Conversational Hindi - Lesson 1

I thought that it would perhaps be interesting to start a series of posts on conversational Hindi. There are a few sites on the internet that teach Hindi vocabulary, but seem to overlook the wonderfully unique way of phrasing things that Indians have. You can study Hindi grammar and vocabulary for days, months, even years - but never be understood by native speakers, only because you cannot literally translate English sayings into Hindi sayings.

So, let's start with the basics.

This YouTube video does a good job of noting the difference between the ways that Hindi is spoken versus written.

There are three main variants of Hindi in India. First is Hindi proper, which is the official language of India and uses lots of Sanskrit loanwords. Secondly, there is Urdu, which is practically indistinguishable from Hindi aside from three important differences: Urdu uses the Persian-Arabic script, uses lots of Persian-Arabic loanwords, and it is mainly used by Muslims in the northwestern states and Pakistan. Thirdly, there is Hindustani, which is a neutral blend of the two. It is used in regular, informal speech. The standard dialect of Hindi is Khariboli.

Namaste (नमस्ते) is the typical greeting. It can mean both 'hello' and 'goodbye'. Namaskar (नमस्कार) is a more formal variant of namaste. But if you really want to show respect to someone - and in Indian society, this means someone who is your elder or your superior - the proper greeting is Pranaam, ji (प्रणाम, जी). Generally, the word ji (जी) is used to denote respect. All of these greetings are accompanied by a palms-together, hands-at-the-heart gesture. A slight bow is also appropriate - but slight is the watchword. In fact, a polite nod will often do. A fulling bending bow as we see in other eastern Asian societies is unnecessary.

Aap se mil ker buhut khushi hui (आप से मिल केर बहुत ख़ुशी हुई) is an approximate transliteration of 'pleased to meet you'. The pronunciation of 'bahut' (बहुत) is a bit different from the way it appears to be written.

Now, the speaker in the video claims that to say 'How are you?', you would say Kaise hain aap? (कैसे हैं आप?) I do not doubt that he is being authentic, but in truth, I have never heard it spoken this way before. I am most familiar with Aap kaise hain? (आप कैसे हैं?)

Aap ka naam kya hai? (आप का नाम क्या है?) - 'What is your name?'

Mera naam Gracie hai. (मेरा नाम ग्रसी है) - 'My name is Gracie.'

Aap ka shubh naam? (आप का शुभ नाम?) Oftentimes, you will be asked for your "good name." An example of a proper response would be:

Mera naam sriram hai. (मेरा नाम श्रीराम है) - 'My name is Sri (Mr.) Ram.' Your good name would be Mr. (Sri - श्री) or Mrs. (Srimati - श्रीमती) Full Name. The prefix kumari [(कुमारी) - lit. 'virgin'] is used for unmarried girls. If you are an unmarried woman, shushri (शुश्री) is the modern equivalent of Ms.

As with the prefixes, you can show someone respect by adding Sahib (साहिब) or Begum Sahib (बेगम साहिब) after their last name. 'Sahib' is used for men, whereas 'begum sahib' is used for women.

There is an interesting blog post by gappa on the different surnames across the states of India. Indian names can be quite confusing at times. The naming system is completely different than the western system of First, Middle, Last names.

Anyway, perhaps I'll dedicate an entire post to addressing Indian people properly some other time. Let's keep going, shall we? Almost done.

Aap kahan ke rehne wale hain? - (आप कहाँ के रहने वाले हैं?) Where are you from?

Mein Dilli ka rehne wali hoon. - (में दिल्ली का रहने वाली हूँ) I am from (Delhi). [Feminine]

Mein Dilli ka rehne wala hoon. - (मैं दिल्ली का रहने वाला हूँ) I am from (Delhi). [Masculine]

Note the difference between wali and wala. The distinction between feminine and masculine is very easy to remember in Hindi. Feminine words end in -i while masculine words end in -a.

That's all for today! Don't worry if you cannot read the Devanagari script for now. I think it will be easier to understand it if you know how to say a few things in Hindi first, just as a child learns to speak a few words before learning to read.