Learn about using superlatives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Maya: Namaste, I'm Maya. Welcome back to HindiPod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 17 - Using Hindi Superlatives. |
| Udita: Namaste, मैं उदिता हूँ। (main uDiTaa huun.). I'm Udita. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use Hindi superlatives. |
| Maya: The conversation takes place at the office. |
| Udita: It’s between Kate and Arti. |
| Maya: They are friends, so they’ll be using informal language. |
| Udita: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| केट (ket): आज शाम तुम क्या कर रही हो? (aaj saam Tum kyaa kar rahii ho?) |
| आरती (aaraTii): आज मैं अपने मंगेतर के साथ क्रिकेट मैच देखने जा रही हूँ। (aaj main apaNe mangeTar ke SaaTH kriket maic DekhaNe jaa rahii huun.) |
| केट (ket): अच्छा! सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी कौन है? (acchaa! SabaSe acchaa khiLaadii kauN hai?) |
| आरती (aaraTii): सचिन तेंदुलकर! वह बहुत अच्छा खेलता है। (SaciN TeNDuLakar! vah bahuT acchaa kheLaTaa hai.) |
| Maya: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| केट (ket): आज शाम तुम क्या कर रही हो? (aaj saam Tum kyaa kar rahii ho?) |
| आरती (aaraTii): आज मैं अपने मंगेतर के साथ क्रिकेट मैच देखने जा रही हूँ। (aaj main apaNe mangeTar ke SaaTH kriket maic DekhaNe jaa rahii huun.) |
| केट (ket): अच्छा! सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी कौन है? (acchaa! SabaSe acchaa khiLaadii kauN hai?) |
| आरती (aaraTii): सचिन तेंदुलकर! वह बहुत अच्छा खेलता है। (SaciN TeNDuLakar! vah bahuT acchaa kheLaTaa hai.) |
| Maya: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| केट (ket): आज शाम तुम क्या कर रही हो? (aaj saam Tum kyaa kar rahii ho?) |
| Kate: What are you doing in the evening today? |
| आरती (aaraTii): आज मैं अपने मंगेतर के साथ क्रिकेट मैच देखने जा रही हूँ। (aaj main apaNe mangeTar ke SaaTH kriket maic DekhaNe jaa rahii huun.) |
| Arti: I am going to see the cricket match with my fiancé. |
| केट (ket): अच्छा! सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी कौन है? (acchaa! SabaSe acchaa khiLaadii kauN hai?) |
| Kate: Is it! Who is the best cricketer? |
| आरती (aaraTii): सचिन तेंदुलकर! वह बहुत अच्छा खेलता है। (SaciN TeNDuLakar! vah bahuT acchaa kheLaTaa hai.) |
| Arti: Sachin Tendulkar! He plays really well. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Maya: Udita, what can you tell us about cricket? |
| Udita: You may be surprised to learn that even though hockey is the national sport of India, cricket manages to gather a lot more excitement and a bigger fan following. |
| Maya: Cricket is a game that sets the entire nation’s heart beating faster! |
| Udita: Definitely! Hotels pubs and restaurants all have huge TV screens so people can watch cricket matches. |
| Maya: People in India are simply crazy about watching cricket matches. |
| Udita: Those who are really passionate about the game find time out of their busy days to play, watch, and discuss cricket with like-minded people. |
| Maya: The player who was mentioned in the dialogue, Sachin Tendulkar, is one of India’s cricket superstars. |
| Udita: Listeners, have you ever watched a game of cricket? |
| Maya: Let us know in the comments! Okay, let’s move onto the vocab now! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Maya: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is... |
| Udita: शाम (saam). |
| Maya: "evening." |
| Udita: शाम (saam), शाम (saam). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: मंगेतर (mangeTar). |
| Maya: "fiancee." |
| Udita: मंगेतर (mangeTar), मंगेतर (mangeTar). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: साथ (SaaTH). |
| Maya: "together." |
| Udita: साथ (SaaTH), साथ (SaaTH). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: जा रही (jaa rahii). |
| Maya: "going." |
| Udita: जा रही (jaa rahii), जा रही (jaa rahii). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: अच्छा (acchaa). |
| Maya: "good." |
| Udita: अच्छा (acchaa), अच्छा (acchaa). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: खिलाड़ी (khiLaadii). |
| Maya: "player." |
| Udita: खिलाड़ी (khiLaadii), खिलाड़ी (khiLaadii). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: कौन (kauN). |
| Maya: "who." |
| Udita: कौन (kauN), कौन (kauN). |
| Maya: Next... |
| Udita: बहुत (bahuT). |
| Maya: "very." |
| Udita: बहुत (bahuT), बहुत (bahuT). |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Maya: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Udita: First, we have कर रही (kar rahii) which means "doing." It comes from the verb करना (karaNaa) which means "to do." |
| Maya: We can change the verbs into their present continuous form by adding रही (rahii) to the root of the verb. |
| Udita: So, if I want to say "going," I would add रही (rahii) to the root of the verb जाना (jaaNaa). So, it becomes जा रही (jaa rahii). |
| Maya: Yes, that’s right. Next, we have अच्छा! (acchaa) which means "good" but it can also be used as an interjection to express surprise or acknowledgement. |
| Udita: And next is सबसे अच्छा (SabaSe acchaa). It is a phrase which means "the best of all." So, if we say सबसे अच्छा घर (SabaSe acchaa ghar), it means "the best house of all." |
| Maya: And of course it changes according to the number and gender of the noun. So अच्छा (acchaa) changes into अच्छी (acchii) if the noun following it is feminine. |
| Udita: For example, we’d say सबसे अच्छी घड़ी (SabaSe acchii ghar) which means "the best watch of all." In our conversation we had सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी (SabaSe acchaa khiLaadii), so it means "the best player of all." |
| Maya: कौन (kauN) means "who." We could also say कौन सा (kauN Saa) to mean "which." |
| Udita: Last, we have खेलता (kheLaTaa) which means "plays." It comes from the verb खेलना (kheLaNaa) which means "to play." |
| Maya: Similarly, we could add ता (Taa) /ती (Tii) /ते (Te) to the root of the verb to make it into present tense. |
| Udita: For example, to say "He goes." we’d say वह जाता है। (vah jaaTaa hai.). Here, we’ve added ता (Taa) to the root of the verb जाना (jaaNaa) which means "to go." |
| Maya: Another example would be मैं खाती हूँ। (main khaaTii huun.) to mean "I eat." when said by a female. |
| Udita: Okay, now let’s take a look at the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Maya: In this lesson you’re going to learn how to use superlatives in Hindi. The superlative is used to say what item or person has the most of a certain quality within a group, or of its kind. |
| Udita: Some examples of the superlative in English are the words best, highest, tallest, most beautiful, and so on. |
| Maya: That’s right! |
| Udita: Superlatives in Hindi are formed by adding सबसे (SabaSe) before the head noun. For example, we could add सबसे (SabaSe) before the adjective सुन्दर (SuNDar) which means "pretty." |
| Maya: So together, it becomes सबसे सुन्दर (SabaSe SuNDar) which means "prettiest of all." |
| Udita: Similarly, we could add सबसे (SabaSe) to the adjective छोटा (chotaa) and together it becomes सबसे छोटा (SabaSe chotaa) which means "shortest of all." |
| Maya: Great! We just learned how to say when one noun supersedes all others in some way. What if we want to compare two nouns? For example, if A is as good as B? |
| Udita: Equative structures are formed by adding जैसा (jaiSaa). For example, if you want to say "Arti is as intelligent as Kate." we could say आरती केट जैसी समझदार है। (aaraTii ket jaiSii SamajhaDaar hai.) |
| Maya: So, जैसा (jaiSaa) is similar to "like" in English, in that it agrees with the head noun in gender and number. |
| Udita: Exactly! This means we have to take into consideration the gender and number of the subject, and not the noun we are comparing it to. |
| Maya: So, if were to say "This box is as big as those boxes." for example. Here the head noun is a box which is "singular" and "masculine" in gender. |
| Udita: Yes, so the sentence becomes यह डब्बा उन डब्बों जैसा बड़ा है। (yah dabbaa uN dabbon jaiSaa badaa hai.) |
| Maya: Sometimes we also use the terms एक जैसा (ek jaiSaa) /एक जैसी (ek jaiSii). |
| Udita: For example, we could say, ये जुड़वाँ बहनें एक जैसी हैं। (ye judavaan bahaNen ek jaiSii hain.) which means "These twin sisters are alike." |
| Maya: Let’s take a quiz. What’s "Mt. Everest is tallest of all the mountains." |
| Udita: माउन्ट एवरेस्ट सबसे ऊंचा पहाड़ है। (maaunt evareSt SabaSe uuncaa pahaad hai.) |
| Maya: Ok, another one! "This room is as good as a hotel room." |
| Udita: यह कमरा होटल के कमरे जैसा अच्छा है। (yah kamaraa hotaL ke kamare jaiSaa acchaa hai.) |
| Maya: Let's once again see, how this grammar point was used in the dialogue. |
| Udita: Kate says अच्छा! सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी कौन है? (acchaa! SabaSe acchaa khiLaadii kauN hai?) which means "Who is the best cricketer?" |
Outro |
|---|
| Maya: Well, that's all for our lesson. Be sure to read the lesson notes for more examples and to reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson! |
| Udita: Listeners, can you say "This man is richest of all." in Hindi? If you can, please leave us a comment saying it at HindiPod101.com. |
| Maya: Thank you for listening. Until next time! |
| Udita: शुक्रिया और फिर मिलेंगे! (sukriyaa aur phir miLenge!) |
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