi sentences!

Have you got any questions? Are you confused about any of the examples? Feel free to leave them in the comments section just below and I’ll do my best to help you.

To test your understanding of the lesson try translating these sentences into Hindi, leave your answers in a comment below and I’ll let you know how well you’ve done!

Amit wants to buy new sandals
I want to eat (said by a female)
They wanted to go home
I wanted to read
I want you to learn Hindi (said by a male)
He wants me to watch TV

So go on, why not give it a go, leave your answers in a comment and I’ll get back to you!

Back to Intermediate Grammar.

Quiz #6: Hindi Crossword!

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 18:55:28 +0000

Quizzes and activities are such a fun way to brush up on some Hindi, don’t you think? We’ve seen a few so far, so be sure to check them out at the Quizzes section if you haven’t seen them - especially the Hindi Wordsearch!

So today we’re going to try and do a Hindi crossword together. You know how crosswords work right? Yeah, it’s nice and straightforward you just try and guess the words with the clues which are just below and then write them into the blank squares!

Note that like our Hindi wordsearch, in this crossword the vowels are separated from the consonants which is not how words are usually written (otherwise the crossword wouldn’t really work). If you’re a little lost by this then I’ve given you the first word as an example, which should help! So anyway here goes. The clues are just below so be sure to give it a go!

If you want to easily print the crossword (including all the clues) then click here and print the page as you would a normal webpage.

Clues - the clues come in a bunch of different types; some are just translations others are more cryptic clues. If you see a ‘___’ it means you should fill in the blank! I’m sure you’ll follow as we go along! I’ve given you the first word as a helper so to give you the idea, but if you have any questions then be sure to just leave a comment below. So anyway here goes…

Oh yeah and before we get started here’s another little note, to make adding words a little easier I’ve dropped the nasalisation from some vowels - so for example if a word usually has आँ aan you may see just आ aa in the crossword to make it fit!

Down

1. Dog
2. Root of the verb ‘to walk’
3. आप aap imperative of देना denaa - To give
4. Door
6. Opposite of the word नीचे neece
7. आप__ पलंग aap__ palang - Your bed
8. Where?
10. Or
12. Eye
14. वह __ है voh __ hai - She sings
16. मैंने हिन्दी ___ mainne hindee ___ - I spoke Hindi
17. अमित __ बेटे amit __ bete - Amit’s sons
18. __ बिल्ली ___ billee - The small cat
20. Hello
22. तुम tum imperative of लेना lenaa - To take.
23. What?
25. Oblique form of the word लड़कियाँ larkiyaan - Girls.
26. India
27. Good
29. Sunday
30. हम घर पर __ham ghar par __ - We were at home (male group)
33. Friend
34. मैं पाकिस्तान में __ है - main paakistaan men __ hai -I live in Pakistan (female)
37. A half
38. Root of the verb ‘to go’.
41. Least formal way of saying ‘you’.

Across

5. Owl
7. Someone
8. Chair
9. उसने पानी __ usne paanee __ - She drunk water
11. To come
13. Fire
15. One
17. Something
19. To be
21. Plural of ताला taalaa - Lock
24. Several
26. मैं __ ठीक हूँ main __ theek hoon - I am also well
28. Least formal way of saying ‘your’
30. मुझे __ हिन्दी आती है mujhe __ aatee hai - I know a little Hindi
31. Beak
32. Possessive form of तुम tum.
35. They
36. Tea
39. वह वहाँ __ - voh vaahan __ - He was there
40. मैं कपड़े __ हूँ main kapre __ hoon - I wash the clothes (male).
42. Kitchen

Phew wow! That’s the end of the clues. Keep working on it until you can get as many as you can! Don’t forget to click here for a printer friendly version of the crossword and all the clues if you want to print it out (which I really recommend you do by the way!).

Most the words you should have seen but as always if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment just below and I’ll get back to you! Best of luck everyone!

Back to Quizzes.

Problems with the Audio Files?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:40:00 +0000

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 posted all the time! But this isn’t so great if you’ve having technical problems with them. So this is the page to be at if for some reason or another the audio wont work for you.

If everything is working as it should be then you’ll see a grey rectangle underneath this paragraph with a play button inside it - and when you press the button will hear a recording of the Hindi word “namaste”.

If you don’t see it - or if it doesn’t make a sound when you click play then we obviously have a problem! (Note if you’re seeing this post on your tumblr dashboard then click here first before you test it!) So let’s see if I can help you fix it…

1. Firstly, and I know this might sound silly, but make sure your volume is turned up, and speakers are turned on. We’ve all got mad at the TV before because it’s not working - only to then realise that it’s not plugged in! So if you’ve checked that then…

2. Refresh the page (this can be done by pressing the f5 key for Windows). Again this might seem silly but if for some reason there was an error in the page loading then refreshing the page could fix it.

3. If these two solutions still haven’t worked then my next advice is to update your browser. The technology in the code that I use for the audio files might not work on old browsers, so if you haven’t updated it in a while then this may explain the problem! Don’t worry, this isn’t complicated at all. Simply click the relevant link just below and follow the instructions…

If you use Firefox then click here.

If you use Google Chrome then click here.

If you use Safari then click here.

If you use Internet Explorer then click here.

(If you don’t know what internet browser you’re using then this site will tell you). Once the update has installed come back to this page and check again if it works. This should fix almost all problems but if it’s still not working then keep reading!

4. If updating your old browser doesn’t work then choose a different browser from the list above and install that one as well. Then check this page on your new browser!

5. If you’re unable to update your browser or install a new one (say, perhaps you’re on a college or work computer and you can’t install new programs) or the new browsers still wont work then I have one last solution!

I use a site called Soundcloud to host the audio files, so if nothing else works then you can simply go to my profile on that site by clicking here. This will list you all of the audio files I’ve ever uploaded and so once you’ve found the right one you should be able to listen to it.

If, even on soundcloud, you can’t listen to the audio files then please leave a comment below and I’ll try my hardest find a solution. Or if you have a question about any of the steps then please let me know and I’ll do everything I can to help.

As a final note, if you’re viewing this page on a mobile or a portable device (including an iPhone or an iPad) then there’s a good chance the audio will never work. I’m sorry about this but there’s simply nothing I can do. Come back to this site on your desktop or laptop computer to hear the audio!

I hope that’s helped you but again if it hasn’t then please feel free to leave a comment just below!

Lesson #127: प्यासा कौआ The Thirsty Crow

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:34:43 +0000

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, don’t you think?

Anyway today we’re going to see another Hindi story! Only in this lesson it’s going to be slightly different - there’s no video this time, it’s just a few paragraphs of text - so we’ll be practicing our reading skills as well!

The story is called प्यासा कौआ pyaasaa kauaa - The Thirsty Crow. It’s a really short and quite simple story so don’t get scared! Just after the story I’m going to put a little mini dictionary of some of the words you might not know so don’t be afraid if there’s words you don’t know first time you read it thought! Are you ready to get going then? Great! Here goes…

एक बार एक कौआ बहुत प्यासा था। उसको कहीं पानी नहीं मिल रहा था। बहुत ढूँढने पर उसको एक घड़ा दिखाई दिया। घड़े में बहुत थोड़ा सा पानी था। कौए की चोंच पानी तक नहीं पहुँच पा रही थी।

ek baar ek kauaa bahut pyaasaa thaa. usko kaheen paanee naheen mil rahaa thaa. bahut dhoondhne par usko ek gharaa dikhaaee diyaa. ghare men bahut thoraa saa paanee thaa. kaue kee conc paanee tak naheen pahunc paa rahee thee.

वह बड़े ध्यान से सोचने लगा और उसे एक उपाय सूझा। पास ही पत्थर के कुछ टुकड़े पड़े थे। कौए ने एक एक पत्थर उठाया और घड़े में डालता गया। धीरे धीरे पानी ऊपर आने लगा। कौआ लगातार पत्थर डालता गया। जल्दी ही पानी इतना ऊपर आ गया कि कौए की चोंच वहाँ तक आराम से पहुँच गई।

voh bare dhyaan se socne lagaa aur use ek upaay soojhaa. paas hee patthar ke kuch tukre pare the. kaue ne ek ek patthar uthaayaa ghare men daaltaa gayaa. dheere dheere paanee oopar aane lagaa. kauaa lagaataar patthar daaltaa gayaa. jaldee dee paanee itnaa oopar aa gayaa ki kaue kee conc vahaan tak aaraam se pahunc gaee.

तब कौए ने पानी पिया और अपनी प्यास बुझाई।

tab kaue ne paanee piyaa aur apnee pyaas bujhaaee.

Phew ok! How was that? Did you understand any of it? Read it through again! Don’t be too worried if there was a lot you didn’t understand because the point isn’t to understand every single word, but more to just understand the general flow! Anyway here’s a quick glossary of some of the words you might not know…

एक बार ek baar - Once upon a time कहीं kaheen - Somewhere

ढूँढना dhoondhnaa- To look for घड़ा gharaa - Pot (M)

दिखाई देना dikhaaee denaa - To appear थोड़ा thoraa - A little

चोंच conc - Beak (F) पहुँच पाना pahunc paanaa - To manage to reach

ध्यान से dyaan se - Alternatively

सोचने लगाना socne lagaanaa - To begin to think

उपाय upaay - Remedy सूझना soojhnaa - To come to mind

पत्थर patthar - Stone (M) टुकड़ा tukraa - Piece

डालना daalnaa - To put लगातार lagaataar - Continuously

बुझाना bujaanaa - To quench

Phew! Ok now read through the story once more and this time you should be able to word out what most of the words mean! Can you follow the story now? Do you understand what’s happening? Here’s a question, can you figure out the moral of the story?

Of course if you’re still a little confused about any words or sentences in the story then please feel free to leave a comment just below and I’ll be sure to help you out as soon as possible!

Back to Beginner’s Grammar.

This story has been taken from http://www.Akhlesh.com/ be sure to check them out for more similar Hindi stories!

Anonymous Asked: Hi! I have a question I’d like to clarify. A friend told me that to say...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:50:00 +0000

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 much!

Namaste and thanks for the question! Firstly I’m sorry for taking so long to reply. But let’s not hang around, let’s see if I can help! To begin with your friend is perfectly correct, your sentence is not right. So why is this? Well let’s have a look at the sentence starting right from the beginning…

Hopefully by the end of this short lesson you’ll be able to understand what the boy in the picture is saying, and more importantly why it is said that way!

We want to say “She doesn’t know Hindi”. Now when we say sentences that involve ‘knowing’ something in Hindi we often use the verb आना aanaa - which literally means ‘to come’. Then the sentence is of the form “To someone something is known”. This can be a little confusing at first simply because it’s so different to English. Remember that the word ‘to’ in Hindi is को ko.

So now using this how would we say “Ajay knows Hindi”? Yeah that’s right we’d say…

अजय को हिन्दी आती है ajay ko hindee aatee hai - Ajay knows Hindi.

Remember we’re literally saying “To Ajay Hindi is known”. Now even though Ajay is a male’s name, we use आती aatee because the verb actually agrees with the word हिन्दी hindee, which is feminine. With me so far? (I hope you don’t feel like we’re going off topic, trust me we’re getting there!)

Now remember that the word को ko - is a postposition (If you’re not sure what that means then there’s plenty of information over in Lesson #50). Because it is a postposition the noun immediately before it must be in the Oblique case (more on the Oblique case of nouns in Lesson #48)!

Finally, as we saw in Lesson #61, the oblique form of the word वह voh is उस us. That is why we have वह voh - ‘he/she’ plus the word को ko - ‘to’ gives उसको usko - ‘to him/her’.

So if we put all this together we have…

उसको हिन्दी आती है usko hindee aatee hai - She (or He) knows Hindi.

When we negate this setence we have उसको हिन्दी नहीं आती usko hindee naheen aatee - She (or He) doesn’t know Hindi. (Remember we can drop the है hai in negative sentences). Did you follow that?

You may also find Lesson #122 useful here, it was all about the word को ko!

Finally, in answer to the last part of your question, उसको usko is very different to उसका uskaa, the first means “to him/her” while the latter means “his/hers”. I think in light of the information above you might be able to see the difference now.

Does that help you? Please be sure to ask me if you have any more questions or would like more explanations, I’d love to help.

Click here to ask a question or to leave any comments or suggestions.

Paypal Donations

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:39:00 +0000

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 that everything should be completely free to everyone and I still strongly believe in this. It’s simple, I don’t want to charge you to learn. I’ve also never wanted to make a profit from the site. I’m not interested in making money - I run this site purely to educate people about the beautiful language of Hindi!

But unfortunately the truth is that this site, like everything else in life, costs money. This is why I’ve had to make the difficult decision to add the Paypal donate button to the site.

Let’s be clear, I’m not telling you to give me money. I’m simply asking that if you’ve enjoyed learning from this site (and if you can afford it) then please, donate even just a few dollars to help towards the running costs of the site and help keep the site alive for other readers in the future. If you can’t afford it then that’s completely fine so please don’t feel obliged to donate.

To donate simply click the Paypal donate button at the top of this post, or the one at the side of the page or click here. Don’t worry, Paypal is completely secure and you don’t even need an account. You have my word that the money donated will only ever be used towards the costs of the site.

Thank you so much in advance, बहुत बहुत धन्यवाद bahut bahut dhanyavaad. George.

Lesson #8: Vowels Recap

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:06:26 +0000

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 recognise every single vowel in written and spoken Hindi, that sounds good doesn’t it? Of course it does - but here’s the catch, can you remember everything we’ve covered?

It’s so important to keep revising everything you learn - otherwise it just drops out of your mind!

There we’re 11 vowels, do you think you can remember them all? Well if you think you’re a little a rusty then that’s great because today we’re going to quickly recap over everything we’ve seen in the last few lessons! Ready to get going?

So here we go, deep breath! In Lesson #2 we began by learning the first two Hindi vowels…

Anonymous asked: I admire your great effort and the joyful spirit, which can be felt in every lesson...

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:06:23 +0000

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 my personal use only and will never be duplicated, so that it would never fall in wrong hands. Say “Yes” please!

Namaste! Thank you so much for such a lovely message. Honestly reading things like that make me so happy! Sorry for the slightly delayed reply, I hope you forgive me.

Nothing quite beats reading a physical book does it?

As for the answer to your question, of course you can! I would love to think that my readers are printing out lessons to read when they are away from the computer, so please feel free to print as much as you want.

If you are printing anything for your own personal use, then that’s yours - feel free to do whatever you want with it! You can scribble all over it add annotations, whatever.

But if you are ever printing notes for other people (which I do actually encourage!) then I kindly ask for you to do just three things for me; 1. clearly label each page of the printed notes with http://www.learning-hindi.com/, 2. do not edit the actual text in anyway and 3. absolutely do not sell the notes to anyone in anyway collecting any form of profit. (I’m not accusing you of doing these, so I hope you’re not offended, it’s just good to make sure the rules are completely clear to everyone).

I hope that helps you, best of luck with the rest of your Hindi learning journey! Please feel free to ask if you ever have any more questions! All the best.

Click here to ask a question or to leave any comments or suggestions.

Lesson #126: Urdu Vowels Part 4: e

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:59:37 +0000

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. We’ve also seen our first Urdu consonant; be. Be sure to head back to the respective lessons if you feel your memory is a little hazy! You should be able to recognise all the vowels in the word below (and only the vowels, we haven’t seen the consonants yet!) so go on give it a go…

duniyaa - The World

Feel free to head back to the older lessons if you got stuck a little! Anyway today we’re going to look at just one more Urdu vowel, e. How easy does that sound? Plus in the process we’ll learn a whole new letter of the Urdu alphabet! So are you all ready to get going? Great! Here goes…

Our vowel for today is the vowel e. It’s ‘equivalent’ to the Hindi vowel ए e. This vowel is a little tricky because it’s not really a sound we’re used to in English. Save me trying to explain and confusing you more just click the play button above to hear the vowel pronounced! Be sure to listen to it many times to make sure you get the pronunciation perfect!

So that’s the pronunciation done, now how do we write this vowel? Well remember of course, that this changes depending on where the Vowel is in a word!

To start a word with our new vowel e, we actually start the word with an alif and then add a chotee ye after. Perhaps you’ve forgotten what those are, so let’s look at an example…

ek - One

Can you see the alif and chotee ye at the start? The alif is the straight line, and the chotee ye has two dots under it! Got it? Great! These two letters mean we start the word with our ‘e’ sound!

Now if you’ve got a good memory you might suddenly see a huge problem that is inherent Urdu writing. Remember back in Lesson #95 we saw the vowel ee? You should remember that if we want to start a word with the vowel ee we actually do exactly the same; start with an alif then a chotee ye. So uh-oh how do we tell whether a word starts with an e or an ee? Well the truth is there is no way of telling, you must simply know the word already and know how to pronounce it! Sound tricky? Don’t worry, the more Urdu words you see the easier it will be, I promise.

Read that paragraph above through again, because it’s a very important paragraph. So let’s carry on, how do we put the e sound in the middle of a word? We actually use our friend chotee ye again. Do you think you’re ready for a few examples? Here we go…

sher - Tiger

Can you spot the chotee ye in this word? That’s right, we know we’ve got a chotee ye because we have the two dots just underneath the word!

Again alarm bells might be ringing in your head! This is exactly how we show the vowel ee in a middle of a word, as we saw in Lesson #95. Again (if vowel markers are not there!) you simply have to know whether or not the word uses the vowel e or ee. They may be written the same way in Urdu script but they are pronounced completely different! Let’s see another example…

mez - Table

Can you see the two dots under the word again? Great! That means we have the e vowel in the middle! Got that? Great. So how do we write e at the end of a word? Well first we must learn a new letter of the Urdu alphabet! Ready? Here goes…

This is the letter baree ye. Can you see it sitting at the top of the picture there? It looks a little like a boomerang don’t you think? Anyway this letter is only ever used at the end of a word, when we want the e sound. Because as we’ve just seen when we use e in the middle we use chotee ye!

So anyway lets see a few examples of baree ye in use…

kele - Bananas

Can you see the baree ye here? That’s right, it’s the big hook at the end, it comes down and sits right under the word. There’s actually two e’s in this word, can you spot the other one? That’s it, the two dots under the baree ye are actually part of the chotee ye from e in the middle of the word! Let’s see another example…

pyaale - Cups

Can you spot the baree ye this time? Yeah that’s right, it’s the big hook at the end again! Well done!

So that’s the end of the lesson, give yourself a pat on the back for reading all the way through. I do admit it’s been a tricky vowel today. There’s a few important things to remember from today’s lesson so here they all are to make sure you don’t forget them…

When we want to start a word with e we use an alif first then a chotee ye
When e comes in the middle of a word we use chotee ye
When e is at the start or in the middle or a word there no written difference between it and another vowel we’ve already seen, ee, however they are very different in pronunciation so it’s important to know which is correct!
When e comes at the end of a word we use our new letter; baree ye.

Phew ok that’s it! We’ll be seeing loads more examples as we carry on but hopefully you’re getting the idea. Make sure to check back to the audio file at the start of the lesson to hear the letter pronounced over and over! Also make sure you can spot our vowel e in each of our example words through the lesson!

If you’ve got any questions or comment then please be sure to leave them in the comments section just below!

Click here to go back to the Urdu Section

Lesson #125: तो to - So, Then + Comparing

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:52:00 +0000

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 two general uses, so let’s look at them one at a time. I mean, that would be the sensible thing right? Here’s an example sentence demonstrating the first use of तो to. Have a read of it a few times, then after I’ll explain…

   Image source
   तो आप संजय हैं? to aap sanjay hain?
   - So, you’re Sanjay?

That was quite straight forward yeah? Can you see what तो to has done to this sentence? That’s right, it’s real easy; starting the sentence with तो to is just like starting an English sentence with ‘so’. And that’s the first use of तो to. Easy hey! Let’s look at a few more examples…

तो आप शादी शुदा हैं? to aap shaadee shudaa hain
- So you’re married then?

There’s a little new vocab in this small sentence; शादी शुदा shaadee shudaa - Married. But can you see what we’ve done by starting with तो to? अच्छा acchaa - great! So one more example then…

तो तुम स्कौटलैंड से हो? to tum skautlaind se ho?
- Ah, so you’re from scotland then?

Right ok so have you got that? Starting a sentence or phrase with तो to is just like starting a sentence in English with ‘so’ or ending with ‘then’. That’s the first use of तो to. Are you ready to learn about the second use? It’s a little trickier but we can do it!

When तो to comes after a word or phrase it is used to compare that word to something else in the same context. So what on earth does that mean? Well let’s take a look a few examples to start with….

   घर तो बड़ा है लेकिन बग़ीचा बहुत छोटा है
   ghar to baraa hai lekin bageecaa bahut chotaa hai
   - The house is big but the garden is very small

So what’s happened here? Well we’ve used तो to after ‘house’ because in this sentence we are comparing the house to something else. As we read the sentence it turns out we’re comparing the house to the garden and we’re comparing them both in the context of size. The तो to simply tells us that we’re going to compare the house to something! Let’s look at another example…

   किताब अच्छी तो थी पर काफ़ी महँगी थी
   kitaab acchee to thee par kaafee mahangee thee
   - The book was good but it was quite expensive

So what’s happened this time? Well we’ve put the तो to after the word अच्छी acchee - good, this time because we’re going to compare the ‘goodness’ of the book. Again, as we read we see that we’re comparing the fact it was good to the fact it was quite expensive.

Can you see from these last two examples that in this use of तो to the placement of the word in the sentence is very important!

Sometimes with this use of तो to we don’t explicitly state what we are comparing the thing to. Which can make it seem a little confusing, trust me it’s not though! Let’s look at a example…

कल तो मैंने गोश्त खाया kal to mainne gosht khaayaa
- Yesterday I ate meat (but as for today….?)

So can you see that we’ve used तो to after कल kal - yesterday. This tells us that we’re going to compare the fact that something happened yesterday but then didn’t happen on some other day (say for example, today). So as we read the sentence we see that we say ‘I ate meat’. This, combined with what we’ve already seen, tells us that we may have eaten meat yesterday but on another day we didn’t eat meat.

Can you see the comparison is not explicitly written in the sentence, we must implicitly use what’s given to make an assumption. Are you a confused? Read through the paragraph a few more times to try and help it sink it.

Now remember how we just said that the placement of तो to is important? Let me show you why by looking at another example very similar to the last…

कल मैंने तो गोश्त खाया kal mainne to gosht khaayaa
- Yesterday I ate meat (but as for someone else….?)

Can you see how this sentence is different to the last? Look carefully. तो to is now after the word मैं main - I. What does this mean? That’s right, this means we’re comparing the fact that I did something and whereas someone else did not. Are you with me?

If you’re feeling confident you can now head back to Lesson #124 and see if you can find and understand the use of तो to there!

Phew ok so that’s it, well done if you’ve read all the way down and have understood this lesson! It has been a very long and difficult lesson. Don’t forget you can always leave a question in the comments section just below if you’re still confused about anything at all, I’m always here to help and answer your questions!

We’ll have another lesson on तो to soon - we’ll see a bunch more examples to help it all sink in!

Back to the Intermediate Grammar Section.

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!

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:22:00 +0000

नमस्ते namaste and thanks for the question! So how do we type the Hindi word for please, कृपया kripayaa, using our Hindi keyboard?

Well firstly make sure you have a Hindi keyboard installed! For more info on this head over to Lesson #10. So then the next problem is this little ‘flick’ you mention that we have under the क ka. Just what is it?

Learning a language is never easy, so don’t worry we all come across our own personal problems and difficulties!

Rest assured I’m here to help! The flick under the क ka is actually the symbol for a vowel, and that vowel is ऋ ri. We learnt all about this vowel right at the start in Lesson #7 so be sure to hear over there to learn more about it! When typing in Hindi we add this vowel symbol to a consonant by typing ‘=’, and we get the vowel itself by typing ‘+’.

So altogether you simply type ‘k=h/e’ to give you कृपया kripayaa - Please. Does that help you? Be sure to ask if you have any more questions!

Click here to ask a question or to leave any comments or suggestions.

Lesson #124: Tujh Men Rab Dikhta Hai

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:53:28 +0000

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 of my personal favourites. It’s called Tujh Men Rab Dikhta Hai (I see God in you) from the film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (A Match Made by God). If you ever get the chance be sure to watch it, it stars the one and only Shahrukh Khan.

So here’s the video to the song. Watch it through a few times, see what Hindi words you can pick out, or even if you can understand any of the sentences. Most importantly just relax and enjoy it. Once you’ve listened a few times, click Read More just below and we’ll look at some of the language used! Here goes…

If you see this on your tumblr dashboard click the grey square to see the video. If you have any trouble watching the video click here to watch it directly on YouTube. All rights and copyrights to respective owners.

How was that? Watch it through a few more times! Do you understand any of it? (No worries if you don’t, that’s why we’re here!). Do you find yourself singing along with the chorus yet? See I told you it was a great song!

So anyway now lets look through a few of the sentences in the song, I mean we are here to learn the Hindi and not just sing and dance right? Here goes…

Of course I don’t want to sit here and translate the whole song for you, because one that takes away all your fun and two it would take pages and pages of space! But let’s look at the first two lines, the song starts with;

तू ही तो जन्नत मेरी too hee to jannat meree

तू ही मेरा जुनून too hee meraa junoon

Any idea what this means? Let me first tell you that the words जन्नत jannat means Heaven (F) and जुनून junoon means Passion (M). So can you figure the sentences out now? That’s right, it’s simply ‘You are my heaven, you are my passion’. Romantic hey! The word ही hee is a word we’re going to cover in lessons soon, it gives the meaning of ‘only’ as in ‘you and only you are my passion’.

A poster for the film.

How’s that? Are you ready to move to the Chorus? Well here it is;

तुझ में रब दिखता है tujh men rab dikhtaa hai,
यारा मैं क्या करूँ yaaraa main kyaa karoon,
सजदे सर झुकता है sajde sar jhuktaa hai,
यारा मैं क्या करूँ yaaraa main kyaa karoon

Phew ok! Listen to the song a few times to hear it all again. Can you hear each word of the chorus being sung? अच्छा acchaa - great! Now any idea on what it means? Try and think and see if you can figure it out first before reading on! It translates roughly to,

I see god in you,
Oh what should I do,
My head bows,
Oh what should I do.

Did you get that? Have you got any questions? Or even any questions about any other part of the the song? Let me know by leaving a comment just below and as always I’ll do my very best to help you.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s lesson and that the song isn’t stuck in your head for too long!

Back to Beginner’s Grammar.

How can you tell if a lifeless thing in Hindi, like pen or house, is masculine or feminine?

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:08:00 +0000

नमस्ते namaste and thanks for the question! This is a wonderful question actually, I’m really glad you’ve asked it. How do you know whether a random Hindi noun is masculine or feminine? The unfortunate truth is you don’t know until you learn the gender of the word. For some words this is very easy…

The word आदमी aadmee - Man is masculine, and the word औरत aurat - Woman is feminine. But for other words, like you ask in your question, there’s really nothing to help you, it seems completely random! You simply have to learn the gender of new words as you learn the word. घर ghar - House and क़लम kalam - Pen are both Masculine in case you didn’t know.

Don’t forget that it is very important for you to know the gender of every single word you learn, otherwise your sentences will not be grammatically correct!

You can read loads more about this over in Lesson #38, that lesson explains this concept in much more detail, giving you plenty more example too! I hope that helps. As always be sure to ask if you have any more questions.

Click here to ask a question or to leave any comments or suggestions.

We're back!

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:42:46 +0000

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, I’m sure you’ll all be very pleased to hear that I am back now with lots of great plans and exciting lessons ready!

Were any of you lucky enough to have a summer holiday somewhere wonderful? Sadly I didn’t get a chance this year to get away!

So anyway I hope you’re ready to get back into learning the beautiful language of Hindi (with a little Urdu thrown in too!). Expect to see some new lessons here very soon! As always if you’ve got any suggestions, or if there’s something you’d like to see on the site then be sure to let me know in the comments section below, I’ll always do my best to help.

Also don’t forget if you are a native Hindi speaker and you can record audio of your voice then I’m looking your help with the site! Have a read over here for more information.

What does 'aaj barish ho rahi hai' mean?

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 13:27:00 +0000

Namaste and thanks for the question! Of course I’d love to help! So what does it mean? Well the good news is we’ve actually seen this sentence before in Lesson #78 where we learned to talk about the weather in Hindi! It means…

आज बारिश हो रही है aaj baarish ho rahee hai
- Today it is raining

Remember the word आज aaj means Today. Does that help you? Remember to check out Lesson #78 to learn even more about the weather in Hindi! And don’t forget to just ask if you have any other questions.

Click here to ask a question or to leave any comments or suggestions.

How do you write 'shukriyaa' using a Hindi keyboard?

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Namaste and thanks for the question!

Firstly I’m going to presume that you have a Hindi keyboard installed on your computer. If not then head over to Lesson #10 to learn how to do that! Now once you have the Hindi keyboard installed, and you are typing Hindi, your keyboard looks like this…

Click here or on the image to make it bigger.

So how do we type the word ’ शुक्रिया shukriyaa - Thank you’? Well it’s a lot easier that it looks, you just work your way through the word! Here goes (the letters in brackets tell you what to type - remember the capital letters are important!)…

Firstly we have श sha (M) and we add उ u (g) to it to give us शु shu
Next we have क ka (k) and we add the halent (d) then र ra (j) and then we add the इ i (f) that gives us क्रि kri
Then for the last part we have य ya (/) and we add आ aa (e) to it, या yaa.

Phew ok! So all together it’s शुक्रिया shukriyaa which we get from typing - Mgkdjf/e. I hope that helps you! Honestly learning to type in Hindi takes a lot of practice so don’t worry if you’re a little slow at it to start with.

Please feel free to ask me if you have any more questions. Thanks again!

Click here to ask me a question or to leave any comments or suggestions.

Can You Help This Blog?

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:34:21 +0000

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 progress!

What surprises many people is that I am not actually a native Hindi speaker myself, I just have been studying the language for a while now. This is my problem though, because I’m not a native Hindi speaker I don’t want to use my own voice for the audio files - since my accent and pronunciation may not be what you are likely to come across from a native speaker.

Listening to audio is essential for the learning of any language!

So this is where you come in! I’m looking for your help. Are you a native Hindi speaker? Are you willing to sacrifice 10 minutes or so a week and volunteer to help this website? Would you be able to send me audio recording of your voice for me to put online to help hundreds of potential Hindi learners? Or even do you know a native Hindi speaker willing to do the same?

If so then…

I’d love to work with you to help the Hindi learners that visit this site! Don’t worry, I’ll still be the one doing all the work - I will send you a list of words or phrases with instructions, you’ll send me back the audio recording and then hopefully, if all goes to plan, I’ll then post it online in the lessons for everyone to use.

Would you like to offer your help to me? If so then firstly thank you very much! Please email at george@learning-hindi.com with your name, gender, age if you wish, and any thing else you want to let me know. I’ll be in touch and hopefully we’ll get the ball rolling as soon as possible! If you have any questions about this then please just email me!

In a perfect world I’d have half a dozen or so native Hindi speakers, half male and half female, of a few different ages to help. But of course right now any help at all will be appreciated and the more the merrier!

Disclaimer: This is, as mentioned, a voluntary job. As much as I’d love to offer you money I simply don’t make any profit from this site so I don’t have it to offer to you! You will of course have the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping others learn your language! If you would like me to, I will credit the audio of yours I use with the appropriate contact information, but of course this is something we can discuss.

So please, if you are a native Hindi speaker willing to spare a few minutes a week to help others learn the language and to help me with this site please email me at george@learning-hindi.com. Thank you so, so much!

Sorry anyone who was looking for a lesson today - expect the next lesson online soon!

Lesson #123: Hindi Survival Phrases!

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:20:00 +0000

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 cover today - we’re going to have a quick tour of useful phrases that will be essential in if you’re in India. If there’s any Hindi you learn before you go then this should be it! So are you ready? (If you’ve been following the lesson then you will have seen many of these before, but it’s always good to have them all in one place for some revision hey?)

Greetings

नमस्ते namaste - Hello / Goodbye

आप कैसे हैं? aap kaise hain - How are you?

मैं ठीक हूँ main theek hoon - I am fine

धन्यवाद dhanyavaad - Thank you

Speaking

हाँ haan - Yes नहीं naheen - No

अच्छा acchaa - Good / Fine / Great

   क्या आप मेरी मदद कर सकते हैं?
   kyaa aap meree madad kar sakte hain
   - Can you help me?

मैं समझा नहीं main samajhaa naheen - I don’t understand (Male)

मैं समझी नहीं main samajhee naheen - I don’t understand (Female)

मेरी हिन्दी अच्छी नहीं है meree hindee acchee naheen hai
- My Hindi isn’t good

   क्या आप अंग्रेज़ी बोल सकते हैं?
   kyaa aap angrezee bol sakte hain
   - Can you speak English?

और धीरे बोलिए aur dheere bolie - Please speak slower

   हिन्दी (अंग्रेज़ी) में ___ कैसे कहते हैं?
   hindee (angrezee) men ___ kaise kahte hain?
   - How do you say ___ in Hindi (English)?

Shopping + Ordering

यह क्या है? yeh kyaa hai - What is this?

वह क्या है? voh kyaa hai - What is that?

इसका दाम क्या है? iskaa daam kyaa hai - How much is this?

मुझे यह चाहिए mujhe yeh caahie - I want / would like this

मुझे वह नहीं चाहिए mujhe voh naheen caahie - I don’t want that

बहुत महँगा है bahut mahangaa hai - That’s very expensive

माफ़ कीजिए maaf keejie - Sorry / Excuse me

Train Station +Travel

मैं ___ जा रहा हूँ main ___ jaa rahaa hoon
- I am going to ___ (Male)

मैं ___ जा रही हूँ main ___ jaa rahee hoon
- I am going to ___ (Female)

   मैं टिकट ख़रीदना चाहता हूँ
   main tikat khareednaa caahtaa hoon
   - I want to buy a ticket (Male)

   मैं टिकट ख़रीदना चाहती हूँ
   main tikat khareednaa caahtee hoon
   - I want to buy a ticket (Female)

गाड़ी कब जाएगी? gaaree kab jaaegee -
When will the train go?

गाड़ी कब पहुँचेगी? gaaree kab pahuncegee -
When will the train arrive?

क्या दूर है? kyaa door hai - Is it far?

बायाँ baayaan - Left दायाँ daayaan - Right

Emergency

पुलिस बुलाइए pulis bulaaie - Please call the Police

मदद madad - Help! आग aag - Fire! चोर cor - Thief!

मैं बीमार हूँ main beemaar hoon - I am ill / unwell

मुझे चोट लगी mujhe cot lagee - I am injured / hurt

अस्पताल कहाँ है? aspataal kahaan hai - Where is the hospital?

टोयलेट कहाँ है? toylet kahaan hai - Where is the toilet?

मैं गर्भवती हूँ main garbhavtee hoon - I am Pregnant

Phew! That’s it for now. Of course this is very brief and short, but it should give you a little helping hand for your travels! For more detail to some of these phrases be sure to check out the Hindi Conversational Phrases section of this site.

Oh and if you ever do find yourself in an emergency in India the emergency numbers are 100 for Police, 101 for Fire Brigade and 102 for Medical. If you speak in slow and clear English you’ll find a large percentage of people will understand you, which should help if you’re ever in a pickle. Don’t be afraid to speak English!

As always please feel free to leave me a question or comment below if you have any feedback. Is there a certain phrase you want translated into Hindi? Just let me know and I’ll do everything I can to help you!

Back to Conversational Hindi.

Lesson #122: More about को ko - 'to'

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:43:00 +0000

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 ‘whistle-stop’ tour to some of the uses of को ko that we’ve already seen. We’re also going to learn a few new things about it! Are you ready to get going?

The most obvious use of को ko is ‘to’ when giving something to someone, just as we use it in English! For example we might say…

मैं माँ को कपड़ा देता हूँ main maan ko kapraa detaa hoon
- I give the cloth to Mother (Said by a Male)

Can you see here we’ve used माँ को maan ko to mean ‘to Mother’ - because that’s who we are giving it to! See it’s easy, don’t you think? This same use comes up in a bunch of other places though, which to begin with often seems unrelated!

In Hindi when we want to say ‘I like something’ we literally say ‘To me that thing is liked’. So we have to use को ko! We saw this right back in Lesson #63: Likes and Dislikes. It seems a little weird don’t you think? Let’s look a few examples…

मुझको अनानास पसंद है mujhko anaanaas pasand hai
- I like Pineapple.

Can you see that we literally say ‘to me (मुझको mujhko) Pinapple is liked’. Let’s see another example…

क्या आपको हिन्दी पसंद है? kyaa aapko hindee pasand hai
- Do you like Hindi?

Remeber that क्या kyaa at the start of a sentence turns it into a question! In this sentence we’re literally saying ‘Is to you Hindi liked?’ Remember to head to Lesson #63 to revise this. Saying ‘I want something’ uses exactly the same kind of construction, you can learn more about that over in Lesson #85!

In Imperatives (remember that’s when we tell someone to do something!) को ko has a slight different meaning. Using it gives a specificness to an object. So what does this even mean? Well let’s see an example; have a look at the two following sentences…

पानी पियो paanee piyo - Drink water

पानी को पियो paanee ko piyo - Drink the water

So what’s the difference between these two sentences? Well it’s easier than you think, when we use को ko it means we are talking about some specific water and not just water in general! In the first sentence above it’s like we’re reminding someone to keep drinking water all through the day, but in the second we’re telling someone to drink the water right in front of them! Head over the the lessons on Imperatives to learn a bit more about this!

Ready for something new? When we add को ko to Pronouns some of them can change a little. Let me show you how they change first and then I’ll show you a few examples.

I’d take a bit of a deep breath first…

मुझ mujh - ‘Me’ plus को ko - ‘To’ becomes मुझे mujhe - ‘To Me’

हम ham - ‘Us’ plus को ko - ‘To’ becomes हमें hamen - ‘To Us’

तुझ tujh - ‘You’ plus को ko - ‘To’ becomes तुझे tujhe - ‘To You’ (Intimate)

आप aap - ‘You’ plus को ko - ‘To’ is always आपको aapko - ‘To You’ (Formal)

तुम tum - ’You’ plus को ko - ‘To’ becomes तुम्हें tumhen - ‘To me’ (Informal)

इस is - ‘Him / Her’ plus को ko - ‘To’ becomes इसे ise - ‘To Him / Her’ (Close)

उस is - ‘Him / Her’ plus को ko - ‘To’ becomes उसे use - ‘To Him / Her’ (Far)

इन in - ‘Them’ plus को ko - ‘To’ becomes इन्हें inhen - ‘To Them’ (Close)

उन un - ‘Them’ plus को ko - ‘To’ becomes उन्हें unhen - ‘To Them’ (Far)

Phew! So what does this all mean then? Well, for example, whenever you want to say ‘to me’ you can either say मुझको mujhko or मुझे mujhe. Both are perfectly correct but the second is a lot more common in colloquial Hindi! They are completely interchangeable.

So returning to one of our sentences earlier we could say…

मुझे अनानास पसंद है mujhe anaanaas pasand hai
- I like Pineapple.

We’ve simply changed मुझको mujhko to मुझे mujhe - they both mean exactly the same thing! Or, to show you another example we might say…

उन्हें ताला दो unhen taalaa do - Give them the lock

Here we’re simply using उन्हें unhen to mean ‘To Them’ as we learnt above! We could just as well say उनको unko - ‘to them’, both the words mean exactly the same thing.

Phew, we’ll leave it there for today. को ko has so many more uses, it would be impossible to cover them all at once! We’ll see most of them eventually so don’t worry! Today has just been basically a round of up all the places we’ve seen the before, I hope it’s been useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions at all, I’m always here to help!

Back to Beginners Grammar.

Lesson #121: Indian McDonald's Advert

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:47:00 +0000

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! So firstly I want you to try and watch it through a few times and see what you can pick up. So here goes…

(If you see this on your tumblr dashboard click the grey square to watch the video) If you have any problems watching the video click here to watch it on Youtube. All copyrights held by their respective owners.

Phew how was that? How many times did you watch it? Go back and watch it a few more! Can you understand what’s happening? The language is all quite simple so it shouldn’t be too difficult for you.

If you are having a few problems translating and understanding the video then here’s a few phrases and words that may help you…

दोनों donon - Both सिर्फ़ sirf - Just / Only

चाहिए caahie - Want (As we saw in Lesson #85)

जमता नहीं है jamtaa naheen hai - I can’t take it!

ऐसा क्या aisaa kyaa - Really? पच्चीस paccees - Twenty-five

Oh and by the way, if you hear a word that sounds just like an English word (Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Demanding…) then it simply is that English word, don’t let it confuse you!

Incase you’re wondering a McAloo Tikki is a ‘burger’ made of potatoes (which of course you remember is आलू aaloo in Hindi!) peas, and spices. Because of Hindu and Muslim religious beliefs, there’s no beef or pork at all in any Indian McDonald’s!

Does that help you? Do you agree with me that the advert is super cute? Let me know if you have any problems or questions by leaving a comment just below and of course I’ll do my best to help. I hope you enjoyed that video!

Back to Beginners Grammar.