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 हूं उदिता। (main Udita hoon). 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 : आज शाम तुम क्या कर रही हो? (aarTi: aaj shaam Tum kya kar rahii ho?) |
| आरती : आज मैं अपने मंगेतर के साथ क्रिकेट मैच देखने जा रही हूँ (kaet: aaj main apne mangeTar ke saath kriket match Dekhne ja rahi hoon) |
| केट : अच्छा! सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी कौन है? (aarTii: achha! sabse achha khiladii kaun hai?) |
| आरती : सचिन तेंदुलकर! वह बहुत अच्छा खेलता है (kaet: sachin Tendulkar! vah bahuT achha khelTa hai) |
| Maya: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| केट : आज शाम तुम क्या कर रही हो? (aarTi: aaj shaam Tum kya kar rahii ho?) |
| आरती : आज मैं अपने मंगेतर के साथ क्रिकेट मैच देखने जा रही हूँ (kaet: aaj main apne mangeTar ke saath kriket match Dekhne ja rahi hoon) |
| केट : अच्छा! सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी कौन है? (aarTii: achha! sabse achha khiladii kaun hai?) |
| आरती : सचिन तेंदुलकर! वह बहुत अच्छा खेलता है (kaet: sachin Tendulkar! vah bahuT achha khelTa hai) |
| Maya: Now let's hear it with the English translation. |
| केट : आज शाम तुम क्या कर रही हो? (aarTi: aaj shaam Tum kya kar rahii ho?) |
| arti: What are you doing in the evening today? |
| आरती : आज मैं अपने मंगेतर के साथ क्रिकेट मैच देखने जा रही हूँ (kaet: aaj main apne mangeTar ke saath kriket match Dekhne ja rahi hoon) |
| kate: I am going to see the cricket match with my fiancé. |
| केट : अच्छा! सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी कौन है? (aarTii: achha! sabse achha khiladii kaun hai?) |
| arti: Is it! Who is the best cricketer? |
| आरती : सचिन तेंदुलकर! वह बहुत अच्छा खेलता है (kaet: sachin Tendulkar! vah bahuT achha khelTa hai) |
| kate: 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 (shaam) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: evening |
| Udita: शाम (shaam) [slowly - broken down by syllable] शाम (shaam) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: Next |
| Udita: मंगेतर (mangetar) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: fiancee’ |
| Udita: मंगेतर (mangetar) [slowly - broken down by syllable] मंगेतर (mangetar) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: Next |
| Udita: साथ (saath) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: together |
| Udita: साथ (saath) [slowly - broken down by syllable] साथ (saath) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: Next |
| Udita: जा रही (ja rahii) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: going |
| Udita: जा रही (ja rahii) [slowly - broken down by syllable] जा रही (ja rahii) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: Next |
| Udita: अच्छा (achha) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: good |
| Udita: अच्छा (achha) [slowly - broken down by syllable] अच्छा (achha) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: Next |
| Udita: खिलाड़ी (khiladi) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: player |
| Udita: खिलाड़ी (khiladi) [slowly - broken down by syllable] खिलाड़ी (khiladi) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: Next |
| Udita: कौन (kaun) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: who |
| Udita: कौन (kaun) [slowly - broken down by syllable] कौन (kaun) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: Next |
| Udita: बहुत (bahut) [natural native speed] |
| Maya: very |
| Udita: बहुत (bahut) [slowly - broken down by syllable] बहुत (bahut) [natural native speed] |
| 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 which means “doing”. It comes from the verb karna which means “to do”. |
| Maya: We can change the verbs into their present continuous form by adding rahi to the root of the verb. |
| Udita: So if I want to say “going”, I would add rahi to the root of the verb jaana. So it becomes ja rahi. |
| Maya: Yes, that’s right. Next we have अच्छा! which means “good” but it can also be used as an interjection to express surprise or acknowledgement. |
| Udita: And next is सबसे अच्छा. It is a phrase which means “the best of all”. So if we say सबसे अच्छा घर, it means “the best house of all”. |
| Maya: And of course it changes according to the number and gender of the noun. So achha changes into achhi if the noun following it is feminine. |
| Udita: For example, we’d say सबसे अच्छी घड़ी which means “the best watch of all”. In our conversation we had सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी, so it means “the best player of all” |
| Maya: कौन means “who”. We could also say कौनसा to mean “which”. |
| Udita: Last we have खेलता which means “plays”. It comes from the verb “khelna” which means “to play”. |
| Maya: Similarly, we could add ta/ti/te to the root of the verb to make it into present tense. |
| Udita: For example to say “He goes”, we’d say vah jaata hai. Here we’ve added ta to the root of the verb jaana which means “to go”. |
| Maya: Another example would be main khaati hoon 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 before the head noun. For example, we could |
| add सबसे before the adjective सुन्दर which means “pretty”. |
| Maya: So together it becomes, sabse sundar which means “prettiest of all”. |
| Udita: Similarly we could add sabse to the adjective chhota and together it becomes सबसे छोटा 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 2 nouns? For example, if A is as good as B? |
| Udita: Equative structures are formed by adding jaisa. For example, if you want to say “Arti is as intelligent as Kate”, we could say आरती केट जैसी समझदार है |
| Maya: So jaisa 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 examp. 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 |
| Maya: Sometimes we also use the terms ek jaisa/ek jaisi: |
| Udita: For example, we could say, यह जुड़वाँ बहने एक जैसी हैं 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 |
| Maya: Ok another one! “This room is as good as a hotel room”. |
| Udita: यह कमरा होटल के कमरे जैसा अच्छा है |
| Maya: Let's once again see, how this grammar point was used in the dialogue. |
| Udita: Kate says अच्छा! सबसे अच्छा खिलाड़ी कौन है? achha sabse achha khiladi 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: "Shukriyaa aur fir milenge!" |
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