hindi

Dear Foreros, People carry various perspectives on this matter but in my opinion the avalanche of English terms in the vernacular has made shudh Hindi or xaalis Urdu a dying breed, to the point where in most conversations you are relegated to speaking a Creole of English unless and until you...

Dear Foreros, I will provide a few contexts concerning going to/for work and being at work and wanted some assistance puzzling out what propositions and terms to be using in each case. Firstly would kaam be the correct term to utilise in each case and feel free to proffer as many alternatives...

Dear Foreros, As has been discussed on multiple occasions the wholesale adoption of English terms in various industries has meant that indigenous terms have been supplanted rather than augmented in some scenarios. Waapsii appears to be one of them, at least in the aviation and hospitality...

Hello, ["related" not in the sense of personal connections] How do Hindi speakers commonly say the following: this word and that word are not related / have nothing to do with each other? यह शब्द और वोह शब्द सम्बंधित नहीं हैं? जुड़े हुए / बंधे हुए नहीं हैं? Is there an alternative with...

Friends, What is the general, common nuance (if any) that rakhnaa adds as a vector verb? I don't know if my question is valid. Grammars try desperately to find common nuances that vector verbs add to their main verbs. But, with rakhnaa, they fail to reach any agreement, and they start...

Friends, You will agree that if an Indic feminine word ending in -ii is made plural, the suffix that's added is "-aaN". Recently, a couple of times I've heard the suffix "-eN" which is reserved for Indic feminine words ending in a consonant. The words that I have in mind are of the type...

Dear Foreros, I was wondering whether there was a way to differentiate between a beehive I.e. an enclosed structure where bees reside out of sight with a honeycomb، the hexagonal wax structure where honey is stored? I am sure plenty of you already know this but you can buy boxes or bottles of...

Friends, What is "galkar" in the following phrase? I believe it refers to the alleged benefits of drinking beer in removing kidney calcareous stones (calculi, gallstones). jaankaaroN kaa maannaa hai ki(h) biiyar piine se pathrii galkar nikal jaatii hai My attempt: "It is admitted by the...

Dear Foreros, Is making up your mind a concept immediately transferable to Urdu/Hindi and if so am I correct in supposing that zehn banaa lenaa is the idiom used for that purpose? If so please do attempt to translate the sentence as best you can. Prior to that I will give it a go myself. I...

Dear Foreros, This isn't by any means the first time I've had a run in with Urdu genderisations. It can at times be a little difficult to grasp whether a word or term ought to be muzakkar or mu'annas. However, in this case there appears to be a blatant discrepancy in common usage and dictionary...

Friends, An article about a young man from Kerala tells us how he managed to build a humble house during the lockdown, cheaply, with recyclable materials, over a period of 6 months. The verb constantly used is banaa Daalnaa: For example: My question is: what exact nuance is Dalnaa...

Friends, What is the correct pronunciation of "doctor"? In hindi I find it written as डॉक्टर - Wiktionary And my understanding is that the ◌ॉ (chandra-o) sign usually indicates a short English /ɒ/ sound. But @littlepond jii suggested that it is /dɔːktər/ not /dɒktər/ However, in Urdu...

Friends, I am curious about what are the historical reasons to use baiThnaa = "to sit" as an auxiliar indicating disapproval by the speaker. As in, for example: fauj buuRhe logoN se laR baiThii hai What is the connection between "sitting" and "disapproval"? It has to do perhaps with...

Friends: toR aanaa, chhoR aanaa, as used in the following context, are they conveying any sense of motion (physical of figurative) towards the subject? jo baNdisheN thiiN zamaan kii toR aayaa huuN maiN tere vaaste duniyaa ko chhoR aayaa huuN Do they mean any "coming" or "arriving" to a...

Friends, What is the proper postposition to use in the sentence below? anek log is biimaarii ke baare meN apne DakTar se/kaa SalaaH leNge One takes "the doctor's advice" or "an advice coming from the doctor"? Or is se only possibe with SalaaH karnaa, i.e.: anek log is biimaarii ke baare...

Dear Foreros, We've all been living through a global pandemic and the hysteria and consternation concerning everyone and sundry's medical records is something that has in some shape or form become a matter of public interest. The pandemic has given birth to novel nomenclature. You have levels...

dosto: "uTh jaag musaafir" gaane meN, shuruu se pehle, gaayak gungunaataa hai "jaag re ..." "saajan sukaare jaaeNge, aur nain meriiN ge ro" "sukaare" ka matlaab kya hai? ek anuvaad kehtaa hai ki sukaare="bhor meN" hai agar aisaa hai, to kis qism kaa lafz "sukaaraa" or "sukaare" hai? ise...

Dear Foreros, Whilst I understand that statistics as a discipline is referred to as shumaariiyaat شماریات or I'lm E a'daad o shumaar علم اعداد وقار in Urdu and that statistics in terms of stats are referred to as a'daad o shumaar, what would you call an individual stat? In other words how...

Dear Foreros, The above is an oft-used English cliche that is self-explanatory yet nevertheless its used to mean that everyone should have the right to do as they please. I am not entirely sure, if Urdu has a set phrase that encapsulates that idea. The phrase that I personally use (which could...

Hi guys, i am from india and my most spoken language is Hindi. Today, i watch a persian clip on social media so there one lady used these words : Shayad, Zameen and Kharab. could you tell me please the meaning of these words in persian. i want to know because in hindi we used shayad for Maybe...

Dear Foreros, I was wondering how you would you refer to the idea of approving or not approving of something For instance, in American electoral campaign ads, each ad ends with the campaigner claiming that he/she is such and such and approves of or endorses the message. This trend has carried...

Dear Foreros, How would you express either a request or a promise of "keeping someone/yourself in the loop?" Whilst it is understandable that in Urdu you could use aagaah rakhnaa or baa-xabar rakhnaa, maybe even umuur/mu'aamalaat/xabroN/baat/oN ke baraabar rakhnaa (keep someone abreast of...

Friends, Does the differentiation between "direct" object and "indirect" object exist in the grammatical tradition of Hindi and of Urdu? In other words, is the "bachche ko" in: maiN bachche ko maartaa huuN perceived (or named) any differently from the "bachche ko" in: maiN bachche ko...

Dear Foreros, I couldn't help but think that Apnaa waqt leN/lenaa/lo are calques. That being said just because they are doesn't ipso facto make them incorrect. However, would you consider them to be proper Urdu or mere word on word translations? In other words do use it or find it comical, in...

Friends, I have a conceptual question regarding what "causative" really means. When I say that a verb is a "causative" or a "double/indirect causative", is that something I do based: a) on the form of the verb (a morphological property, for example, the infixes -aa-, -vaa-) b)...

Friends, The Platts dictionary give the following definition of dilaana and dilvaanaa : dilaanaa PLATTS दिलाना دلانا VERB دلانا दिलाना dilānā (caus. of denā), v.t. To cause to give, cause to give up, cause to yield, cause to pay; to put in possession; to occasion; to consign; to...

Friends, Does xariidaanaa exist (as a derivative verb of xariidnaa)? Or xariidnaa has only xariidnaa-xariidvaanaa? (I do find a few خریدانا ख़रीदाना on the Internet, but they would appear to be mostly typos)

Dear Foreros, The above appears to be a trickier issue than first meets the eye and thereby it is understandable why many opt for the English alternatives instead. The term that pops into mind for eligible in Urdu is ahl I.e. اہل, yet it is more often than not used for competence rather than...

Friends, The chorus of the beautiful qawwali "Jaag Musafir" goes: uTh jaag musaafir bhor bhaii ab rain kahaaN jo sovat hai "sovat", according to Platts, means the state of sleeping, or something like that, I cannot mak full sense of it, and cannot find this word elsewhere And I am...

Friends, Some grammars mention passingly that some verbs have "more than 3: 4 or even 5" causative derivative forms, but without providing any example. Could someone tell me an example of such 5-sets, if they even exist? More generally: is there any resource (printed or online) where...

Friends, In a phrase like: main ne us_ko xat likhvaayaa What is wrong with interpreting that us_ko as "I had a letter written for him", rather than "I dictated a letter to him". Am I forced to choose the "lexical translation" ("to dictate") as opposed to the "mechanical" one ("to make [sb]...

Friends, If I want to say: "I have my secretary send a package to my mum". Can I use bhijaanaa this way?: maiN merii sachiv se merii maaN ko paikej bhijaataa huuN Or mandatorily I have to use bhijvaanaa in this case? maiN merii sachiv se merii maaN ko paikej bhijvaataa huuN (It would...

Friends, I just came across the concept of "passive causation". I think is explains away many of the preceived oddities that have been discussed in recent threads about causative verbs. Perhaps the main problem is conceiving causation as a "valency increasing operation" (i.e., some...

Hello everyone, I would like to know if the expression "sitting with the legs crossed" or "cross-legged" in Hindi makes use of the Hindi word for "cross" (meaning crucifix or a cross symbol). Thank you very much.

dosto, nichoR. maiN jaanvaroN se waabastaa/h urduu/hindii/hindustaanii/... ke collective nouns ke baare meN jaannaa chaahtaa huuN :) byaurevaar. jaise ki(h) aap sab jaante hii hoN_ge, inglish kii ek xaaSiyat (yaa 3ajiibiyat?) hai ki(h) jaanvaroN ke girohoN ke liye jaanvar ke qism ke mutaabiq...

Friends, In English, "janitor" comes from the Latin word for "door, gate" (jānŭa) and it should be a person whose primary function is to guard or keep a door. But it came to be used as a euphemism for someone who does several menial, cleaning, and maintenance tasks necessary to keep a...

Friends, My general understanding was that, generally speaking, HU tries to indicate verbal valency in a lexical way, meaning that, just by hearing the verbal word, one has already an idea of how many complements that verb can have to complete its meaning, without resorting to the context...

सब जने साथ में बैठो तो सारा खाना खत्म हो जाए। I just heard my grandmother use this sentence and I'm a bit confused about the phrasing. What she wanted to say was that if everyone sits together to eat, all the food gets over. But, wouldn't it be more appropriate to use baithe instead of baitho...

Friends, The Urdu grammar by Schmidt gives this 4-verb set: 1. kaTnaa कटना کٹْنا "to be cut" (or consumed, or spent, etc.) 2. kaTaanaa कटाना کٹانا "to cause something to be cut" 3. kaaTnaa काटना کاٹْنا "to cut" 4. kaaTvaanaa कटवाना...

Hello everyone, I would like to know if there is term in Hindi for describing non-believers or pagans. Thank you very much.

This is a term I've heard several times over the years, usually in movies, but I've never been able to find it in a dictionary. To me, it sounds like it's pronounced, "शान पति", "شان پتی". Usually the context I've heard it in is someone being a sort of smart-alec, and almost always this exact...

Hello everyone, I would like to know which is the Sanskrit word for cross, as in a symbol were two lines converge, no matter the shape of its design. I am especially interested if there is one or several words that have a really ancient sound to it (indeed, words that are much older than...

Hello everyone, I would like to know which is the translation of the English word heather in Urdu, Hindi and Persian. I've listened to the pronunciation of the term in English and I have noticed that the Hindi word is very similar to the English one, which makes me wonder if the plant was...

Dear Foreros, There are often terms that develop in a language through its own trajectorys and subtleties which means that they can be fairly untranslatable on occasion but would you say that were the case for being a fabulous 'sport' i.e. someone "who behaves in a good or specified way in...

Yesterday, I visited the website of the Central Hindi Directorate (Kendriya Hindi Nideshalaya) and found some interesting material: There's a basic Hindi grammar online, quite extensive actually, a teach-yourself Hindi course and much more. Wouldn't it be a good idea, if the moderator(s) put up...

Hello, What is the difference between अँधेरा and अंधकार ? In my normal speech I only use the former, as it's all I've ever known. But yesterday I heard the sentence 'दिवाली के समय हम दिये जलाके अंधकार बद्दूर करते हैं।' Could अँधेरा have been used in that sentence? Is it a question of register...

I'm quite familiar with the word गणिका (gaNikaa) in the sense of prostitute, dancing-girl, courtesan etc. But it is also the name of a Jasmin-type of flower and as such a female first name; but I have not come across the name often. My question is: For a native Hindi speaker, what would your...

Bat -> बैट Bait -> बेट Bet -> ??? My main goal is to have the exact English pronunciation of the vowel sound.

In a title of a dance I have seen thet (or theth) nagpuri. What does it mean?

I was just reading a book from the early 20th century called Vivah-Vigyan aur Kam-Shastra. It's interesting for it's often unusual or rarely heard - or read - vocabulary, as well as antiquated spellings. In it, I came across this phrase: सैकड़ा पीछे निन्नान्वे पुरुष रोगी. I understand it to mean...