Learn about asking simple questions and how to interpret "the nod"
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Neha: "Namaste," I'm Neha. and welcome to the Absolute Beginner Series, Lesson 16, Changing Hindi Statements into Questions. |
| Maya: "Namaste," I'm Maya In this lesson you'll learn how ask simple questions in Hindi. |
| Neha: The conversation takes place in a hotel. |
| Maya: This conversation is between Jane, the hotel guest, and Sita, the hotel receptionist. |
| Neha: Since they do not know each other and are at a formal setting, they will be using formal Hindi. |
| Maya: Let's listen to their conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| सीता (SiiTaa): नमस्ते, जेन जी। आप ठीक हैं? (NamaSTe, jeN jii. aap thiik hain?) |
| जेन (jeN): मैं ठीक हूँ, धन्यवाद। आज बहुत गर्मी है! (main thiik huun, DHaNyavaaD. aaj bahuT garmii hai!) |
| सीता (SiiTaa): जी बहुत गर्मी है। क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? (jii bahuT garmii hai. kyaa main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTii huun?) |
| जेन (jeN): धन्यवाद! क्या पीने के लिए ठंडा पानी है? (DHaNyavaaD! kyaa piiNe ke Liye thandaa paaNii hai?) |
| Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| सीता (SiiTaa): नमस्ते, जेन जी। आप ठीक हैं? (NamaSTe, jeN jii. aap thiik hain?) |
| जेन (jeN): मैं ठीक हूँ, धन्यवाद। आज बहुत गर्मी है! (main thiik huun, DHaNyavaaD. aaj bahuT garmii hai!) |
| सीता (SiiTaa): जी बहुत गर्मी है। क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? (jii bahuT garmii hai. kyaa main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTii huun?) |
| जेन (jeN): धन्यवाद! क्या पीने के लिए ठंडा पानी है? (DHaNyavaaD! kyaa piiNe ke Liye thandaa paaNii hai?) |
| Let's listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| सीता (SiiTaa): नमस्ते, जेन जी। आप ठीक हैं? (NamaSTe, jeN jii. aap thiik hain?) |
| Maya: Hello Ms Jane. Are you alright? |
| जेन (jeN): मैं ठीक हूँ, धन्यवाद। आज बहुत गर्मी है! (main thiik huun, DHaNyavaaD. aaj bahuT garmii hai!) |
| Maya:I am alright, thank you. Today is very hot! |
| सीता (SiiTaa): जी बहुत गर्मी है। क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? (jii bahuT garmii hai. kyaa main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTii huun?) |
| Maya:Yes it's very hot. Can I help you with anything? |
| जेन (jeN): धन्यवाद! क्या पीने के लिए ठंडा पानी है? (DHaNyavaaD! kyaa piiNe ke Liye thandaa paaNii hai?) |
| Maya: Thank you! Do you have some cold water to drink? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Maya: A lot of the Hindi language is in the tone. Most statements in Hindi can turn into questions without changing anything but the intonation. |
| Neha: Yes, and Indian people use a lot of head gestures while speaking. |
| Maya: Some tourists need to get used to what a "yes" nod is, what a "no" shake is, and what a "maybe" wriggle is. |
| Neha: Actually, "yes" might not be the typical nod from top to bottom that most people are used to. It can be a swing of the head from side to side. |
| Maya: In fact, you can't rely on gestures alone... you also need to infer from other things like expressions and body stance. |
| Neha: Subtle changes in the angle and degree of the head movement can imply totally opposite things, "yes" or "no," so you need to be careful when interpreting these things. |
| Maya: Good advice. Okay, let's move onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Maya: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is: |
| Neha: आप (aap). |
| Maya: you (formal). |
| Neha: आप (aap), आप (aap). |
| Maya: Next is: |
| Neha: ठीक (thiik). |
| Maya: alright/well. |
| Neha: ठीक (thiik), ठीक (thiik). |
| Maya: Next is: |
| Neha: धन्यवाद (DHaNyavaaD). |
| Maya: thank you. |
| Neha: धन्यवाद (DHaNyavaaD), धन्यवाद (DHaNyavaaD). |
| Maya: Next is: |
| Neha: आज (aaj). |
| Maya: today. |
| Neha: आज (aaj), आज (aaj). |
| Maya: Next is: |
| Neha: बहुत (bahuT). |
| Maya: very/a lot. |
| Neha: बहुत (bahuT), बहुत (bahuT). |
| Maya: Next is: |
| Neha: गर्मी (garmii). |
| Maya: hot weather. |
| Neha: गर्मी (garmii), गर्मी (garmii). |
| Maya: Next is: |
| Neha: मदद (maDaD). |
| Maya: help. |
| Neha: मदद (maDaD), मदद (maDaD). |
| Maya: Next is: |
| Neha: ठंडा पानी (thandaa paaNii). |
| Maya: cold water. |
| Neha: ठंडा पानी (thandaa paaNii), ठंडा पानी (thandaa paaNii). |
| Maya: Last we have is: |
| Neha: सकती (SakaTii). |
| Maya: can (female). |
| Neha: सकती (SakaTii), सकती (SakaTii). |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Maya: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Neha: A very useful word to know in Hindi is the adverb बहुत (bahuT), which means "very" or "a lot." |
| Maya: It's also easy to use because unlike some adverbs, it doesn't inflect according to the gender and the number of the subject. |
| Neha: Yes, with adverbs the general rule is that those that end with a -आ (-aa) are inflecting adverbs while the rest aren't. |
| Maya: Since बहुत (bahuT) doesn't end with a -आ (-aa), it stays the same. Let's listen to some examples. "Very hot" in Hindi is... |
| Neha: बहुत गर्म (bahuT garm). |
| Maya: But “Very hot in terms of weather” is... |
| Neha: बहुत गर्मी (bahuT garmii). |
| Maya: "Very cold" is... |
| Neha: बहुत ठंडा (bahuT thandaa). |
| Maya: But “Very cold in terms of weather” is... |
| Neha: बहुत सर्दी (bahuT SarDii). |
| Maya: "Very tall" in case of male subjects is... |
| Neha: बहुत लम्बा (bahuT Lambaa). |
| Maya: And "very tall" in case of female subjects is... |
| Neha: बहुत लम्बी (bahuT Lambii). |
| Maya: Now let's look at another word. |
| Neha: मदद (maDaD) is a noun that means "help." |
| Maya: And all Hindi nouns have gender. They are either masculine or feminine and मदद (maDaD) is a feminine noun. |
| Neha: So, all the pronouns and adjectives associated with it will take their feminine forms, which means that whether you're a man or a woman, you'll always say मेरी मदद (merii maDaD), which means "my help." |
| Maya: "Your help" would be... |
| Neha: तुम्हारी मदद (Tumhaarii maDaD) if you're speaking informally and आपकी मदद (aapakii maDaD) if you are speaking formally. |
| Maya: The last word we'll look at is the verb "can," which is... |
| Neha: सकना (SakaNaa). For singular masculine cases, you use सकता (SakaTaa). For plural masculine cases you use सकते (SakaTe). And for singular and plural feminine cases you use सकती (SakaTii). |
| Maya: So for example, if you are a male and you want to say, "I can." you'd say मैं सकता हूँ। (main SakaTaa huun.). |
| Neha: That's right! And if you are a female, you'd say, मैं सकती हूँ। (main SakaTii huun.). |
Lesson focus |
| Maya: Let's move on to the main focus of this lesson. Today we’re going to learn how to ask simple questions in Hindi. |
| Neha: Okay. So, in English if you were to change simple statements into questions you'd have to change the verb order. |
| Maya: For example, if you wanted to turn the statement, "This is your house" into a question, you'd arrange it such that the verb comes at the beginning and it becomes "Is this your house?" |
| Neha: Well, in Hindi, none of this is necessary! In Hindi sentences verbs always come last and in an interrogative sentence they stay the same. |
| Maya: The question is indicated by the tone of the speech, you know, the questioning tone? |
| Neha: Why don't we look at some examples? |
| Maya: Yes, let's take the sentence "I can help you." |
| Neha: Now if you are a female speaker, you'd say, मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ। (main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTii huun.). |
| Maya: And its question form "Can I help you?" would be... |
| Neha: मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? (main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTii huun?). |
| Maya: Did you notice that nothing changed except for the tone? |
| Neha: Okay, another example, this time for a male speaker. Here you just need to change the words for "I can" from सकती हूँ (SakaTii huun) to सकता हूँ (SakaTaa huun). |
| Maya: So if you are a male speaker and wanted to say "I can help you," you'd say... |
| Neha: मैं आपकी मदद कर सकता हूँ। (main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTaa huun.) |
| Maya: And to change that into the question "Can I help you?" you'd say... |
| Neha: मैं आपकी मदद कर सकता हूँ? (main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTaa huun?) |
| Maya: Instead of turning statements into questions with the change of tone, you can also add the word क्या (kyaa) for emphasis. |
| Neha: Yes and it always goes at the beginning of the question and loses its usual meaning which is "what." |
| Maya: So, if you are a female and wanted to ask "Can I help you?" you'd say... |
| Neha: क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? (kyaa main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTii huun?) |
| Maya: Right! And if you are a male, you'd say... |
| Neha: क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकता हूँ? (kyaa main aapakii maDaD kar SakaTaa huun?) |
| Maya: Okay, now one final example before we end this lesson. So, how do you say "This is your house " in Hindi? |
| Neha: Well, "this" is यह (yah), "your" is आपका (aapakaa), and "house" is घर (ghar). So it would be यह आपका घर है। (yah aapakaa ghar hai.). |
| Maya: Now what would be its question form, "Is this your house?" |
| Neha: क्या यह आपका घर है? (kyaa yah aapakaa ghar hai?) |
| Maya: Okay, let's practice the intonation. Listeners, please say "This is your house.". |
| Neha: यह आपका घर है। (yah aapakaa ghar hai.) |
| Maya: Okay, now make it a question and say, "Is this your house?". |
| Neha: क्या यह आपका घर है? (kyaa yah aapakaa ghar hai?) |
| Maya: That was easy right? Just remember to change the tone or simply add क्या (kyaa) in front and you're good to go. |
| Neha: Great! Please also read through the lesson notes for more examples and explanations on this topic. |
| Maya: They will be a lot of help. Thank you for listening. Until next time! |
| Neha: शुक्रिया और फिर मिलेंगे! (sukriyaa aur phir miLenge!) |
Comments
Hide