Learn how to reply "yes" and "no," to negate sentences, and a little bit about Indian cuisine
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Neha: "Namaste," I'm Neha. |
| Maya: "Namaste," I'm Maya, and welcome to the Absolute Beginner Series, Lesson 4, Yes, No, and Not in Hindi. |
| Neha: In this lesson you’ll learn how to say "Yes" and "No" to questions in Hindi and also to change statements into their negatives. |
| Maya: The conversation takes place in a restaurant. |
| Neha: It's between Carol and Kalpana who have only met recently. |
| Maya: They don't know each other all that well since they are new acquaintances and so they will be using formal Hindi. |
| Neha: Let's listen to their conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
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| कैरल (kairaL): आप शाकाहारी हैं? (aap saakaahaarii hain?) |
| कल्पना (kaLpaNaa): नहीं, मैं शाकाहारी नहीं हूँ। (Nahiin, main saakaahaarii Nahiin huun.) |
| कैरल (kairaL): तो आप मांसाहारी हैं? (To aap maanSaahaarii hain?) |
| कल्पना (kaLpaNaa): जी हाँ। लेकिन मैं सिर्फ़ गोमांस नहीं खाती हूँ। (Jii haan. LekiN main Sirf gomaanS Nahiin khaaTii huun.) |
| Neha: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| कैरल (kairaL): आप शाकाहारी हैं? (aap saakaahaarii hain?) |
| कल्पना (kaLpaNaa): नहीं, मैं शाकाहारी नहीं हूँ। (Nahiin, main saakaahaarii Nahiin huun.) |
| कैरल (kairaL): तो आप मांसाहारी हैं? (To aap maanSaahaarii hain?) |
| कल्पना (kaLpaNaa): जी हाँ। लेकिन मैं सिर्फ़ गोमांस नहीं खाती हूँ। (Jii haan. LekiN main Sirf gomaanS Nahiin khaaTii huun.) |
| Maya: Let's now listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| कैरल (kairaL): आप शाकाहारी हैं? (aap saakaahaarii hain?) |
| Neha: "Are you a vegetarian?" |
| कल्पना (kaLpaNaa): नहीं, मैं शाकाहारी नहीं हूँ। (Nahiin, main saakaahaarii Nahiin huun.) |
| Maya: " No, I am not a vegetarian." |
| कैरल (kairaL): तो आप मांसाहारी हैं? (To aap maanSaahaarii hain?) |
| Neha: "So you are a non-vegetarian then?" |
| कल्पना (kaLpaNaa): जी हाँ। लेकिन मैं सिर्फ़ गोमांस नहीं खाती हूँ। (Jii haan. LekiN main Sirf gomaanS Nahiin khaaTii huun.) |
| Maya: "Yes. But I just don't eat beef." |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Neha: Most of you are probably familiar with Indian cuisine. |
| Maya: Yes, I think a lot of you have tried at least some variation of Indian curry - rich with spices and herbs. |
| Neha: Just talking about Indian food makes my mouth water. |
| Maya: Mine too! |
| Neha: But you know, one usually thinks of chicken curry and mutton curry when talking about Indian curries, but there are also so many vegetarian dishes in Indian cuisine. |
| Maya: I was actually very surprised when I first found out that the majority of people in some states are vegetarians! |
| Neha: That's very true. Gujarati cuisine is mostly vegetarian. Many other states like Rajasthan and Punjab Haryana have a large vegetarian population. |
| Maya: And there are many reasons why people practice it. Some do it for health reasons while others for ethical and religious reasons. |
| Neha: And let's not forget economic reasons. Meat products are more expensive than vegetables. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Maya: Yes, but enough about food or else I won't be able to concentrate with all those delicious "samosas" and "dosas" and "tandoories" swimming in my head. |
| Neha: Haha, that's no good. We need Hindi words swimming in everyone's head! Anyway, going on to our vocabulary section.... |
| Maya: We'll first say the words at natural speed, then a bit slower, and finally we'll give you the meaning. |
| Neha: So, are you ready? Our first word is आप (aap), आ-प (aa-pa), आप (aap). |
| Maya: Which is a formal "you." |
| Neha: Next, we have शाकाहारी (saakaahaarii), शा-का-हा-री (saa-kaa-haa-rii), शाकाहारी (saakaahaarii). |
| Maya: Which means "vegetarian." |
| Neha: Then is नहीं (Nahiin), नहीं (Na-hiin), नहीं (Nahiin). |
| Maya: Which means "no" or "not." |
| Neha: Next is तो (To), तो (To), तो (To). |
| Maya: Which is a conjunctive word meaning "so." |
| Neha: Then is, मांसाहारी (maanSaahaarii), मां-सा-हा-री (maan-Saa-haa-rii), मांसाहारी (maanSaahaarii). |
| Maya: Which means "non-vegetarian." |
| Neha: Next is जी हाँ (jii haan), जी हाँ (jii haan), जी हाँ (jii haan). |
| Maya: Which is a formal way of saying "yes." |
| Neha: Next we have लेकिन (LekiN), ले-किन (Le-kiN), लेकिन (LekiN). |
| Maya: Which is a conjunctive work meaning "but." |
| Neha: Next is सिर्फ़ (Sirf), सिर्-फ़ (Sir-fa), सिर्फ़ (Sirf). |
| Maya: Which means "only." |
| Neha: Next we have गोमांस (gomaanS), गो-मां-स (go-maan-Sa), गोमांस (gomaanS). |
| Maya: Which means "beef." |
| Neha: And lastly, we have खाती हूँ (khaaTii huun), खा-ती हूँ (khaa-Tii huun),खाती हूँ (khaaTii huun). |
| Maya: Which means "I eat." |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Neha: Wow, there are a lot of new words in this lesson. |
| Maya: Which is good news, right? Okay, let's look at the phrase, "I eat." |
| Neha: खाती हूँ (khaaTii huun). Actually to make a complete sentence, this must be, मैं खाती हूँ (main khaaTii huun) where मैं (main) means "I,", खाती (khaaTii) is "to eat," and हूँ (huun) is the to-be verb "am." |
| Maya: So, मैं खाती हूँ (main khaaTii huun) literally means, "I eat am," but translates as "I eat." |
| Neha: Here, खाती (khaaTii) comes from the root verb खाना (khaaNaa), which means "to eat." |
| Maya: Wait! Before you go any further, I want to remind the listeners of one important thing. Do you all remember that in Lesson 3, we talked about adjectives and how they inflect depending on the gender of the subject, i.e., whether it's masculine or feminine? |
| Neha: And they must also agree with the number of the subject, i.e. whether it is singular or plural? |
| Maya: Well, verbs behave the same way in Hindi. |
| Neha: When the subject is a male, then the root verb ends with a -ता (-Taa) but when the subject is a female, it ends with a -ती (-Tii). |
| Maya: So can you guess the gender of the person saying मैं खाती हूँ (main khaaTii huun)? |
| Neha: Easy. The verb खाती (khaaTii) ends with a -ती (-Tii) and therefore it's being said by a female. |
| Maya: Perfect. What would you say if you were a male? |
| Neha: For this remember that all you have to do is change the verb by adding -ता (-Taa). So it would be मैं खाता हूँ (main khaaTaa huun). |
| Maya: Easy right? खाता (khaaTaa) for a male and खाती (khaaTii) for a female. |
Lesson focus |
| Neha: Yes. Let's now focus on learning how to say "yes", and "no" in Hindi. So, हाँ (haan) means "yes," and नहीं (Nahiin) means "no" and "not" both. |
| Maya: You see, in Hindi, नहीं (Nahiin) can mean either "no" or "not" depending on where it's placed in a sentence. |
| Neha: हाँ (haan) and नहीं (Nahiin) both have a nasal sound to them. |
| Maya: Let's listen and repeat. |
| Neha: हाँ (haan), हाँ (haan), हाँ (haan). |
| Maya: Which means "yes." |
| Neha: नहीं (Nahiin), न-हीं (Na-hiin), नहीं (Nahiin). |
| Maya: Which means "no" or "not." |
| Neha: If you want to be respectful you add जी (jii) in front of हाँ (haan) and say जी हाँ (jii haan). |
| Maya: And we can do the same with नहीं (Nahiin) and say जी नहीं (jii Nahiin) to be more respectful. |
| Neha: That's right. But in this case, जी नहीं (jii Nahiin) only means "no" and cannot be used as "not." |
| Maya: Let's now talk about how to negate a sentence in Hindi. |
| Neha: Negating a sentence simply means to add "not" i.e. नहीं (Nahiin) to a statement. |
| Maya: And how do we do this? Well, you just take this नहीं (Nahiin) and add it before the verb so that the sentence structure is always नहीं (Nahiin) + verb. |
| Neha: Let's look at some examples. मैं ठीक हूँ (main thiik huun) means… |
| Maya: "I am good." Here, मैं (main) is "I," ठीक (thiik) is "okay," and हूँ (huun) is the to-be verb "am." |
| Neha: To change this into a negative, you need to add नहीं (Nahiin) in front of the verb हूँ (huun). |
| Maya: So the new sentence is… |
| Neha: मैं ठीक नहीं हूँ (main thiik Nahiin huun). |
| Maya: "I am not okay." |
| Neha: Easy right? Let's do another sentence. |
| Maya: How about "you are nice"? |
| Neha: Okay, so, the word for nice is अच्छा (acchaa) for a male and अच्छी (acchii) for a female. Who are we addressing in this sentence? |
| Maya: Let's say a girl. |
| Neha: Okay, the sentence is आप अच्छी हैं (aap acchii hain). |
| Maya: Which means "You are nice." |
| Neha: Let's turn this into "You are not nice.". |
| Maya: Add नहीं (Nahiin) in front of the verb "are," which in this case is हैं (hain), and it becomes… |
| Neha: आप अच्छी नहीं हैं (aap acchii Nahiin hain). Very simple! |
| Maya: Let's have one final example for this lesson. |
| Neha: हिन्दी कठिन है (hiNDii kathiN hai). |
| Maya: Which means "Hindi is difficult." And its negative is… |
| Neha: हिन्दी कठिन नहीं है (hiNDii kathiN Nahiin hai). |
| Maya: Which means "Hindi is not difficult.". |
| Neha: Okay, that's all for our lesson. Don't forget to read the lesson notes for more examples and explanations! |
| Maya: Thank you for listening. Until next time! |
| Neha: शुक्रिया और फिर मिलेंगे! (sukriyaa aur phir miLenge!) |
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