Hindi — Basic

Hindi — Basic Level

Hindi is an official language of India, spoken natively by approximately 500 million people and understood by many more. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch and shares its roots with Sanskrit, giving it structural similarities to other Indo-European languages — including some parallels with English.

The Sound System

Hindi has a larger consonant inventory than English, including aspirated/unaspirated pairs and retroflex consonants that don't exist in English:

• Aspirated vs. unaspirated: क (k) vs. ख (kh) — the h indicates a puff of air. प (p) vs. फ (ph). These pairs make different words.
• Retroflexes: ट, ठ, ड, ढ, ण — tongue curls back to touch roof of mouth. These are the consonants most distinctive to the subcontinent's languages.
• Aspirates: ग, घ, ज, झ etc. — voiced versions of the above.

The vowel distinction between short and long is significant: इ vs. ई, उ vs. ऊ (short/long i and u).

Essential Phrases

Greetings: नमस्ते Namaste, आप कैसे हैं? Āp kaise hain? (How are you? — formal to a man), आप कैसी हैं? Āp kaisī hain? (How are you? — formal to a woman), मैं ठीक हूँ Main ṭhīk hūn (I am fine), धन्यवाद Dhanyavād (Thank you — formal), शुक्रिया Shukriyā (Thank you — slightly more casual, Urdu origin)

Navigation: कहाँ है? Kahān hai? (Where is…?), बाथरूम कहाँ है? Bāthrūm kahān hai? (Where is the bathroom?), कितने का है? Kitne kā hai? (How much is it?)

Numbers: एक, दो, तीन, चार, पाँच, छह, सात, आठ, नौ, दस (ek, do, tīn, cār, pānch, chhah, sāt, āṭh, nau, das)

Grammar: SOV with Gender

Hindi is SOV (Subject-Object-Verb). Verbs agree with subject gender and number:

• मैं जाता हूँ (Main jātā hūn — I go — masculine speaker)
• मैं जाती हूँ (Main jātī hūn — I go — feminine speaker)

The same sentence changes based on who is speaking. This gender tracking in verbs is the most common challenge for Hindi learners.