When we first start learning Hindi, the word order appears backwards to us because the verb (the doing word) appears near the beginning of English sentences whereas, in Hindi, it’s at the end. A phrase like “I went home” translates to मैं घर गया, and translating that word-for-word to English looks like “I home went.” […]
Hindi isn’t alone in having masculine or feminine genders for words; French, Gaelic, and Spanish also have genders. And as you already know, English words don’t have genders. For example, in English, the word small doesn’t change whether we’re saying “small boy” or “small girl.” But in Hindi there’s छोटा लड़का and for feminine छोटी […]
In Hindi, we have 45 letters and then conjunct letters (letters that join together) to learn. Then there are also 100 numbers without an easy pattern to remember. Sounds scary, huh? Don’t worry. It’s not so hard, so here’s how to learn the Hindi alphabet and its numbers.
A number of the consonants in Hindi have unaspirated and aspirated forms. Aspirated means you pronounce the same sound but with slightly more force. Let’s learn how to pronounce them.
Correct pronunciation is the most crucial part of learning any language. So, fittingly, the first two challenges I faced while learning Hindi were with pronunciation. Articulation is the most fundamental thing you have to get right to be understood. For English speakers, Hindi pronunciation takes time to learn because some of these sounds are new […]
The final thing I did while learning Hindi (and still do!) is I keep a small notebook with me. The front half of the book is dedicated to grammar notes from YouTube or book lessons.
Books and self-practice can only take you so far when learning a language. That’s why you must have that language practice buddy. But there’s one other important thing that I do:
Learning a language takes commitment and dedication. The hardest part of learning any language is committing to a set amount of study each day. I know this because I’ve fallen into week—and month-long periods where my Hindi practice was forgotten entirely. To keep me motivated and moving forward, I’ve reserved one hour daily for study […]
There are two places I recommend starting when you begin to learn to speak Hindi (after you’ve learnt to read). There’s a book by Rupert Snell called Complete Hindi and the Hindi University YouTube channel. I’ll show you how I use them both.
This was the biggest mistake I made in my Hindi learning journey: I took advice from “experts” who said, “Always learn to speak first, then write.” This advice is fine for most languages, but most languages don’t have an alphabet where 8 letters sound incredibly similar to each other! So, let’s see why reading Hindi […]