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Today, we look at the letter र. This will be represented in English letters as ra. In this episode we will see this letter at the beginning of words, in the middle of words, and at the end of some words. We will also look at this letter with some other vowels.
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One of the first things you want to learn when meeting someone is their name.  Use the phrase आपका नाम क्या है? (aap-ka naam kyaa hai?).

Let us look at each of the words in this sentence.

आपका (aap-kaa) is made of two parts.  First is the word “आप” (aap) which means “you”.  There are several versions of “you” in Hindi.  This is the most formal and polite.  When we add “का” (kaa) to it, we change the meaning from “you” to “yours”.  The का (kaa) show’s possession and can be used in much the same way as apostrophe s, i.e. ” ‘s ” is in English.

The next word is नाम (naam).  This word means “name”. 

क्या (kyaa) means “what”

है (hai) means “is”.

Notice that in English we say “What is your name?” but the structure of this sentence in Hindi is “Your name what is?”.  You will notice this different sentence order in a lot of Hindi sentences with the verb coming at the end of the sentence.

Let us hear some other Hindi speakers say this phrase.  Try repeating it just like they do.

Now, next time you meet a Hindi speaker, you can ask their name!

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Today we look at the letter य

In English we write this as ya

In today’s lesson, we look at this letter and the sound it makes in a variety of words. Practice hearing this word at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of words. Also, hear it pronounced with several different matras/vowels.
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This is the first of our “Phrase Focus” episodes where we focus on just learning one phrase.  (Ok, ok, today it is really just a word, but just you wait until next week :-) )  Today’s phase is “नमस्ते (na-ma-ste)”

“na-ma-ste” (नमस्ते) can be used to greet someone.  It is very similar to “hello” in English (though you will find “Hello” is common among Hindi speakers as well.)  It can also be used when parting, though other phrases are common for that as well “See you soon” which are covered in other sessions.

नमस्ते is made of 3 groups of letters.  Let us go over each one:

न – na

म – ma

स्ते which in itself is a combination of 3 characters.  स (sa) + त (ta) + ए (e).  It is actually a “half” स (sa) because the vowel part gets dropped and combined with the next letter त (ta) to make a “sta” स्त and finally that “a” अ is dropped at the end and replaced with an “e” ए.

Remember to say “na-ma-ste” (नमस्ते) to people you meet.

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Today we will be looking at words that have the long “i” ई sound.  You will see many common words that contain this matra/vowel.  Try practicing finding this vowel in combination with other consonants in the word find provided.  Also, be sure and pay attention to the gender of the nouns.  This will be important to remember when making sentences using these words. download wordfind

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