hindi

I was wondering whether these two sounds are the same or not (I have never seen the first one used though). I wonder is similar statements could be made about 'ग्ह and घ', 'च्ह and छ', and the rest of the sounds in this manner.

Friends, Which of the following 2 sentences is more idiomatic? 1. jo bhii sune, maiN un_ko sunaanaa chaahtaa huuN 2. jis_ko bhi sune, maiN un_ko sunaanaa chaahtaa huuN #2 is the one that makes more sense to me, because the syntactic function of the beginning relative clause, [jis_ko bhi...

Friends, In the following sentence, which is supposed to mean "the woman was going to die, but the policeman saved her": 3aurat marne jaa rahii thii, lekin pulis_vale ne use bachaa liyaa Why liyaa is in masculine form, if, in theory, the syntactic subject / logical object is the woman? Is...

Friends, The second line of the song "laT uljhii" (the simplified bandish, not the several movie lyrics which use these lines), says: laT uljhii suljhaa jaa, baalam haathan mɛhɛndii lagii, more baalam What kind of inflection is haathan? In some other lyrics one can find haat, haathoN, or even...

Friends, The 1970's song "Nahin Nahin", by R.D. Burman, is an exchange between a man who is eager to have the "mulaaqaat", and a woman who advices him patience. The second stanza goes like this: baRe vo ho tum piyaa zidd kyuuN nahiiN chhoRte? kaliyoN ko khilne se pɛhle nahiiN toRte My...

The sounds ख़ and ग़ represent the unvoiced and voiced velar fricatives (respectively). I wonder why the unvoiced version is associated with the aspirated unvoiced sound (ख) but the voiced version isn't associated with the voiced version of that sound, घ, or vice versa (although क़ is used as...

Dear Foreros, I'm constantly at a loss when it comes to expressing taking something back or wanting it back in Urdu besides in the case of taking back or recanting a statement. In that case waapas lenaa is used. To take back a statement- bayaan waapas lenaa. Take it back!- waapas lo...

Dear Foreros, Like dard which in Punjab is often treated as feminine, hosh appears to follow a similar trend. Hosh aatii/aanii is very commonly used but it appears this is a Galat ul 'aam. Hosh uRte haiN, uRtii nahiiN. Hosh uRnaa is Urdu/Hindi's closest alternative to have your senses/mind...

Hi, What is the meaning of बात بات? I have heard various translations of it like talk speech word What is the exact meaning? It is probably the most common noun in Hindi and Urdu but its meaning is not so clear.

Why is the anusvaara never written as the homorganic nasal consonant before a sibilant (श, ष, and स)? Is the it not pronounced the way I think ( ञ्श, ण्ष, and न्स respectively) or is there another reason I am unaware of? Ex: कंस is never written as कन्स अंश is never written as अञ्श and...

Dear Foreros, This may just be one of the curiosities/oddities of language but is it the case that in Urdu/Hindi whilst you can indeed be at home I.e. ghar peh/par you cannot be at the office but rather your are in it? Would "daftar peh/par honaa" make sense or its best to say daftar meN? Would...

My understanding is that the 'अ's in many words spelled with an 'अ + ह + अ' are sometimes pronounced as the 'e' in 'bed'. Examples are: ठहरना, ज़हर, कहना, दोपहर, etc Then, why is 'खंडहर' rarely, if ever, pronounced using the 'e' in 'bed' (the Wiktionary doesn't cite an entry with the "'e' in...

Does मेंढक contain an anusvaara or chandrabindu (in Hindi)?

The anusvaara before a 'य' is apparently pronounced as 'ञ'. However, I wonder why there are a lot of words where the 'य' is associated with other nasals (न्याय, अन्यथा, पुण्य, वरेण्य, रम्या). The only words I can think of that use the anusvaara before the 'य' is 'संयुक्त', 'संयोग', etc, and I...

I saw 'लॉन्च' in a news channel to represent 'launch'. Should it be 'लॉन्च' or 'लॉञ्च' (the former matches what I saw written and the latter matches what seems to me natural in Sanskrit and thus in Hindi)?

Dear Foreros, In Subcontinental English and by extension Urdu/Hindi you will come across the term bogie-bogii (when transliterated into Roman Urdu), probably spelt as بوگی when it comes to the carriage/car of a train. Another term for carriage that I've come across is the English derived buggy...

When a sequence of mixed-gender nouns is qualified by a single adjective, or a sequence of mixed-gender subjects have the same predicate, with what should the qualifier/predicate agree? Does this include agreement in number or only in gender? There seems to be a lot of differing between sources...

The sound represented by ज़ seems to me more related to स than ज. So, why is ज़ formed by a nuqta under the ज instead of the स (or something else)? Maybe this helps?: ज: Voiced postalveolar affricate ज़:Voiced alveolar fricative स: Voiceless alveolar fricative

What words in Hindi contain क्श (not क्ष)? The only one I can think of is नक्शा.

To my understanding izafat (izaafat?) is a productive process in Urdu (and shows up in Bollywood songs like Dard-e-Disco). It's not as much a thing in Hindi to my experience, but there are a few set phrases here and there I'll encounter (even in literature) that seem like they come from it. For...

Dear Foreros, This is something you often hear in films be they historic epics, action, superhero or romantic drama films. To spare one's life in other words to not take one's life when offered the opportunity in a battle or to be left alone by someone in a position of power usually a...

What’s the correct way to express the present continuous presumptive? I’ve gotten conflicting messages from different sources, with Schmidt in ‘Urdu: An Essential Grammar’ p115 using رہنا as in the continuous present tense, whereas Naim in ‘Introductory Urdu Volume 1’ p107 just uses the...

I have noticed that many bollywood romantic songs use masculine inflections for women. Does anyone know the reason for this? At first I thought this was an attempt, for whatever reason, to emulate the eastern varieties of Hindi that do not have a grammatical gender. However, at least in some of...

Hello! Would someone who speaks both or has a general in-depth knowledge of linguistics kindly enlighten me on the subject of just what are the main differences in grammar between Hindi and Punjabi? Would you say that the key structures and the internal logic of grammar are about the same...

Dear Foreros, I've been wondering what one would call a bottle opener in the languages above. From people who have little acquaintance with the English language the following are the terms that I have come across: 1. Botal kholne-waalaa OR 2. Botal kii chaabii. Now there are a few...

Hello, I was trying to say: Don't get her to ask; you should ask. I used poochhvaanaa, but as I said it, it dawned on me I wasn't sure it was an actual verb. I think it is? And if so, is it puchhvaanaa or poochhvaanaa? Thanks.

Dear Foreros, When we say someone is dressed in a certain colour we say they are wearing x joRaa I.e. suit/ensemble. But how would you express the idea of a lady in red or men in black in the languages above? Similarly consider you are at a clothing store and a shop assistant asks what colour...

For the normative unemphatic word order, I find Schmidt in ‘Urdu: An essential grammar’ p67 and p189 places adverbs in the following order: Adverb of time, then adverb of place, then adverb of manner and gives as an example: whereas I find Naim in ‘Introductory Urdu vol 1’ p153, p155 and p168...

In Hindi, there is a property of food called 'तासीर'. What would a good translation of this be in English? Ex: अदरक की तासीर गरम है।

Hello, How do we say we were in the middle of doing something, along the lines of: I was in the middle of cooking when the guests arrived. She was right in the middle of correcting her mistake when the exam proctor called time. Also when there's no verb: Don't tell me the ending-- I'm in the...

In this song मेरी साँसों में तू है समाया मेरा जीवन तो है तेरा साया तेरी पूजा करूं मैं तो हर दम ये है तेरे करम, कभी ख़ुशी कभी ग़म Is the word करम كرم used in the Arabic sense or the Sanskrit sense? The Sanskrit sense is "work whose fruit is enjoyed in the next life".

Apparently there are two words in Hindi that mean 'centipede'. चालीसपद means 'forty feet' शतपाद means 'hundred feet' The latter comes from Sanskrit, and I can't find the etymology of the former. My question is, is there a difference as to when these words are used to describe the animal...

Dear Foreros, I was wondering if when it comes to taking the stairs one can use siiRhiyaaN lenaa, just as one would if they were taking a train, bus, lift, cab and so forth? I've never heard one use this idiom in either Urdu or Hindi nonetheless besides convention there doesn't appear to be any...

I’m aware of the use of کر kar as a conjunctive implying sequentiality, where what follows comes after what precedes it, sometimes with a cause and effect relationship and sometimes without any such relationship. I’ve come across some uses of کر (and when following the stem of karnaa, کے ke)...

In the book 'Urdu: An Essential Grammar' by Ruth Laila Schmidt, it states on p93: In what situations would تھا/تھی/تھے be negated with na and in what situations would it be negated with nahiiN? I'm aware the simple past in general is negated with نہ and occasionally نہیں (same book p126), so I...

Dear Foreros, Whilst it is abundantly clear that to become a father is baap/waalid bannaa and likewise to become a mother is maaN/waaalida/ammii etc bannaa, family planning is referred to as both xaandaanii mansuubah-bandii or xaandaanii tanzeem. It isn't clear how one can express the idea of...

For example, how would a sentence such as "The criminals were either executed or forced to leave the country" be translated into Urdu/Hindi?

Dear Foreros, I've been grappling with formulating an alternative myself thus would appreciate your help on this. When someone is viewed as the face of a brand, party, club or any entity that means there's a face to whatever name is mentioned. However, how would we go about expressing this...

Friends, I learnt this new conjunction, from a medical bill I received yesterday (in Hindi): क्या आप इस दस्तावेज़ को पढ़ सकते हैं? यदि नहीं, तो हम इसे पढ़ने में आपकी सहायता करने हेतु किसी की व्यवस्था कर सकते हैं| kyaa aap is dastavez ko paRh sakte haiN? yadi nahiiN to ham ise paRhne meN aapkii...

Friends, The 2004 Hindi movie "Lakshya" is about a lazy, aimless young adult, who worries his parents. At some point, out of a whim, he decides to join the Army. And his father, having had enough of his antics, shouts to him in anger: tum vo karo_ge jo ham kaheN_ge! In Spanish, we would...

Hello everyone, I would like to know if there are any words in Hindi that are very similar to कनपटी. It could be a single letter that is changed or maybe a letter sounds like another, but there should be a clear similarity to them. Could anyone please help me? thanks in advance for your time...

Friends, I am curious about the "bare" part of the compound postposition ke bare meN = "about, regarding, in relation to" The Hindi Oxford/McGregor dictionary puts that it comes from a word baraa, and adds a (P.) abbreviation to it (which stands for "Persian" in that dictionary). I can't find...

I have heard (and also used it myself) सरि का/सरी का quite a lot in Indore, but not in Mumbai. I was wondering if this is an actual word or more of a slang? I couldn't find any usage of it online nor in any dictionary. Is anyone aware of where else it is used and a possible etymology of the...

Friends, I am a little confused by the syntactic structure of this phrase, which seems to be abundantly used. Specifically I don't understand how the "decision" is linked with the "reason". Either the reason "is behind" the decision, or "belongs" to the decision, but it can't be both at the...

Friends, In Spanish, we have two translations for the English word "for": "por" and "para". - "Para" translates "for" in a teleological (end, or purpose-oriented) fashion: "in order to", "directed to", "for the sake of". I am doing this for the future generations. = "Yo hago esto para las...

Friends, My understanding is that "to arrest (i.e. detain) somebody" is kisii ko giraftaar karnaa However, I am a little confused about by this article, where they use giraftaar honaa. अध्याय V व्यक्तियों की गिरफ्तारी पुलिस वारंट के बिना गिरफ्तार हो सकता है. प्र.41. (1) किसी भी पुलिस...

Hi all, I had a follow up question to this tread here, but did not want to sidetrack the discussion. In the thread, it was pointed out that "titles" (or generic people) become masculine in the passive when ko is involved (e.g., mujhe naukraanii banaayaa gayaa hai). Does this extend to the...

What does the word mean क्षेत्रीतया khetriityaa ? I didn't find it in any dictionary. I guess its meaning "region" 🙁 Link

Friends, In a Hindi child story about some eskimo (inuit) people, a bear saves three hunters from drowning. Later on, when these people are part of a hunting party that stumbles upon that same bear, they convince their companions to let it go. The phrase used is: tiinoN ne us_ke saathiyoN...

Hi all - is there a difference between these two? I was taught (in a classroom) to use न (and pronounce it “na”). मैं जाऊँ या न जाऊँ? तुम आओगे न? न तुमसे नफ़रत करता हूँ और न ही किसी और से But I’ll often hear these on TV pronounced as “naa” and see it spelled online as ना 1. Is there a...