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!" |
21 Comments
HideHi everyone!
What is the prettiest thing about India?
मैं उस आदमी जैसा धनी हूँ।
I am as rich as that man? Why is the oblique pronoun used in this construction, instead of the simple pronoun वह? Does जैसा constitute a postposition?
Hi Isi,
Thanks for posting and answering the question!
If you have any questions, feel free to let us know.
All the best!
Roohi
Team HindiPod101.com
Hi Luisa,
Thanks for posting!
In the example sentence you used, we will use "apaNe" (अपने) and not "meraa" (मेरा). "Your fiance", if we use in this sentence, would be "Tumhaare (तुम्हारे) fiance" or "aapake (आपके) fiance."
"uN" (उन) in the example sentence you used means "those".
I hope this helps!
Roohi
Team HindiPod101.com
hindustani admi sab se khubsurat hain😜
"yah dabba un dabbon jaisa bada hai"
what does "un" mean in this sentence?
"aaj main apne mangeTar ke saath kriket match Dekhne ja rahi hoon"
I'm a bit confused because there is written "apne". Wouldn't that mean that she is watching the match with "your fiance".
I have noticed several times that "apne" is used instead of "mera" and I'm pretty confused by it.
Could I have used "mera" instead of of "apne" in this sentence?
Yeh jute ek jaise hain
These shoes are alike
Hi Alice and Kakembo,
Thank you both for posting!
Both your sentences are excellent.
Keep learning and let us know if you have any questions!
Roohi
Team HindiPod101.com
यह आदमी सबसे अमीर है
भारतीय भोजन सबसे स्वादिष्ट है।
भारतीय रंग सबसे चमकीले होते हैं।
भारतीय पहाड़ दुनिया में सबसे ऊंचे हैं।