hindi

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...

I’ve noticed that sometimes in Hindi songs, the subjunctive is used as a “general present tense” (except for होना). I’ve put few arbitrary examples below, but I’m curious - where does this usage come from? Is this a thing in spoken Hindi as well, or is it purely used in songs? Assorted...

Hi all! In Hindi IME, most postpositions go after nouns, pronouns, and infinitive verbs. aman ke liye = for Aman tere liye = for you jaane ke liye = for going / in order to go skuul ke saamne waalii dukaan = the store in front of the school This is true for postpositions made both from...

Hello! What syllable is stressed in पतला/पतली? On Forvo the second syllable is stressed (पतला/पतली), while on Wiktionary the first syllable is stressed (पतली). Which one is right? Also, is there a difference in meaning, connotation, register, usage, etc., between पतला and दुबला-पतला? Thank you!

Hello, friends! The following is an entry from Shabdsagar -- जिच्च १ jicca संज्ञा स्त्री॰ [?] १. बेबसी । तंगी । मजबूरी । २. शतरंज में शाह की वह अवस्था जब उसे चलने का कोई घर न हो और न अर्दब में देने को मोहरा हो । ३. शतरंज के खेल की वह अवस्था जिसमें किसी एक पक्ष का कोई मोहरा चलने की जगह न हो ।...

Friends, In the following sentence, is the use of the simple future bhaageN_ge grammatical? (as opposed to some other verbal tense or mood) laRkoN ko lagtaa thaa ki(h) luuT ke baad vo(h) bhaageN_ge The reason I ask, is because I am starting to realize that HU tends to avoid deictic...

Hello forum members! I am at a loss to come up with a word for submission (as in, when one submits a paper for publication) in Hindi. I see "jamaa karnaa" at some places (including what Google Translate suggests), but I do not find it an elegant option, especially not when one submits online...

Hi all - Are there any native Hindi words or new slang with these sounds? Native here meaning not borrowed from Persian, Arabic, English, etc (e.g., वफ़ादार, स्टेशन) and also not taken directly from Sanskrit (e.g. शब्द).

As you know, the suffix " -[l]aa" is often used to form so-called causative verbs like 'likhaanaa' from 'likhnaa'. And what about such verbs as "kahlaana" from "kahnaa" ? Other similar intransitive verbs ( for Hindi ) are listed in one of the grammars ( in Russian ) : 'chiraanaa' ( = 'biic se...

Friends, In the Urdu Lughat (I believe as an example of the word pɛhle), there is this saying: پَہْلے پَہْرے سَب کوئی جاگے، دوجے پَہْرے بھوگی، تیسرے پَہْرے چور جاگے، چَوتھے پَہْرے جوگی کہاوت What are the bhogii in that saying, and what is the general sense of the phrase? (There is an...

Hi all - all the following in English are translated as "present". वर्तमान हाज़िर मौजूद मौजूदी What's the difference between the four? Can you please give an example? Does "present" in this case mean "now" (e.g. "the present tense", "we live in the present") or "existing" ("I am present...

Friends, In the question: kyaa tum paagal ho gae ho? I understand that ho jaanaa = "to become, to experience a change or state, etc.". But if the main verb of the sentence is the second ho, then the question becomes an "existential/stative one": Are you ... ? Then (following my reasoning)...

I have long been interested in a question - why does the participle "huuaa" from " honaa " have such a strange appearance in Platts' grammar? P.S. And the spelling of this participle is poorly consistent with the usual form. It seems that the form " huuaa" given by Platts became the source of...

After talking to a Mumbai friend in English who spontaneously said something like "we'll have to wait and see karke", I again got curious about the use of the word 'karke'. Why do you think, she might want to insert the word 'karke' here? Another friend said, she might use it to mark adverbs...

Friends, In a Hindi translation of "Don Quixote", on the first introductory sentence, the character is depicted. Where the Spanish version says that he is the kind of person who would keep an old lance hanged on the wall (or panoply, or niche, probably for nostalgic reasons), the Hindi...

Nowhere can I find the etymology of "aan" ( from the verb "aanaa" - to come ) in combinations like " aan pahuNcnaa", "aan paRnaa", "aan khaRaa honaa" etc. Judging by the "Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary" ( आन abs. poet. and U. = आ, आकर ) in modern prose Hindi, this "aan" is already outdated. A...

Hello, this is my first time posting here, and I am relatively new to learning Hindi. Therefore, my first question may seem somewhat basic. In an exercise from Assimil Le hindi sans peine, I came across the next question: उस लड़के की बहन बदमाश है The sister of that boy is rascal. / La sœur de...

Friends, What is the meaning and correct spelling of "f[a]rmaan bardaar", as used in this phrase: tumhaaraa ma3buud ek hii ma3buud hai, pas tum isii ke firmaan bardaar ban jaao. I believe the idea is that, God being only one, one should "worship only Him" فرمان بردار | EUdict | Urdu>English

Namaskar! What does this word mean in Urdu / Hindi exactly. If you respond writing anything in those languages please transliterate it using the Latin script. Thanks in advance!

Friends, I had the impression that the verbal construction consisting of: [perfect participle] + [honaa in the past] (let's leave aside how it is called), could be used to refer to an action occurring in the past before another past action. These are examples I picked randomly from the...

Friends, I understand that denaa used as an auxiliar normally means that "the action is directed away from the doer". My question is: how much this concept overlaps with the main verb being transitive or intransitive? Can I for example use badalnaa intransitively, in the sense that I changed...

Dorud! Silav! Namaskar! Could you translate these sentences into the Indo-Iranian languages you speak? I’m curious how many sentences use the same expression if any. I’m also interested in regional, non-standard languages and dialects. Please provide a transliteration. Tashakor, Spas, Dhanyavād...

Friends, Does the letter झ़ झ़ - विकिपीडिया have any entity at all in Hindi? It is supposed to represent the phoneme /ʒ/ in words like "television", and be the Devanagari counterpart of Urdu's "Persian Zhe" (ژَ) in a handful of words like Zhaala(h) = "dew, sleet" or aZhadaa = "pthon, dragon"...

Friends, Just when I thought that I had finally nailed the apnaa thing, and having wanted to say something like: "My brother hasn't come, therefore I will just eat alone" as: apnaa bhaaii nahiiN aayaa hai, is_lie maiN akelaa hii khaauuN_gaa I was corrected by a Hindi speaker, saying that I...

In English we can use "mine" (/yours/his/hers/etc.) as a pronoun. For example: - Your house is bigger than mine (i.e. my house) - Put more food on mine, please (i.e. my plate) - I transferred money from your account to mine (i.e. my account) - We each had a dog, and mine ran faster than his...

Friends, If I want to say that something "has been forgotten", using the passive voice in order not to specify by whom, can I say: 1.puraane saare tariiqe bhuul jaae gae or I have to say simply: 2.puraane saare tariiqe bhuul gae And if #2, why is that? bhuul jaanaa doesn't lend itself...

Friends, I have a doubt regarding a couple of constructions where the participle is supposed to be idiomatically masculine, even if the person doing the action is feminine. The first, is that antiquated use of chahnaa meaning "to be about to, imminence" rather than "to want". My...

Hello, One of the common words for abducted or kidnapped is “aGvaa”, but I can’t find this in older dictionaries like Platts. What is the precise meaning of this word, and is the origin Arabic? Thank you.

Friends, In the saying "ser ko savaa ser" (which I believe it means that there is always someone smarter than you) What is the exact meaning / headword for "ser" ? (there are plenty!) Is it ser سیر सेर or sair سَیر सैर ?

What will be the English translation of this quote?

Friends, I am sorry to keep coming back to this subject. But, from previous threads Urdu, Hindi: ज़िला, ضلع declension Urdu: inflection of nouns ending in he or ain? I came to form two different ideas in my mind, which are mutually exclusive. Idea #1 is that words ending in -3 are inflected...

Friends, If I have a dog called Sultan, and I give chocolate to him, it is: 1. maiN_ne apne kutte sultaan ko chakleT diya or 2. maiN_ne apne kutte ko sultaaNn chakleT diya ? My feeling is that sultaan is some sort of apposition (equivalent to) apne kutte, therefore it should be inside...

Friends, I am a little confused about the mechanism used to form echo words with verbs. I understand that the "conjugation auxiliary" (i.e., honaa) is not echoed. For example: 1. are, kyaa tum kuchh khaate-vaate ho, yaa nahiiN? But what happens whith deominative verbs (i.e., nominal words...

Dear Foreros, I was wondering in as few words as possible how can you state the following: A) "Go back to your tractors, farmer"- a condescending comment to make to someone on the rise and deemed to be an upstart. Also a quote from the Lamborghini drama documentary. My attempts, if any are...

Friends, I am reviewing the subject of verbs that can be interpreted both as transitive or intransitive. For example: badalnaa, bharnaa, bolnaa, laRnaa, samajhnaa, jhaaknaa and the "bodily function that involve some emission" ones, for which the transitive usage usually implies a more...