Learn some common noun prefixes in Hindi
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Intro |
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| Alisha: What are some noun prefixes in Hindi? |
| Shakti: And why are they useful to know? |
| Alisha: At HindiPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha Lee studies for her language exam together with her classmate, Sharmila Sharma. She sees an unfamiliar word and asks, |
| "What does 'non-violence' mean?" |
| साशा: अहिंसा का क्या मतलब होता है? (ahiNSaa kaa kyaa maTaLab hoTaa hai?) |
| Dialogue |
| साशा: अहिंसा का क्या मतलब होता है? (ahiNSaa kaa kyaa maTaLab hoTaa hai?) |
| शर्मिला: इसका मतलब होता है "हिंसा न करना"। (iSakaa maTaLab hoTaa hai "hiNSaa Na karaNaa.") |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| साशा: अहिंसा का क्या मतलब होता है? (ahiNSaa kaa kyaa maTaLab hoTaa hai?) |
| Alisha: "What does 'non-violence' mean?" |
| शर्मिला: इसका मतलब होता है "हिंसा न करना"। (iSakaa maTaLab hoTaa hai "hiNSaa Na karaNaa.") |
| Alisha: "It means 'not to cause violence'." |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: In this lesson, you will be learning some noun prefixes in Hindi and why they are useful to know. Before we begin looking at examples of prefixes in Hindi, let me quickly explain what prefixes are. |
| Prefixes are a kind of affix and an affix is any small element of language that can be attached to a word in order to modify the meaning of that word. Prefixes are affixes that always attach to the beginning of a word. In fact, the "pre" of "prefix" is a prefix! It means "before" or "in front" and it modifies the meaning of the root word "fix." The root word, in this case, denotes "attachment" and the literal meaning of "prefix" is, therefore, "in front attachment"—something that is attached to the front of something else. |
| Right, now that we all know what a prefix is, let's proceed to look at some prefixes in Hindi. It's important to know these because Hindi relies quite heavily on prefixes to convey meaning. There are a lot of them in Hindi, so, to make things easier for you, we have selected ten of the most common ones to study in this lesson. |
| The first prefix we will look at is |
| Shakti: अ (a) |
| Alisha: which means "not" or "without." Generally, it denotes a lack of some sort, such as in the Hindi words for "scarcity" |
| Shakti: अभाव (abhaav) |
| Alisha: and "ignorance": |
| Shakti: अज्ञान (agyaaN) |
| Alisha: As the statement |
| Shakti: अज्ञानता परमानंद है (agyaaNataa paramaaNaNd hai) |
| Alisha: points out, "ignorance" can sometimes be a blessing. This sentence means "Ignorance is bliss." By the same token, "more" is not always a blessing. For instance, sometimes you might be in a situation where you can say: |
| Shakti: मैंने अत्यधिक खाना खाया। (mainNe aTyaaDHik khaaNa khaaya) |
| Alisha: which means, "I ate too much food." The prefix used in this sentence was |
| Shakti: अति (aTi) |
| Alisha: and it means "more." In the sentence, it was used in the word |
| Shakti: अत्याधिक (aTyaaDHik) |
| Alisha: which means "too much." It can also be used in a word like |
| Shakti: अत्याचार (aTyaacaar) |
| Alisha: which means "oppression." Perhaps the balance between "lack" and "too much" is to be "full" or "complete." The prefix which indicates these conditions is |
| Shakti: आ (aa) |
| Alisha: and it can be used in a word like |
| Shakti: आजीवन (aajiivaN) |
| Alisha: which means "lifelong." One could use this word to talk about a "lifelong commitment" for instance: |
| Shakti: एक आजीवन प्रतिबद्धता। (ek aajiivaN praTibaDDHaTaa) |
| Alisha: A similar word is |
| Shakti: आमरण (aamaran) |
| Alisha: which means "till death." It means "till death" in a good way, of course. And speaking of "in a good way," the next tag we are going to discuss means exactly that. It sounds like this: |
| Shakti: नि (Ni) |
| Alisha: and it can be used in words like |
| Shakti: निवारण (Nivaaran) |
| Alisha: which means "prevention." This word can be used in a statement like: |
| Shakti: निवारण इलाज से बेहतर है। (Nivaaran ilaaj Se behaTar hai) |
| Alisha: which means "Prevention is better than cure." If you have unhealthy habits, this motto is a good one to repeat to yourself. Hopefully, it will help you to |
| Shakti: अपने तरीक़े में परिवर्तन लाना (apaNe Tariiqe men parivarTaN LaaNaa) |
| Alisha: which means "Change your ways." This sentence contains the word |
| Alisha: परिवर्तन (parivarTaN) |
| Shakti: which means "change" or "transformation." As you can hear, the prefix of this word is |
| Shakti: परि (pari) |
| Alisha: which means "everywhere" or "all over." This prefix can also be used in a word like "measure" or |
| Shakti: परिमाण (parimaan). |
| Alisha: And now, because we have come to the sixth prefix, I can say, |
| Shakti: हम अच्छी प्रगति कर रहे हैं। (ham acchii pragaTi kar rahe hain) |
| Alisha: which means, "We are making good progress." The Hindi word for "progress" is |
| Shakti: प्रगति (pragaTi) |
| Alisha: and, as you can hear, it contains the prefix |
| Shakti: प्र (pra) |
| Alisha: which conveys to the word it is modifying the meaning of "ahead," "above" or "more." Another word containing this prefix is |
| Shakti: प्रबल (prabaL) |
| Alisha: which means "strong." It's true: we are making very good progress, and you should be proud of yourself if Hindi is a foreign language to you. Speaking of which, the sentence "Hindi is a foreign language" or |
| Shakti: हिंदी एक विदेशी भाषा है। (hiNDii ek viDesii bhaasaa hai) |
| Alisha: contains the next prefix we will learn about. The word |
| Shakti: विदेश (viDes) |
| Alisha: means "foreign" and its prefix is |
| Shakti: वि (vi) |
| Alisha: which conveys the meaning of "special," or "diverse" to the word it is modifying. The word |
| Shakti: विज्ञान (vigyaaN) |
| Alisha: for instance, translates directly to "diverse knowledge" and means "science." The eighth prefix we will learn about is |
| Shakti: सु (Su) |
| Alisha: which means "good" or "nice." It can be used to form words such as |
| Shakti: सुफल (SufaL) |
| Alisha: which means "good result" and |
| Shakti: सुकर्म (Sukarm) |
| Alisha: which means "good deed." Listen to this sentence containing the Hindi for "good deed." |
| Shakti: हमें सुकर्म करने चाहिए (hamen Sukarm karaNe caahiye) |
| Alisha: It means, "We should do good deeds." The ninth prefix is |
| Shakti: स्व (Sva) |
| Alisha: and it means "ours" or "private." In English, a similar prefix might be "self" as in "self-governing" |
| Shakti: स्वतंत्र (SvaTaNTr) |
| Alisha: or "self-interest" |
| Shakti: स्वार्थ (SvaarTH). |
| Alisha: Here's an example of how the word for "self-interest" can be used in a sentence. It means, "Self-interest is not always a bad thing." |
| Shakti: स्वार्थ हमेशा बुरी चीज़ नहीं है। (SvaarTH hamesaa burii ciiz Nahiin hai) |
| Alisha: The last prefix we will study is |
| Shakti: स (Sa) |
| Alisha: which means "with." It can be used in words like |
| Shakti: सपरिवार (Saparivaar) |
| Alisha: which means "with family" and |
| Shakti: सफल (SaphaL) |
| Alisha: which means "success." And if you have come this far, you can now say |
| Shakti: मेरा सीखना सफल रहा। (meraa SiikhaNaa SaphaL rahaa) |
| Alisha: which means "My learning was a success." Well done! |
| 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 "What does 'non-violence' mean?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti as Sasha: अहिंसा का क्या मतलब होता है? |
| Alisha: Listen again and repeat. |
| Shakti as Sasha: अहिंसा का क्या मतलब होता है? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti as Sasha: अहिंसा का क्या मतलब होता है? |
| Alisha: And do you remember how Sharmila says "It means 'not to cause violence'?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti as Sharmila: इसका मतलब होता है "हिंसा न करना"। |
| Alisha: Listen again and repeat. |
| Shakti as Sharmila: इसका मतलब होता है "हिंसा न करना"। |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Shakti as Sharmila: इसका मतलब होता है "हिंसा न करना"। |
| Cultural Insight |
| Alisha: Did you know that prefixes in Hindi have different origins? Some come from Sanskrit, some from Urdu, and others are Sanskrit word roots that are used as prefixes. Interestingly, most of the prefixes we studied in this lesson are originally from Sanskrit. |
Outro |
| Alisha: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Shakti: फिर मिलेंगे! (phir miLenge!) |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
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