Learn about India's number system
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| Introduction |
| Neha: "Namaste," I'm Neha, and welcome to the Absolute Beginner Series, Lesson 5, Hindi Numbers from 0-10. |
| Maya: "Namaste," I'm Maya. |
| Neha: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to count numbers from 1 to 10 in Hindi. |
| Maya: The conversation takes place at a park. |
| Neha: The conversation is between Aarti and Radha who are walking their dogs at a park. |
| Maya: The speakers have just sat down on the same bench and since they don't know each other, they will be using formal Hindi. |
| Neha: Let's listen to their conversation. |
| Dialogue |
| आरती (aaraTii): आपकी कितनी बिल्लियाँ हैं? (aapakii kiTaNii biLLiyaan hain?) |
| राधा (raaDHaa): मेरी एक बिल्ली है। (merii ek biLLii hai.) |
| आरती (aaraTii): और कितने कुत्ते हैं? (aur kiTaNe kuTTe hain?) |
| राधा (raaDHaa): दो। (Do.) |
| Maya: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| आरती (aaraTii): आपकी कितनी बिल्लियाँ हैं? (aapakii kiTaNii biLLiyaan hain?) |
| राधा (raaDHaa): मेरी एक बिल्ली है। (merii ek biLLii hai.) |
| आरती (aaraTii): और कितने कुत्ते हैं? (aur kiTaNe kuTTe hain?) |
| राधा (raaDHaa): दो। (Do.) |
| Neha: Let's now listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| आरती (aaraTii): आपकी कितनी बिल्लियाँ हैं? (aapakii kiTaNii biLLiyaan hain?) |
| Neha: "How many cats do you have?" |
| राधा (raaDHaa): मेरी एक बिल्ली है। (merii ek biLLii hai.) |
| Maya: "I have one cat." |
| आरती (aaraTii): और कितने कुत्ते हैं? (aur kiTaNe kuTTe hain?) |
| Neha: "And how many dogs?" |
| राधा (raaDHaa): दो। (Do.) |
| Maya: "Two." |
| Banter section |
| Neha: Did you all know that India has its own number system? |
| Maya: It's officially called the Hindu–Arabic numeral system or the Hindu numeral system. |
| Neha: Besides India, it is still widely used in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. |
| Maya: And these numbers have their own Devanagari script and closely resemble Greek and Latin numbers in their pronunciations. |
| Neha: Which makes sense because Sanskrit is actually an Indo-European language. |
| Maya: Many of you might be wondering what the difference is between Sanskrit and Devanagari...well... |
| Neha: Devanagari is a script whereas Sanskrit is a language. So, Devanagari is the script that is used for writing Hindi, Marathi and, Nepali languages which all have their origins in Sanskrit. |
| Maya: Anyway, you know that numbers are a must in any language – while shopping, telling time, calling people...we need to know the numbers. So let's get started! |
| Vocabulary section |
| Neha: Yes, let's first go over the words that were used in the conversation. |
| 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 आपकी (aapakii), आ-प-की (aa-pa-kii), आपकी (aapakii). |
| Maya: Which means "your." |
| Neha: Next, we have कितनी (kiTaNii), कित-नी (kiTa-Nii), कितनी (kiTaNii). |
| Maya: Which means "how many." |
| Neha: Then is बिल्लियाँ (biLLiyaan), बिल्-लि-याँ (biL-Li-yaan), बिल्लियाँ (biLLiyaan). |
| Maya: Which means "cats." |
| Neha: Next is हैं (hain), हैं (hain), हैं (hain). |
| Maya: Which is the to-be verb "are." |
| Neha: Then is, मेरी (merii), मे-री (me-rii), मेरी (merii). |
| Maya: Which means "my." |
| Neha: Next is एक (ek), एक (ek), एक (ek). |
| Maya: Which is the number "one." |
| Neha: Next we have बिल्ली (biLLii), बिल्-ली (biL-Lii), बिल्ली (biLLii). |
| Maya: Which means "cat." |
| Neha: Next is कुत्ते (kuTTe), कुत्-ते (kuT-Te), कुत्ते (kuTTe). |
| Maya: Which means "dog." |
| Neha: Next we have कितने (kiTaNe), कित-ने (kiTa-Ne), कितने (kiTaNe). |
| Maya: Which means "how many." |
| Neha: And lastly, we have दो (Do), दो (Do), दो (Do). |
| Maya: Which is the number "two." |
| Key Vocabulary and Phrases from the Dialogue |
| Neha: Let's look at some of these words in more detail. |
| Maya: So, in the conversation…, |
| Neha: आपकी कितनी बिल्लियाँ हैं? (aapakii kiTaNii biLLiyaan hain?) |
| Maya: "How many cats do you have?" |
| Neha: आपकी (aapakii) means "your," कितनी (kiTaNii) means "how many," बिल्लियाँ (biLLiyaan) means "cats," and हैं (hain) means "are." |
| Maya: So literally it means, "your how many cats are?" which translates as, "How many cats do you have?" |
| Neha: आपकी (aapakii), which means "your," is a possessive pronoun that is used for both singular and plural feminine nouns. |
| Maya: Remember that in Hindi, all nouns have a gender - masculine and feminine |
| Neha: And the possessive pronouns always depend on the gender and the number of the thing being possessed. |
| Maya: And not on who is doing the possessing. |
| Neha: So here, आपकी (aapakii), which means "your," depends on the gender of the noun "cats," which in Hindi is feminine. |
| Maya: What about dogs? |
| Neha: Well, "dogs" or कुत्ते (kuTTe), are masculine nouns in which case, "your dogs" would be आपके कुत्ते (aapake kuTTe). |
| Maya: So आपके (aapake) instead of आपकी (aapakii). |
| Neha: And along the same lines, the question "how many" also changes according to the number and gender of the nouns. |
| Maya: कितनी (kiTaNii), which means "how many," is used for asking the number of both singular and plural feminine nouns. |
| Neha: कितना (kiTaNaa) is used for asking the number of singular masculine nouns. |
| Maya: And कितने (kiTaNe) is used for asking the number of plural masculine nouns. |
| Neha: Since, cats or बिल्लियाँ (biLLiyaan) are plural feminine nouns, we used कितनी (kiTaNii). आपकी कितनी बिल्लियाँ हैं? (aapakii kiTaNii biLLiyaan hain?) |
| Maya: "How many cats do you have?" |
| Neha: How would you ask, "How many dogs do you have?" |
| Maya: Well, dogs are कुत्ते (kuTTe) and they are masculine plural nouns, so we need to use कितने (kiTaNe). |
| Neha: Good. So the sentence is आपके कितने कुत्ते हैं? (aapake kiTaNe kuTTe hain?) |
| Maya: This might sound a bit complicated right now, but don't worry. |
| Neha: There's a way we can tell apart most masculine nouns from feminine nouns. |
| Maya: But we'll talk about that in another lesson. For now, on to the grammar! |
| Grammar point |
| Maya: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to count the number from zero to ten. We'll first say the number in English and then in Hindi, first at natural speed and then a bit slower. And finally, again, at natural speed. |
| Neha: Listeners, remember to repeat after me. |
| Maya: Let's get started. First is - "zero." |
| Neha: शून्य (suuNy), शून्-य (suuN-ya), शून्य (suuNy). |
| Maya: "One." |
| Neha: एक (ek), एक (ek), एक (ek). |
| Maya: "Two." |
| Neha: दो (Do), दो (Do), दो (Do) |
| Maya: "Three." |
| Neha: तीन (TiiN), तीन (TiiN), तीन (TiiN). |
| Maya: "Four." |
| Neha: चार (caar), चार (caar), चार (caar). |
| Maya: "Five." |
| Neha: पाँच (paanc), पाँच (paanc), पाँच (paanc). |
| Maya: "Six." |
| Neha: छः (chah), छः (chah), छः (chah). |
| Maya: "Seven." |
| Neha: सात (SaaT), सात (SaaT), सात (SaaT). |
| Maya: "Eight." |
| Neha: आठ (aath), आ-ठ (aa-th), आठ (aath). |
| Maya: "Nine." |
| Neha: नौ (Nau), नौ (Nau), नौ (Nau). |
| Maya: "Ten." |
| Neha: दस (DaS), दस (DaS), दस (DaS). |
| Maya: Okay, that's all the numbers we're going to cover in this lesson. Should we go over it one more time? |
| Neha: Sure, everyone, repeat after me. |
| Maya: "zero" |
| Neha: शून्य "shunya, |
| Maya: "One." |
| Neha: एक (ek) |
| Maya: "Two." |
| Neha: दो (do) |
| Maya: "Three." |
| Neha: तीन (teen) |
| Maya: "Four." |
| Neha: चार (caar) |
| Maya: "Five." |
| Neha: पाँच (paanc |
| Maya: "Six." |
| Neha: छः (chah |
| Maya: "Seven." |
| Neha: सात (saat) |
| Maya: "Eight." |
| Neha: आठ (aath) |
| Maya: "Nine." |
| Neha: नौ (nau) |
| Maya: "Ten." |
| Neha: दस (das) |
| Maya: Let's listen to some examples. |
| Neha: Okay. तीन लड़कियाँ (TiiN Ladakiyaan). |
| Maya: Means "three girls." Please repeat. |
| Neha: तीन लड़कियाँ (TiiN Ladakiyaan). |
| Neha: दस घोड़े (DaS ghode). |
| Maya: Means "ten horses." Repeat. |
| Neha: दस घोड़े (DaS ghode). |
| Neha: Next is, एक लड़का (ek Ladakaa). |
| Maya: Which means "one boy." Repeat. |
| Neha: एक लड़का (ek Ladakaa). |
Outro |
|---|
| Neha: Well, that's all for our lesson. Be sure to read the lesson notes for more examples! |
| Maya: Thank you for listening. Until next time! |
| Neha: शुक्रिया और फिर मिलेंगे! (sukriyaa aur phir miLenge!) |
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