Learn about gender changes in Hindi nouns
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Ayesha: Namaste, I'm Ayesha. |
| Ryan: And I’m Ryan. Welcome back to HindiPod101.com. This is Upper Beginner, season 1, Lesson 23: What Do Indian Peacocks Have to do with Rain? In this lesson, you’ll learn how to switch genders in nouns in Hindi. |
| Ayesha: This conversation takes place at a zoo. |
| Ryan: The speakers are friends, Ananya and Sania. |
| Ayesha: Since they’re friends, they'll be using Familiar Hindi. |
| Ryan: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Ayesha - Ananya |
| Neha - Sania |
| Ananya: वह देखो, हिरण! पीछे एक हिरणी भी है। |
| Sania: इधर मोरनी है. काश बारिश आ जाए| |
| Ananya: अरे पागल, बारिश से पहले मोर नाचते हैं पंख निकालकर, मोरनी नहीं! |
| Sania: अच्छा? इतना दिखावा मोरों में नर करता है? |
| Ananya: शेर भी तो वैसा ही है| शेरनी से ज़्यादा उसके अयाल के बाल देखनेवाले हैं| |
| Sania: हाँ यह तो है| शेर कहाँ होंगे? |
| Ananya: यहाँ तो नहीं| कितने छोटे-छोटे बन्दर के बच्चे हैं यहाँ| |
| Sania: चलो इन्हें कुछ खिलाएं| |
| Ryan: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Ananya: वह देखो, हिरण! पीछे एक हिरणी भी है। |
| Sania: इधर मोरनी है. काश बारिश आ जाए| |
| Ananya: अरे पागल, बारिश से पहले मोर नाचते हैं पंख निकालकर, मोरनी नहीं! |
| Sania: अच्छा? इतना दिखावा मोरों में नर करता है? |
| Ananya: शेर भी तो वैसा ही है| शेरनी से ज़्यादा उसके अयाल के बाल देखनेवाले हैं| |
| Sania: हाँ यह तो है| शेर कहाँ होंगे? |
| Ananya: यहाँ तो नहीं| कितने छोटे-छोटे बन्दर के बच्चे हैं यहाँ| |
| Sania: चलो इन्हें कुछ खिलाएं| |
| Ryan: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| A: वह देखो, हिरण! पीछे एक हिरणी भी है। |
| Ryan: Look there, a deer! There's a doe behind it, too. |
| B: इधर मोरनी है. काश बारिश आ जाए| |
| Ryan: There's a peahen on this side. I wish it would rain. |
| A: अरे पागल, बारिश से पहले मोर नाचते हैं पंख निकालकर, मोरनी नहीं! |
| Ryan: It's peacocks that dance before the rain, not peahens, silly! |
| B: अच्छा? इतना दिखावा मोरों में नर करता है? |
| Ryan: Really? It's the male of these birds that shows off? |
| A: शेर भी तो वैसा ही है| शेरनी से ज़्यादा उसके अयाल के बाल देखनेवाले हैं| |
| Ryan: Lions are like that too. The lion's mane is so much more flashy than the lioness's fur. |
| B: हाँ यह तो है| शेर कहाँ होंगे? |
| Ryan: Yes, that's true. Where do you think the lions are? |
| A: यहाँ तो नहीं| कितने छोटे-छोटे बन्दर के बच्चे हैं यहाँ| |
| Ryan: Not here for sure. There are so many baby monkeys here. |
| B: चलो इन्हें कुछ खिलाएं| |
| Ryan: Let's feed them. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Ryan: Let’s talk about animals and birds. Listeners, do you know what the national animal and bird of India are? |
| Ayesha: Usually, people associate the elephant with India, but the national animal is actually the tiger. And the national bird is the peacock. |
| Ryan: The peacock is very special in India. It’s the best messenger of rain and the monsoon because the peacock always appears before it rains. It’s said that it spreads its magnificent plume and dances. |
| Ayesha: This is supposed to be a mating ritual where the male shows off its beauty to the peahen, the female. The peahen is generally brown. |
| Ryan: Right. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Ryan: Let's review the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word is... |
| Ayesha: काश [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: if only, I wish |
| Ayesha: काश [slowly - broken down by syllable] काश [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: बारिश [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: rain |
| Ayesha: बारिश [slowly - broken down by syllable] बारिश [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: The next word is... |
| Ayesha: पागल [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: mad, crazy, loony |
| Ayesha: पागल [slowly - broken down by syllable] पागल [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: Next... |
| Ayesha: पंख [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: wing, feather |
| Ayesha: पंख [slowly - broken down by syllable] पंख [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: दिखावा [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: ostentation, posturing |
| Ayesha: दिखावा [slowly - broken down by syllable] दिखावा [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: Next... |
| Ayesha: नर [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: male |
| Ayesha: नर [slowly - broken down by syllable] नर [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: The next word is... |
| Ayesha: अयाल [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: mane |
| Ayesha: अयाल [slowly - broken down by syllable] अयाल [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: Next we have... |
| Ayesha: देखनेवाला [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: worth seeing |
| Ayesha: देखनेवाला [slowly - broken down by syllable] देखनेवाला [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: Next... |
| Ayesha: बन्दर [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: monkey |
| Ayesha: बन्दर [slowly - broken down by syllable] बन्दर [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: And last we have... |
| Ayesha: खिलाना [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: to feed |
| Ayesha: खिलाना [slowly - broken down by syllable] खिलाना [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Ryan: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Ayesha: The first word is kaas. This doesn’t translate clearly into English, because there’s no equivalent. It roughly means “I wish” or “if only.” |
| Ryan: The word is placed at the beginning of a sentence or clause making a wishful statement. |
| Ayesha: And the sentence ends with the verb conjugated in the present tense, without the hai, or “is.” |
| Ryan: So can you give us an example? |
| Ayesha: Here’s one - kaas aaj baaris hoTii. |
| Ryan: “I wish it would rain today.” |
| Ayesha: Okay, the next word is Dikhaavaa. |
| Ryan: This noun can be roughly translated as “ostentation” or “posturing.” |
| Ayesha: It's derived from the verb DikhaaNaa which means “to show” or “to reveal.” |
| Ryan: And the noun form refers to the behavior of showing off. |
| Ayesha: Dikhaavaa karNaa means “to show off” or “to put on a show.” This can be used to talk about showiness. |
| Ryan: This can be neutral as a description of a behavior, or it can be quite critical as well, depending on how you use it. |
| Ayesha: Right. The next word is khiLaaNaa, a causative verb which means “to feed.” The transitive verb khaaNaa means “to eat,” and the causative equivalent of this—“to cause someone to eat”—is “to feed” or khiLaaNaa. |
| Ryan: This can mean either the act of physically feeding someone, like a mother feeding her child, or it can also mean feeding someone by providing the food. Okay, now on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Ryan: In this lesson, you’ll learn about male and female gender in nouns. As you know, nouns in Hindi have gender. There are two aspects of this: one is grammatical gender, where nouns have a gender in Hindi grammar which doesn’t really reflect any reality. |
| Ayesha: For example, gaadii, or “car,” is a feminine noun in Hindi grammar, and khaaNaa, or “food, is masculine. |
| Ryan: The second type of gender in Hindi language is “natural gender,” where nouns have genders according to their social roles of male or female. |
| Ayesha: With these nouns, there are pairs by gender, so that a male noun will have female equivalent. For example, Ladkaa means “boy” which is naturally a male gender, and the female equivalent is Ladkii. |
| Ryan: In this lesson, we’ll look at how the female noun is derived from the male noun and go through some common patterns. |
| Ayesha: The first is with male nouns that end with the aa vowel sound, such as gaDHaa, DaaDaa, ghodaa, and baccaa. The rule is simply that the aa vowel is substituted with ii to get the female noun. |
| Ryan: Let’s try to apply this to the male nouns. |
| Ayesha: Okay. gaDHaa means donkey, and a female donkey is gaDHii. DaaDaa means “grandfather,” so grandmother is DaaDii. |
| Ryan: This is for paternal grandparents, your father’s father and mother. |
| Ayesha: In the same way, ghodaa is horse, so a female horse or mare is ghodii. baccaa means “baby boy or child,” and “baby girl” is baccii. |
| Ryan: Let’s move on to the next one. |
| Ayesha: The next is a pattern for male nouns ending in ii, such as maaLii and DHobii. Here, the ii end vowel is changed to iN. |
| Ryan: The important point here is that the female noun is the wife of the male noun. |
| Ayesha: So maaLii, meaning “gardener,” changes to maaLiN, which is the“gardener's wife.” And DHobii, meaning “washerman,” changes to “washerman’s wife”which is DHobiN. |
| Ryan: Got it. Let’s do the next one. |
| Ayesha: The next rule is for vowel sounds ending with ak, such as Sevak, aDHyaapak, and yuvak. The rule is to change the ak ending to ikaa for the female noun. |
| Ryan: Okay. Let’s hear some examples. |
| Ayesha: As you know, aDHyaapak is “a teacher.” So a female teacher is aDHyaapikaa. Likewise, Sevak is “a helper or server” and a “female server” is SevIkaa. yuvak is a “male youth” or a “young man,” and a “young woman” is yuvikaa. |
| Ryan: There’s one exception to this, right? |
| Ayesha: Yes, the exception is NarTaK, meaning “a male dancer.” A female dancer is NarTakii. |
| Ryan: The next one is less of a strict rule, and more of a general pattern. This is for nouns ending in consonants. |
| Ayesha: One prominent rule is to add Nii or aaNii in order to derive the female noun. |
| Ryan: When this is applied to family relations, the female is usually the wife of the relation. |
| Ayesha: An important example is paTi-paTNii. This pair is “husband-wife.” As in this example, when adding the Nii, the last vowel is often suppressed or made shorter. |
| Ryan: Okay. Those are the general patterns and rules which can be applied to a larger number of male and female noun pairs. Unfortunately, there are many nouns in Hindi that don’t follow any rule. |
| Ayesha: An important exception that's good to know is STrii-purus, a noun pair. STrii is a polite word for “woman,” and purus is the same for “man.” |
| Ryan: Let’s go through a couple more important pairs. |
| Ayesha: Sure! var-vaDHU is one. var means “groom,” and vaDHU is “bride.” |
| Ryan: And one last one... |
| Ayesha: SaaNS-SaSur. SaaNS is the female—a “mother-in-law”—and SaSur is “father-in-law.” |
Outro |
| Ryan: Well, that’s all we have for our lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Ayesha: Sukriyaa aur AlviDaa! |
Comments
Hide