What do you think about  India?  “India is a wonderful country.”  This is the phrase for today.  Also, learn the vowel ई.  Did you get the mystery word from yesterday?  If not don’t feel blue, because it was actually the word “blue”, नीला.  Try understanding the mystery word from today and check in tomorrow to see if you got it correct.  Did you try the grammar exercise yesterday?  Check to see if you got the answers correct.  Today, we expand our understanding of the past tense by looking at transitive verbs.  We close out the show by looking at the nouns in the clever bird story and hear Meena ji read it.

Phrase of the Day

India is a wonderful country.

भारत एक अद्भुत देश है।

(bhā-rat ēk ad-bhut dēś hai.)

Letter and Sound of the Day

ई (ī)

If you have the Hindi Alphabet cards, this is the card you need to focus on today.

If you are interested in learning your letters, then I would recommend that you get the Hindi Letter Flashcards.

कोई (kōī) – some

 

कई (kaī) – many, several

 

ई also has a dependent/matra form.  See it colored in red below.

लड़की (laṛ-kī) – girl

 

बेटी (bē-ṭī) – daughter

 

रही (ra-hī) – (used in the continuous/progressive tenses)

 

थी (thī) – was (feminine/singular)

 

Mystery Word from Last Episode

नीला (nī-lā) – blue

आकाश नीला है। (ā-kāś nī-lā hai.) The sky is blue.

Related words:

red – लाल (lāl)

yellow – पीला (pī-lā)

black – काला (kā-lā)

green – हरा (ha-rā)

white – सफ़ेद (sa-fēd)

New Mystery Word

Grammar Exercise Answers from Last Episode

I swam.

(masculine)  मैं तैरा।  (maĩ tai-rā.)

(feminine)  मैं तैरी। (maĩ tai-rī.)

 

We ran.

हम दौड़े।  (ham dau-ṛē.)

(all female group) हम दौड़ी। (ham dau-ṛī.)

 

You got up.

Formal:

(masculine)  आप उठे। (āp u-ṭhē.)

(feminine)  आप उठी। (āp u-ṭhī.)

Informal:

(masculine)  तुम उठे। (tum u-ṭhē)

(feminine) तुम उठी। (tum u-ṭhī)

 

He slept.

वह सोया।

(vah sō-yā.)

 

She danced.

वह नाची।

vah nā-cī.

 

They came.

वे आये। (vē ā-yē.)

(all female group)  वे आयी। (vē ā-yī.)

 

Grammar Review

 

Yesterday we looked at the past tense with the intransitive verbs.  We learned that the past tense can be formed by taking the verb stem and adding आ (ā), ए (ē), or ई (ī).  And that no helping verb is used with the simple past tense.  With intransitive verbs like आना (ā-nā) to come and सोना (sō-nā) to sleep, the verb agrees with the subject just as it does in the English sentence.

It is different with transitive verbs.  What is a transitive verb?  A transitive verb is a verb that can take a direct object.  Even if no direct object is used, the rule we discuss today applies.  Let us look at some examples in English:

I ate the food.

I wrote a letter.

I read a book.

In each of these English sentences, “I” is the subject of the sentence.  In Hindi, the grammar is different.  The object becomes the subject of the sentence, and the verb agrees with the gender and number of the direct object, not the person doing the action.  The person doing the action is denoted with the postposition ने (nē).    Here is an example:

I ate the food.

मैं ने खाना खाया।

(maĩ nē khā-nā khā-yā.)

I should point out that when using the postposition ने (nē), मैं (maĩ) does not change to मुझ (mujh) like it does with other postpositions.

This sentence can be said by both a man or a woman without any change.  खाया (khā-yā) the verb meaning “ate” agrees with खाना (khā-nā)  “food” and not with the person represented by मैं (maĩ).

I wrote a letter.

मैं ने पत्र लिखा।

(maĩ nē patr li-khā.)

 

Compare this to this sentence:

I wrote two letters.

मैं ने दो पत्र लिखे।

(maĩ nē dō patr li-khē.)

 

See लिखा (li-khā) changed to लिखे (li-khē) because it now agrees with a plural, masculine object.

I read a book.

मैं ने किताब पढ़ी।

(maĩ nē ki-tāb pa-ṛhī.)

Since किताब (ki-tāb), book, is feminine the verb has the ई (ī) ending to agree with it.

Let us look at some more examples using the verb खाना (khā-nā) to eat with the following objects:

सेब (sēb) – apple (m)

मिठाई (mi-ṭhā-ī) – sweet (f)

We ate one apple.

हम ने एक सेब खाया।

(ham nē ēk sēb khā-yā.)

 

We ate two apples.

हम ने दो सेब खाये।

(ham nē dō sēb khā-yē.)

 

We ate one sweet.

हम ने एक मिठाई खायी।

(ham nē ēk mi-ṭhā-ī khā-yī.)

 

We ate two sweets.

हम ने दो मिठाइयाँ खायी।

(ham nē dō mi-ṭhā-i-yān khā-yī.)

 

You can change the above sentences to “I ate one apple.” by switching out हम ने (ham nē) with मैं ने (maĩ nē).

Also, you can change it to “you ate…” (formal) by changing हम ने (ham nē) to आप ने (āp nē).

The informal “you”, use तुम ने (tum nē) (तुम (tum) does not change when used with ने (nē))

“He” or “She”, use उस ने (us nē)

“They” use उन्हों ने (un-hōn nē) (Normally you use उन (un) with a postposition.)

 

What do you do when there is no direct object mentioned?  Then the verb is in the masculine singular form.  Here are some examples:

I ate.

मैं ने खाया।

(maĩ nē khā-yā)

 

I wrote.

मैं ने लिखा।

(maĩ nē li-khā.)

 

I read.

मैं ने पढ़ा।

(maĩ nē pa-ṛhā.)

 

Now you try it.

Use these verbs:

खाना (khā-nā)– to eat

बनाना (ba-nā-nā)– to make

Use these nouns as direct objects.

रोटी (rō-ṭī)– bread (f)

सेब (sēb) – apple (m)

मेज़ (mēz) – table (f)

दरवाज़ा (dar-vā-zā)– door (m)

 

Try to translate these sentences:

He ate.

They made.

She ate bread.

We ate bread.

I ate one apple.

They made two tables.

Ram made a door.

 

Try making up some of your own sentences using these verbs in the past tense and leave them as a comment on the website.

—-

The transliterations stop at this point in the show.  If you need the transliterations, then use this website http://devtransliteration.appspot.com/

—-

Something More Advanced

Today, we will start to go over the “Smart Crow” story looking at the nouns.

(You can go by the  NYU site to see more information about the story at http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/mideast/hindi/stories/crow.html)

कौआ -crow

एक बार – one time

पानी – water

घड़ा – pitcher/waterpot

चोंच – beak

कंकड़ –stone

तरह – manner

 

समझदार कौआ

एक बार बड़ी गरमी पड़ रही थी | एक कौआ बड़ा प्यासा था | उसने इधर उधर उड़कर पानी ढूँढा | पानी कहीं न मिला | अचानक उसे एक घड़ा दिखाई दिया |
कौआ बहुत खुश हुआ | वह उड़कर घड़े के पास पहुँचा | लेकिन घड़े में पानी कम था | इसलिए कौए की चोंच पानी तक न पहुँच सकी |
कौए ने एक उपाय सोचा | वह अपनी चोंच से कंकड़ उठाकर घड़े में डालने लगा | एक – दो – तीन – चार – पाँच – छह – सात – आठ – नौ – दस – इसी तरह कौआ घड़े में कंकड़ डालता गया – डालता गया |
धीरे-धीरे घड़े का पानी ऊपर चढ़ आया | कौआ घड़े पर जा बैठा | लो उसकी चोंच पानी तक पहुँच गई |
कौए ने खूब पानी पिया | फ़िर वह पेड़ पर आराम करने चला गया |

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