Learn about the Indian caste system and how to ask age, which will be important if you decide to date while in India
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Neha: "Namaste," I'm Maya, and welcome to the Absolute Beginner Series, Lesson 7,- Asking "How old are you?" in Hindi |
| Maya: "Namaste," I'm Maya. |
| Neha: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask and answer the question "How old are you?" in Hindi. |
| Maya: The conversation takes place in a classroom. |
| Neha: This conversation is between Kavita who is a teacher and Jane who is a student. |
| Maya: Since the speakers have a student-teacher relationship they will be speaking formal Hindi. |
| Neha: Let's listen to their conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| कविता (kaviTaa): आपकी उम्र क्या है? (aapakii umr kyaa hai?) |
| जेन (jeN): मैं तीस साल की हूँ। (main TiiS SaaL kii huun.) |
| कविता (kaviTaa): आपके कितने बच्चे हैं? (aapake kiTaNe bacce hain?) |
| जेन (jeN): मेरे कोई बच्चे नहीं हैं। (mere koii bacce Nahiin hain.) |
| Maya: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| कविता (kaviTaa): आपकी उम्र क्या है? (aapakii umr kyaa hai?) |
| जेन (jeN): मैं तीस साल की हूँ। (main TiiS SaaL kii huun.) |
| कविता (kaviTaa): आपके कितने बच्चे हैं? (aapake kiTaNe bacce hain?) |
| जेन (jeN): मेरे कोई बच्चे नहीं हैं। (mere koii bacce Nahiin hain.) |
| Neha: Let's now listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| कविता (kaviTaa): आपकी उम्र क्या है? (aapakii umr kyaa hai?) |
| Neha: "How old are you?" |
| जेन (jeN): मैं तीस साल की हूँ। (main TiiS SaaL kii huun.) |
| Maya: "I am thirty years old." |
| कविता (kaviTaa): आपके कितने बच्चे हैं? (aapake kiTaNe bacce hain?) |
| Neha: " How many kids do you have?" |
| जेन (jeN): मेरे कोई बच्चे नहीं हैं। (mere koii bacce Nahiin hain.) |
| Maya: "I don't have any kids." |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Neha: You know, in this conversation we just heard, Jane is thirty years old so Kavita immediately assumes that she is married and has kids. |
| Maya: This is natural because women in India are expected to be married and have kids by that age. |
| Neha: I guess, in a way, social expectations for women are similar in many countries. |
| Maya: Yes, but in cities, more and more women are educated and they hold jobs, are independent, and are getting married much later. |
| Neha: You know Indians usually have arranged marriages with others of their own caste. |
| Maya: This is actually seen even among many Indian families who live abroad. |
| Neha: In fact, parents still choose for their sons and daughters, a partner of the same caste and similar social standing. |
| Maya: But I think it's important to point out that arranged marriages aren't necessarily forced marriages. Men and women do have a say, in most cases. |
| Neha: After all, it is their life partner they are talking about. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Maya: Well, let's move to our vocabulary section and look at the words that were used in the conversation. |
| Neha: We'll first say the words at natural speed, then a bit slower, and finally we'll give you the meaning. |
| Maya: Our first word is… |
| Neha: आपकी (aapakii), आप-की (aap-kii), आपकी (aapakii). |
| Maya: Which means "your." |
| Neha: Next, we have उम्र (umr), उम्र (umr), उम्र (umr). |
| Maya: Which means "age." |
| Neha: Then is क्या (kyaa), क्या (kyaa), क्या (kyaa). |
| Maya: Which means "what." |
| Neha: Next is तीस (TiiS), ती-स (Tii-Sa), तीस (TiiS). |
| Maya: Which means "thirty." |
| Neha: Then is, साल (SaaL), सा-ल (Saa-La), साल (SaaL) |
| Maya: Which means "years." |
| Neha: Next is हूँ (huun), हूँ (huun), हूँ (huun). |
| Maya: Which is the to-be verb "am." |
| Neha: Next we have कितने (kiTaNe), कित-ने (kiTa-Ne), कितने (kiTaNe). |
| Maya: Which means "how many." |
| Neha: Next is बच्चे (bacce), बच्-चे (bac-ce), बच्चे (bacce). |
| Maya: Which means "children." |
| Neha: And finally we have नहीं (Nahiin), न-हीं (Na-hiin), नहीं (Nahiin). |
| Maya: Which means "no." |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Neha: Okay, let's talk about some of these words. आपकी (aapakii)… |
| Maya: Which means "your…" |
| Neha: Is a possessive pronoun. It is used formally when showing respect to the other person. |
| Maya: We're going to say this again that all Hindi nouns have gender - either masculine or feminine. |
| Neha: And possessive pronouns change according to the gender and the number of the nouns that are being possessed. |
| Maya: And not the subject that is doing the possessing. |
| Neha: So, we use आपकी (aapakii) when the thing being possessed is feminine. |
| Maya: And we use आपका (aapakaa) when the thing being possessed is masculine. |
| Neha: In the phrase आपकी उम्र (aapakii umr), which means… |
| Maya: "Your age." |
| Neha: Can you tell us what gender the word "age" i.e., उम्र (umr), is? |
| Maya: Well, since we used आपकी (aapakii), it's feminine. |
| Neha: That's right! The easiest way to make this clear is to compare it with a familiar sentence, well, at least we hope that you are familiar with this sentence by now. |
| Maya: Yes, do you remember how to say "What is your name?" in Hindi? We studied it in the very first lesson. |
| Neha: आपका नाम क्या है? (aapakaa Naam kyaa hai?) |
| Maya: If you notice, "your" in this sentence takes the masculine form आपका (aapakaa). |
| Neha: That's because नाम (Naam), which is "name," is a masculine noun. |
Lesson focus |
| Maya: Okay, let's now focus on how to ask the question "How old are you?" in Hindi. |
| Neha: आपकी उम्र क्या है? (aapakii umr kyaa hai?) |
| Maya: Here, आपकी (aapakii) means "your." |
| Neha: उम्र (umr) means "age." |
| Maya: क्या (kyaa) means "what," and… |
| Neha: है (hai) means "is." |
| Maya: So you're literally asking "your age what is?" which translates as, "What is your age?" or rather, "How old are you?" |
| Neha: Here, उम्र (umr), or "age," is a feminine noun. |
| Maya: Yes, we just went over this a few minutes ago. |
| Neha: And the possessive pronoun "your," i.e. आपकी (aapakii), is in its feminine form because age, i.e. उम्र (umr), is feminine. |
| Maya: Okay, now that we understand the question structure and why things are the way they are, let's listen to it one more time. We'll also say it slowly so that you can hear it clearly. |
| Neha: आपकी उम्र क्या है? (aapakii umr kyaa hai), आपकी उम्र क्या है? (aapakii umr kyaa hai). |
| Maya: Okay, now we need to be able to answer this question. |
| Neha: The tricky thing about the answer is that you would say it a bit differently depending on whether you're a male or a female. |
| Maya: So If you are a female, you'd say… |
| Neha: मैं तीस साल की हूँ। (main TiiS SaaL kii huun.) |
| Maya: "I am thirty years old," where मैं (main) is "I", तीस (TiiS) is "thirty," साल की (SaaL kii) is "of age," and हूँ (huun) is "am." |
| Neha: So literally you're saying, "I thirty of age am" which translates as, "I am thirty years old." |
| Maya: Then if you're a male, you'd say… |
| Neha: मैं तीस साल का हूँ। (main TiiS SaaL kaa huun.) |
| Maya: "I am thirty years old," where मैं (main) is "I", तीस (TiiS) is "thirty," साल का (SaaL kaa) is "of age," and, हूँ (huun) is "am." |
| Maya: Did you spot the difference between a female's response and a male's response? Let's hear them side by side. |
| Neha: मैं तीस साल की हूँ। (main TiiS SaaL kii huun.) मैं तीस साल का हूँ। (main TiiS SaaL kaa huun.) |
| Maya: Yes, the difference is in साल की (SaaL kii) and साल का (SaaL kaa). |
| Neha: साल की (SaaL kii) for a female and साल का (SaaL kaa) for a male. |
| Maya: Imagine that you are a twenty year old girl. How would you say "I am twenty years old" in Hindi? By the way, "twenty" in Hindi is बीस (biiS). |
| Neha: You'd say मैं बीस साल की हूँ। (main biiS SaaL kii huun.) |
| Maya: Now imagine that you are a nineteen year old boy and "nineteen" in Hindi is उन्नीस (uNNiiS). |
| Neha: Then you'd say, मैं उन्नीस साल का हूँ। (main uNNiiS SaaL kaa huun.) |
| Maya: Easy, right? Well, that's all for our lesson. |
| Neha: 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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