Learn how to make questions and question tags in Hindi
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.
Intro |
|---|
| Alisha: How are questions formed in Hindi? |
| Shakti: And what about question tags? |
| Alisha: At HindiPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Jigna Jindal is asking his neighbors about whether they'll join their party. Mark Lee wants to join, but seeks confirmation from his wife. Jigna asks him, "Are you coming to our party?" |
| जिग्ना: क्या आप हमारी पार्टी में आ रहे हैं? (kyaa aap hamaarii paartii men aa rahe hain?) |
| Dialogue |
| जिग्ना: क्या आप हमारी पार्टी में आ रहे हैं? (kyaa aap hamaarii paartii men aa rahe hain?) |
| मार्क: हम आ रहे हैं, है न? (ham aa rahe hain, hai Na?) |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| जिग्ना: क्या आप हमारी पार्टी में आ रहे हैं? (kyaa aap hamaarii paartii men aa rahe hain?) |
| Alisha: "Are you coming to our party?" |
| मार्क: हम आ रहे हैं, है न? (ham aa rahe hain, hai Na?) |
| Alisha: "We are coming, aren't we?" |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: In this lesson, you will be learning how to form questions in Hindi and we will be discussing question tags. You will learn how to ask questions in Hindi using the questions words, "what," "who," "where," "when," and "why." You will also be learning how to form simple questions by turning a statement into a question. |
| Let's begin the lesson by looking at questions that use the word "what." In Hindi, this word is |
| Shakti: क्या (kyaa) |
| Alisha: In questions, this word is used immediately before the verb or before the "to be" verb, depending on which is used in the sentence. When meeting someone for the first time, as you are likely to do when traveling in India, a common question to ask is, "What is your name?" or |
| Shakti: आपका क्या नाम है? (aap kaa kyaa Naam hai?) |
| Alisha: If the conversation continues, you might also want to ask, "What do you do?" which is |
| Shakti: आप क्या करते हैं? (aap kyaa karaTe hain?) |
| Alisha: in Hindi. Not all questions are as practical as this. In fact, sometimes, the questions we ask are downright existential, such as "Who am I?" In Hindi the same question is |
| Shakti: मैं कौन हूँ? (main kauN huun). |
| Alisha: When you ask "who" questions in Hindi, you should follow the same rule as "what" questions—place the question word immediately before the verb. In Hindi, the word "who" sounds like this: |
| Shakti: कौन (kauN). |
| Alisha: If you are traveling in India, you will meet many people but you might also forget their names. In that case, a question like, "Who was he?" or |
| Shakti: वह कौन था ? (vah kauN THaa?) |
| Alisha: might be useful to know. Now that you know the person's name and who they are, you might also want to ask them where they are from. It may sound like a bit of a personal question, but Indian people tend to be warm and friendly so, when you are traveling and meeting people from all over India, it is highly likely that someone will ask you this question. Even if you aren't planning to use it yourself, it will be good to know it, for this reason. The Hindi for "where" is |
| Shakti: कहाँ (kahaan) |
| Alisha: and the sentence, "Where are you from?" is |
| Shakti: आप कहाँ से हैं? (aap kahaan Se hain?) |
| Alisha: If you are talking to someone online that you don't know very well, or perhaps to an Indian friend who is traveling, you might want to ask |
| Shakti: आप कहाँ हैं? (aap kahaan hain?) |
| Alisha: which means, "Where are you?" If you are in India, knowing how to ask "when" can be very useful. In Hindi, it sounds like this: |
| Shakti: कब (kab) |
| Alisha: You might find yourself asking a question like: |
| Shakti: ट्रेन कब आएगी? (treN kab aayegii?) |
| Alisha: which means, "When will the train come?" or you might ask about something related to Indian traditions such as: |
| Shakti: दिवाली कब है? (DivaaLii kab hai?) |
| Alisha: or "When is Diwali?" Sometimes, you will also have to deal with bureaucracy while traveling and you might find yourself in a situation where an official is asking |
| Shakti: आप यहाँ क्यों आए हैं? (aap yahaan kyon aaye hain?) |
| Alisha: Knowing that this means "Why are you here?" will help a lot. The word "why" in Hindi is: |
| Shakti: क्यों? (kyon). |
| Alisha: You can also use it to ask questions that require a practical answer such as "Why is the train late?" or |
| Shakti: ट्रेन लेट क्यों है? (tren Let kyon hai?) |
| Alisha: Once you understand how to use these question words in Hindi, you will feel a lot more confident when you are in India. |
| Let's now look at some examples of another way to form questions in Hindi. It's as simple as turning a statement into a question. For instance, if you take a statement like "This is a house," or |
| Shakti: यह घर है (yah ghar hai) |
| Alisha: in Hindi, you can convert it into a question simply by adding the word |
| Shakti: क्या (kyaa) |
| Alisha: to the beginning of the sentence. The result will sound like this: |
| Shakti: क्या यह घर है? (kyaa yah ghar hai?) |
| Alisha: which, of course, means, "Is this a house?." Let's try another one. See if you can guess what this statement means: |
| Shakti: यह बिल्ली है (yah biLLii hai) |
| Alisha: If you guessed that it means, "This is a cat," then you were right. Let's now add the question word at the beginning: |
| Shakti: क्या यह बिल्ली है? (kyaa yah biLLii hai?) |
| Alisha: Of course, the question is, "Is this a cat?." And there you have it. So simple, This is another way to ask questions that will definitely have you feeling more confident when talking to people in Hindi. |
| [Summary] |
| Alisha: In this lesson, you learned about question words in Hindi. We discussed five question words: "what," "who," "where," "when," and "why." We also learned how to turn a statement into a question by using the word |
| Shakti: क्या (kyaa) |
| Alisha: at the beginning of the sentence. Let's learn about question tags now. A question tag, as you probably know, is a statement that has been tagged with a tiny question at the end of the statement. An example in English would be: "You did turn the oven off, didn't you?" In this sentence, the question tag is "didn't you." Tags like this are used to ask for confirmation. It is a way of checking to see if the information we have is true. Here is an example of a question tag being used in a Hindi sentence: |
| Shakti: तुम क्रिकेट नहीं खेलते हो न? (Tum kriket Nahiin kheLaTe ho Na?) |
| Alisha: This means "You don't play cricket, do you?" Don't be surprised if you hear this question while in India. Many Indian people are very fond of their cricket. But back to the issue of question tags. The question tag in this sentence is |
| Shakti: न (Na). |
| Alisha: or "no." It is the most universal question tag in Hindi. Here's another example of a statement to which this question tag has been added: |
| Shakti: तुम सीता की बहन हो न? (Tum SiiTaa kii bahaN ho Na?) |
| Alisha: This means, "You are Sita's sister, aren't you?" One might ask a question like this after having met a person once before and not being sure if you recognize them or not. The same question tag is used as in our previous example because, as I pointed out, it is the most universal question tag in Hindi. |
| Practice Section |
| Alisha: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Shakti focusing on pronunciation. Do you remember how to say "Are you coming to our party?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti as Jigna: क्या आप हमारी पार्टी में आ रहे हैं? (kyaa aap hamaarii paartii men aa rahe hain?) |
| Alisha: Listen again and repeat. |
| Shakti as Jigna: क्या आप हमारी पार्टी में आ रहे हैं? (kyaa aap hamaarii paartii men aa rahe hain?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti as Jigna: क्या आप हमारी पार्टी में आ रहे हैं? (kyaa aap hamaarii paartii men aa rahe hain?) |
| Alisha: And do you remember how Mark says "We are coming, aren't we?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti as Mark: हम आ रहे हैं, है न? (ham aa rahe hain, hai Na?) |
| Alisha: Listen again and repeat. |
| Shakti as Mark: हम आ रहे हैं, है न? (ham aa rahe hain, hai Na?) |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti as Mark: हम आ रहे हैं, है न? (ham aa rahe hain, hai Na?) |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Alisha: Now, let's look at some examples of common questions you can ask. When you meet someone it is, of course, always good to inquire after their welfare. You can do this by asking |
| Shakti: आप कैसे हैं ? (aap kaiSe hain?) |
| Alisha: or "How are you?" |
| Alisha: And when you are shopping a very common and useful question to know is "How much is this?" or |
| Shakti: यह कितने का है? (yah kiTaNe kaa hai?) |
| Alisha: After your shopping, you might have to be somewhere else at a certain time and, if you are without your phone or a watch, you would need to know how to ask "What time is it?" In Hindi, it sounds like this: |
| Shakti: समय क्या हुआ है? (Samay kyaa huaa hai?) |
| Alisha: At other times, you might need to ask for help from someone, in which case the question you can use is: |
| Shakti: क्या आप मेरी मदद कर सकते हैं? (kyaa aap merii maDaD kar sakate hain?) |
| Alisha: or "Can you help me?." And, if you are unable to understand someone, it will be very useful to be able to ask them if they speak English by saying: |
| Shakti: क्या आप अंग्रेज़ी बोलते हैं? (kyaa aap angrezii boLaTe hain?) |
| Alisha: which means "Do you speak English?." Knowing these and some other common, useful questions will definitely help you to negotiate various situations while traveling or socializing. |
Outro |
| Alisha: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Shakti: फिर मिलेंगे! (phir miLenge!) |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide