Hindi phrasebook

Writing

Hindi is written in the Devanāgarī (देवनागरी) script, like Nepali, Marathi and a number of other Indian languages. Learning Devanagari is not quite as difficult as you might think at first glance, but mastering it takes a while and is beyond the scope of most travellers. See Learning Devanagari for a primer. Hindi is also commonly written in the Latin alphabet in online settings.

Pronunciation

Most English speakers find Hindi pronunciation rather challenging, as there are 11 separate vowels and 35 separate consonants, employing a large number of distinctions not found in English. Don't let this intimidate you: Many speakers do not speak standard Hindi in practice but rather in regional accents which don't use as many consonants and/or vowels.

Vowels The key distinction is the difference between short and long vowels. In this phrasebook, long vowels are noted with a digraph (two letters), whereas short vowels are listed as one letter.

Common diphthongs

Consonants Hindi consonants have many qualities not familiar to native English speakers including aspiration and retroflex consonants. Aspiration means "with a puff of air", and is the difference between the sound of the letter "k" in English kin (aspirated) and skip (unaspirated). In this phrasebook, aspirated sounds are spelled with an h (so English "kin" would be khin) and unaspirated sounds without it (so "skip" is still skip). Hindi aspiration is quite forceful and it's OK to emphasize the puff. Hindi retroflex consonants, on the other hand, are not really found in English. They should be pronounced with the tongue tip curled back. Practice with a native speaker, or just pronounce as usual — you'll usually still get the message across.

Nuqta Besides vowel diacritics, Hindi also has a special diacritic for consonants, called nuqta (नुक़्ता nooq-tah). It is used to alter the pronunciation of consonants to render loanwords.

क़ q like skip but further back in the throat (IPA: q) ख़ kh like Chanukkah or Scottish loch (IPA: x) ग़ gh like Dutch geen (IPA: ɣ) ज़ z like zoo (IPA: z) झ़ zh like measure (IPA: ʒ) फ़ f like fin (IPA: f)

Stress For emphasising words don't stress them by voice (which would be regarded as a sign of aggressiveness) but add a to after them.

yuhh kyah hay? ("what's this?") → yuhh toh kyah hay? - ("what is this?") Voice should always be very low and with few changes in pitch, loudness and stress, so please: relax!. One of the only stresses found in Hindi is the last long syllable prior to the last syllable (e.g. in "dhuh-nyuh-vahd" stress "dhuh"). But it is a mil

Grammar

Gender & The 2nd Person Pronoun: Certain words have different endings depending on your gender. If you are a man, say these with an -आ suffix, and if you're a woman, -ई. However; when addressing the person respectively with ahp (आप), the masculine ending takes the plural form. This is not all that different from the behavior of other Indo-European languages, c.f. German Sie, which like ahp is also both the respectful 2nd person pronoun and plural form of address. The other two forms are the familiar toom (तुम) and intimate tōo (तू). These change the forms of certain words. Toom is for friends and peers, tōo for small children (within the family); between 'significant others' in private; traditionally to lower castes; in the past, slaves; and, paradoxically, when supplicating to the gods/God (c.f. Greek mythology). As a general rule, stick with ahp, until you become more familiar with the language and culture. Forget about tōo altogether, at the best using it would be a faux pas and at the worst, very offensive. For those reasons as well as practical ones, this section will only use the ahp form. Grammatical Gender: Like many major European languages, but not English, Hindi nouns have a grammatical gender assigned to them. There are two genders in Hindi, masculine and feminine, and even inanimate objects have a gender.

Hindi Phrases

Cultural notes Greetings: There are no time elemental greetings in conversational Hindi such as good morning, good afternoon, etc. And each religion has its own greetings. It is considered very gracious to address a person by their respective greetings, but not necessary. Namaste (नमस्ते nuh-muhss-teh) is the most ubiquitous greeting. Though of Hindu origin it is now mostly secular. You say namaste with your hands folded and by bowing slightly – but don't go overboard Japanese style! Namaste literally means "I bow to you." The original religious significance was of bowing to the soul (aht-mah) within another. It is custom to touch the feet of someone older than you when saying namaste. Namaskār (नमस्कार nuh-muhss-kahr) has the same meaning, but is used less often in Hindi, though it is common in other Indian languages such as Gujarati and Bengali. Namaskār is thought of as more formal, and as such is used more often when addressing a group or a person of importance. The Sikhs also fold their hands and bow, but have their own greetings. Sat śrī akāl (सत श्री अकाल suht shree uh-kahl) is the most common, which comes from the Punjabi ਸਤਿ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਅਕਾਲ meaning "God alone is Truth." Though Sikh people are mostly found in the Punjab region of India, Punjabi greetings are used by Sikhs all over the world. After meeting someone for the first time आपसे मिलकर बहुत खुशी हुई (ahp-seh mil-kuhr buh-hoot khoo-shee hoo-ee) may be said, meaning "I'm very happy to meet you." Civilities: In Western cultures, phrases like please, thank you, you're welcome, excuse me, sorry, etc. are so ingrained into the people from a young age that they say them without a second thought. Not so for Indians. Saying such phrases in an inappropriate circumstance might even embarrass the person, or cheapen the gravity of the phrase itself. These phrases are only said in a sincere sense. For example, don't say धन्यवाद (dhuh-nyuh-vahd, thank you) after a clerk hands you your grocery bag, but when someone goes out of their way to do something nice for you. Sometimes, English words themselves are used; due to the British colonial influence, especially in urban areas and among the upper class. In this case,

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