Learn about asking simple questions and how to interpret "the nod"
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| INTRODUCTION | |
| Neha:"Namaste," I'm Neha. and welcome to the Absolute Beginner Series, Lesson 16, Changing Hindi Statements into Questions. | |
| Maya: "Namaste," I'm Maya In this lesson you'll learn how ask simple questions in Hindi. | |
| Neha:The conversation takes place in a hotel. | |
| Maya:This conversation is between Jane, the hotel guest, and Sita, the hotel receptionist. | |
| Neha:Since they do not know each other and are at a formal setting, they will be using formal Hindi. | |
| Maya:Let's listen to their conversation. | |
Lesson conversation |
|
|---|---|
| सीता:नमस्ते, जेनजी । आप ठीक हैं? | |
| जेन:मैं ठीक हूँ, धन्यवाद। आज बहुत गर्मी है! | |
| सीता:जी बहुत गर्मी है। क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? | |
| जेन:धन्यवाद! क्या पीने के लिए ठंडा पानी है? | |
| Let's listen to the conversation one time slowly. | |
| सीता:नमस्ते, जेनजी । आप ठीक हैं? | |
| जेन:मैं ठीक हूँ, धन्यवाद। आज बहुत गर्मी है! | |
| सीता:जी बहुत गर्मी है। क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? | |
| जेन:धन्यवाद! क्या पीने के लिए ठंडा पानी है? | |
| Let's listen to the conversation with English translation.सीता:नमस्ते, जेनजी । आप ठीक हैं? | |
| Maya:Hello Ms Jane. Are you alright? | |
| जेन:मैं ठीक हूँ, धन्यवाद। आज बहुत गर्मी है! | |
| Maya:I am alright, thank you. Today is very hot! | |
| सीता:जी बहुत गर्मी है। क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? | |
| Maya:Yes it's very hot. Can I help you with anything? | |
| जेन:धन्यवाद! क्या पीने के लिए ठंडा पानी है? | |
| Maya:Thank you! Do you have some cold water to drink? | |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER | |
| Maya:A lot of the Hindi language is in the tone. Most statements in Hindi can turn into questions without changing anything but the intonation. | |
| Neha:Yes and Indian people use a lot of head gestures while speaking. | |
| Maya:Some tourists need to get used to what a "yes" nod is, what a "no" shake is, and what a "maybe" wriggle is. | |
| Neha:Actually, "yes" might not be the typical nod from top to bottom that most people are used to. It can be a swing of the head from side to side. | |
| Maya:In fact, you can't rely on gestures alone... you also need to infer from other things like expressions and body stance. | |
| Neha:Subtle changes in the angle and degree of the head movement can imply totally opposite things, "yes" or "no," so you need to be careful when interpreting these things. | |
| Maya:Good advice. Okay, let's move onto the vocab. | |
| VOCAB LIST | |
| Maya:Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. | |
| :The first word we shall see is: | |
| Neha:आप [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:you(formal) | |
| Neha:आप [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:आप [natural native speed] | |
| :Next is: | |
| Neha:ठीक [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:alright/well | |
| Neha:ठीक [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:ठीक [natural native speed] | |
| :Next is: | |
| Neha:धन्यवाद [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:thank you | |
| Neha:धन्यवाद [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:धन्यवाद [natural native speed] | |
| :Next is: | |
| Neha:आज [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:today | |
| Neha:आज [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:आज [natural native speed] | |
| :Next is: | |
| Neha:बहुत [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:very/a lot | |
| Neha:बहुत [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:बहुत [natural native speed] | |
| :Next is: | |
| Neha:गर्मी [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:hot weather | |
| Neha:गर्मी [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:गर्मी [natural native speed] | |
| :Next is: | |
| Neha:मदद [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:help | |
| Neha:मदद [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:मदद [natural native speed] | |
| :Next is: | |
| Neha:ठंडा पानी [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:cold water | |
| Neha:ठंडा पानी [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:ठंडा पानी [natural native speed] | |
| :Last we have is: | |
| Neha:सकती [natural native speed] | |
| Maya:can (female) | |
| Neha:सकती [slowly - broken down by syllable] | |
| Neha:सकती [natural native speed] | |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES | |
| Maya:Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. | |
| Neha:A very useful word to know in Hindi is the adverb बहुत, which means "very" or "a lot." | |
| Maya:It's also easy to use because unlike some adverbs, it doesn't inflect according to the gender and the number of the subject. | |
| Neha:Yes, with adverbs the general rule is that those that end with a आ are inflecting adverbs while the rest aren't. | |
| Maya:Since बहुत doesn't end with a आ, it stays the same. Let's listen to some examples. "Very hot" in Hindi is… | |
| Neha:बहुत गर्म. | |
| Maya:But “Very hot in terms of weather” is.... | |
| Neha:बहुत गर्मी. | |
| Maya:"Very cold" is… | |
| Neha:बहुत ठंडा. | |
| Maya:But “Very cold in terms of weather” is.... | |
| Neha:bahut sardii | |
| Maya:"Very tall" in case of male subjects is… | |
| Neha:बहुत लम्बा. | |
| Maya:And "very tall" in case of female subjects is… | |
| Neha:बहुत लम्बी. | |
| Maya:Now let's look at another word. | |
| Neha:मदद is a noun that means "help." | |
| Maya:And all Hindi nouns have gender. They are either masculine or feminine and मदद is a feminine noun. | |
| Neha:So, all the pronouns and adjectives associated with it will take their feminine forms, which means that whether you're a man or a woman, you'll always say मेरी मदद, which means "my help." | |
| Maya:"Your help" would be… | |
| Neha:तुम्हारी मदद if you're speaking informally and आपकी मदद if you are speaking formally. | |
| Maya:The last word we'll look at is the verb "can," which is… | |
| Neha:सकना. For singular masculine cases, you use सकता. For plural masculine cases you use सकते ("sakte"). And for singular and plural feminine cases you use सकती ("saktee"). | |
| Maya:So for example, if you are a male and you want to say, "I can," you'd say मैं सकता हूँ।. | |
| Neha:That's right! And if you are a female, you'd say, मैं सकती हूँ।. | |
Lesson focus |
|
| Maya:Let's move on to the main focus of this lesson. Today we’re going to learn how to ask simple questions in Hindi. | |
| Neha:Okay. So, in English if you were to change simple statements into questions you'd have to change the verb order. | |
| Maya:For example, if you wanted to turn the statement, "This is your house" into a question, you'd arrange it such that the verb comes at the beginning and it becomes "Is this your house?" | |
| Neha: Well, in Hindi, none of this is necessary! In Hindi sentences verbs always come last and in an interrogative sentence they stay the same. | |
| Maya:The question is indicated by the tone of the speech, you know, the questioning tone? | |
| Neha:Why don't we look at some examples? | |
| Maya:Yes, let's take the sentence "I can help you." | |
| Neha:Now if you are a female speaker, you'd say, मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ।. | |
| Maya:And its question form "Can I help you?" would be… | |
| Neha:मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? | |
| Maya:Did you notice that nothing changed except for the tone? | |
| Neha:Okay, another example, this time for a male speaker. Here you just need to change the words for "I can" from सकती हूँ to सकता हूँ. | |
| Maya:So if you are a male speaker and wanted to say "I can help you," you'd say… | |
| Neha:मैं आपकी मदद कर सकता हूँ।. | |
| Maya:And to change that into the question "Can I help you?" you'd say… | |
| Neha:मैं आपकी मदद कर सकता हूँ? | |
| Maya:Instead of turning statements into questions with the change of tone, you can also add the word क्या for emphasis. | |
| Neha:Yes and it always goes at the beginning of the question and loses its usual meaning which is "what." | |
| Maya:So, if you are a female and wanted to ask "Can I help you?" you'd say… | |
| Neha:क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकती हूँ? | |
| Maya:Right! And if you are a male, you'd say… | |
| Neha:क्या मैं आपकी मदद कर सकता हूँ? | |
| Maya:Okay, now one final example before we end this lesson. So, how do you say "This is your house" in Hindi? | |
| Neha:Well, "this" is यह, "your" is आपका, and "house" is घर. So it would be यह आपका घर है।. | |
| Maya:Now what would be its question form, "Is this your house?" | |
| Neha:क्या यह आपका घर है? | |
| Maya:Okay, let's practice the intonation. Listeners, please say "this is your house" | |
| Neha:यह आपका घर है. [pause] | |
| Maya:Okay, now make it a question and say, Is this your house? | |
| Neha:क्या यह आपका घर है? [pause] | |
| Maya:That was easy right? Just remember to change the tone or simply add क्या in front and you're good to go. | |
| Neha:Great! Please also read through the lesson notes for more examples and explanations on this topic. | |
| Maya:They will be a lot of help. Thank you for listening. Until next time! | |
| Neha:"Shukriyaa aur fir milenge!" |
11 Comments
HideDo you prefer hot or cold weather?
Hi Steve,
That's great! Glad to hear that you found it useful! Thank you for your comment.
Cheers,
Udita
Team HindiPod101.com
This is possibly the best lesson I have had so far.
Knowing how to form questions is soooo useful!
:smile:
Hi Ian,
Sounds good - thanks for writing!
Cheers,
Udita
Team HindiPod101.com
मुझे मौसम को न तो बहुत गर्मी और न ही बहुत सर्दी पसंद है। I like the weather neither too hot nor too cold.
इसलिए मैं पुर्तगाल के उत्तर में रहता हूँ। For this reason, I live in the North of Portugal.
Hello Hanane,
'hoon' is used for first person singluar. For example, 'main jaa rahi hoon' meaning 'I am going' whereas 'hain' is used to first person plural. For example 'hum jaa rahe hain' meaning 'we are going'.
It can also be used for second person singular and plural (formal). For example- aap kya kar rahe hain meaning 'what are you doing?'.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Neha
Team HindiPod101.com
Hello Swetha,
'aapki madad' or 'Tumhari maDad' both mean 'help you'. The only difference is the level of formality or seniority when using each. 'aapki ' as you know is more formal and hence is used with people who are senior is age or level or in other formal situations while 'Tumhari' is more casual on the other hand.
So when a female wants to say it to a male- I can help you , it would be 'main aapki maDaD kar sakTii hoon'.
On the other hand if a male wants to say, it would be - 'main aapki maDaD kar sakTaa hoon.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Neha
Team HindiPod101.com
namaste!
you say that ''hoon'' means ''are'' but you can use for singular? ex: main saktii hoon
then what is the difference between ''hoon'' and ''hain'' and when do you use each on? :smile::flushed::disappointed:
Youhav mentioned "Aapki madadh" and "Tumhari madadh" as "your help". Literally, doesn't it mean "Help you"
Because when a female is telling a male "I can help you".. we would still use: "Mein AAPKI madadh kar sakthi hoon"
Or have I got it wrong?:flushed:
कृष्णकीर्ति दास जी,
Perfect! :thumbsup:
Cheers,
Neha
Team HindiPod101.com
मुझे गर्मी सर्दी से ज़्यादा पसंद है।
I prefer hot weather much more than cold weather.