Dialog 1

Two girls, Anjali and Priya, have come to America to study and are about to begin their first semester of classes. They meet one another, and begin a conversation:

अंजलि: तुम क्या पढ़ने वाली हो?

Anjali: What are you going to study?

प्रिया: मैं engineering और English पढ़ने वाली हूँ

Priya: I am going to study engineering and English.

अंजलि: अच्छा – वे दोनों चीज़ें बहुत अलग हैं न

Anjali: I see – those two things are very different, aren’t they!

तुमने कैसे फैसला किया ये दोनों पढ़ने का

How did you decide to study these two things?

प्रिया: मैं बस English पढना चाहती हूँ, लेकिन पापा चाहते हैं कि मैं engineering पढ़ लूँ

Priya: I just want to study English, but Dad wants me to study engineering.

ममी ने अंत में उनको मना लिया कि उन्हें मुझे English भी पढने देना चाहिए

Mom eventually convinced him that he should let me study English too.

बड़े लोग चाहते हैं कि हम या तो doctors या engineers बन जायें, है न

Older people want us to become either doctors or engineers, don’t they!

अंजलि: हाँ

Anjali: Yes!

प्रिया: और तुम – तुम क्या पढ़ोगी?

Priya: And you – what are you going to study?

अंजलि: मैं pre-medicine पढूंगी

Anjali: I am going to study pre-medicine.

(एक दुसरे को देखके दोनों हंस दी)

(They both looked at each other and laughed)

अंजलि: तुम किधर रहती हो

Anjali: Where do you live?

प्रिया: अभी मैं dorms में रहती हूँ

Priya: Now I live in the dorms.

मैं शायद बाद में apartment ढूंढ़ लूंगी

I’ll probably search for an apartment after a while.

dorms काफी महंगे हैं न

The dorms are quite expensive, aren’t they?

अंजलि: हाँ -मेहेंगे हैं

Yes – they are expensive.

प्रिया: पता नहीं कहाँ से पैसा आएगा

I don’t know where the money will come from.

अंजलि: शायद तुमको कोई नौकरी मिल जाएगी

Maybe you’ll get a job.

अभी हम पैसे के बारे में नहीं सोचते हैं

Let’s not think about money right now.

तुमको भूख लगी है?

Are you hungry?

प्रिया: हाँ

Yes.

अंजलि: चलो – कुछ खाना खा लेते हैं

Come on – let’s eat some food.

Analysis

The following notes analyze the sentences above and provide references to articles that contain more information.

Anjali begins by asking “तुम क्या पढ़ने वाली हो?” (“What are you going to study?”)

The most common word order in Hindi sentences is subject-object-verb (SOV). The subject comes first (तुम – “you”), the object comes second (क्या – “what”), and the verb comes last (पढ़ने वाली हो – “are going to study”).

The word order of questions in Hindi is not necessarily any different than the word order of statements.

For instance, वह खाना खायेगा could mean “He will eat food” or “Will he eat food?”.

Questions are indicated by the intonation in a speaker’s voice, the context, or by the presence of interrogative words such as “what”, “where”, “why”, “how”, etc.

The interrogative word क्या can be prefixed to a phrase to explicitly mark it as a question. However, in colloquial Hindi, it is common to omit क्या at the beginning of questions. The word order is important – if क्या appears at the beginning of a sentence it marks the following sentence as an explicit question: क्या वह खाना खायेगा is an explicit question “Will he eat food?”. However, if क्या appears in the position of a direct object, then it servers as an interrogative pronoun. Thus, for instance, वह क्या खायेगा means “What will he eat?” but क्या वह खाना खायेगा means “Will he eat (food)?”.

Thus, in the example above, the sentence must be a question because it contains क्या, and क्या is in the position of the object, so the sentence means “What will you study”, and not “Will you study?”.

In colloquial Hindi, it is also common to add क्या at the end of a question, for instance “कुछ खाना खाओगे क्या” – “Will you eat some food?”.

Hindi has no punctuation for questions such as the question mark, but modern Hindi has adopted the question mark (?) from English.

Refer to the article about syntax for more information.

The word तुम is a second person personal pronoun (“you”). It is an informal pronoun, and is used most appropriately to address peers. It would not be appropriate to use this to address parents or elders, etc. Anjali uses तुम to address Priya because Priya is her peer.

तुम is grammatically plural, regardless of how many people it refers to. For instance, in the sentence तुम कैसे हो (“how are you?”), the interrogative adjective कैसे is plural because it is a predicate adjective that predicates तुम and तुम is plural. Likewise, the verb हो is plural because तुम is its subject. To explicitly distinguish a plural reference, qualifiers such as लोग (“people”) may be appended, as in “तुम लोग”.

Refer to the article about personal pronouns for more information.

The verb in the first sentence is पढ़ने वाली हो. Verbs can be comprised of several words in Hindi, just as in English. The verb पढ़ने वाली हो exhibits a particular idiom in Hindi. The form of the idiom is as follows:

masculine singular oblique infinitive + form of वाला + form of होना

The infinitive provides the basic meaning of the whole construction. In this case, the infinitive is पढ़ने (“to study”). The infinitive is invariably in the masculine singular oblique (MSO) form. It assumes the oblique case because this is the form that nominals (nouns or words that act like nouns) assume when they are succeeded by a postposition or suffix, and the infinitive is always succeeded by the suffix वाला. The infinitive is masculine and singular by convention (masculine singular is a common default in Hindi).

The suffix वाला may be suffixed to the infinitive or may be detached, as in पढ़नेवाला or पढ़ने वाला, respectively. The latter form is more common in colloquial Hindi. This form (whether पढ़नेवाला or पढ़ने वाला) is called a “future participle” in Hindi. Future participles are verbal adjectives that indicate events that are assumed to be about to happen (imminent future participle) or events that are assumed to happen some time in the indefinite future. The participle must agree with the subject in gender and number.

The form of होना (“to be”) is an auxiliary verb that indicates the tense (time) and mood (modality) of the verb. It must agree with the subject in person, gender, and number. It can be present tense to indicate “going to …” or past tense to indicate “was going to …”.

Thus, together, this idiom indicates something that is about to happen, or that will happen some time in the future.

Although the analysis may seem complicated, the usage is simple. It is very much like the “going to …” idiom in English, so it will be relatively convenient for English speakers to learn.

Consider a few examples:

क्या तुमने लाइट बंद किया – “Did you turn off the light?” – मैं अभी तुमको वही पूछने वाला था – “I was just about to ask you the same thing!”

Note that the form of होना used here is था (first person singular masculine, past tense). Thus this presents the future from the perspective of the past – “was going to …”. The main verb is पूछना (“to ask”), and the suffix is वाला (masculine singular, because the speaker is male).

क्या करने वाली हो? – “What are you going to do?”

Note that the suffix is वाली, which is feminine, so apparently the addressee is female.

मैं तुमको बताने वाली थी लेकिन मैं भूल गयी – “I was going to tell you something, but I forgot”

In this example, the speaker is female, so the suffix is वाली and the form of होना is थी (feminine singular, past tense).

वो लोग बनारस को जाने वाले हैं – “Those people are about to go to Banaras”

In this example, the suffix is masculine and plural (वाले) and so is the auxiliary verb (हैं). Note that masculine plural is used to refer both to a group consisting exclusively of males and to a group consisting of both males and females.

These “future participles” can be used attributively too (as adjectives). For instance: बनारस को जाने वाले लोग वहां बैठे हुए हैं – “the people who are about to go to Banaras are seated over there”. This is literally “the to-banaras-about-to-go-people there seated are”.

The infinitive + वाला construction has other idiomatic uses too. For instance, it can be used as an agentive suffix (like -er/or in English):

गानेवाले – “singers”

वाला can also be used to characterize, as in:

चाय वाला – “the person (who serves) chai”

औटो वाला – “the person (who drives) the auto (rickshaw)”

वाला can be used to distinguish, as in:

लाल वाला – “the red one”

बड़ा वाला – “the big one”

Refer to the articles about wala and future participles for more information.

Priya replies with “मैं engineering और English पढ़ने वाली हूँ” – “I am going to study English”. This is another example of the वाला idiom. The suffix is feminine and singular because Priya is speaking, and the auxiliary is first person.

Here, the English words are written using the English alphabet. However, it is quite common to transliterate English words into Devanagari approximations when writing English words. This sentence could have been written as मैं इंजीनियरिंग और इंग्लिश पढ़ने वाली हूँ.

The word और is a conjunction meaning “and”. It can also be used as an adjective meaning “more” (और पानी – “more water”) or “else” (और क्या – “what else?”).

अच्छा – वे दोनों चीज़ें बहुत अलग हैं न – “I see – Those two things are very different, aren’t they!”

अच्छा is an adjective meaning “good”. However, it is used here as an interjection, which could be translated as “good!”, “I see!”, “nice!”, “really?”, etc.

वे is a demonstrative adjective, and can be used as a demonstrative pronoun. It means “those”. Although it is properly spelled as वे, it is pronounced as वो in spoken Hindi. It will also be transliterated as “wo” or “vo” in transliterated Hindi.

Refer to the articles about demonstrative adjectives and demonstrative pronouns for more information.

दोनों is an adjective meaning “two” or “both”. चीज़ें is the plural form of the word चीज़ (“thing”). चीज़ is an unmarked feminine noun, so it’s plural form is चीज़ें.

Adjectives precede the words they modify, just as in English.

Thus, together, the sense of वे दोनों चीज़ें is “these two things” or “both these things” or “both of these things”, etc.

बहुत is an intensifying adverb – “very”.

हैं is the third person plural form of होना, and means “are”.

Again, notice the SOV word order.

The sentence ends with the negative particle न, which, when it ends a sentence, it has an affirmative force, and so the sense is “these two things are quite different, aren’t they?”.

Anjali next asks “तुमने कैसे फैसला किया ये दोनों पढ़ने का” (“How did you decide to study these two things?”).

The verb in this example is “फैसला करना” (“to decide”). It is a nominal conjunct verb. Nominal conjunct verbs are formed by conjoining a noun and a verb (usually करना). In this instance, the noun is फैसला (“decision”) and the verb is करना (“to do / to make”).

A conjunct verb like फैसला करना requires a complement, just as the verb “to decide” in English requires a complement. The sentence “I decided” is not complete without a complementary infinitive – for instance “I decided to go”. Many nominal conjunct verbs require their complement to be marked with a postposition, usually का. का must agree with the noun of the nominal conjunct verb in gender. फैसला is a masculine word, so का is used, which is also masculine.

The complementary infinitive must be in the oblique case, since it is followed by a postposition (the oblique case is used for words that are followed by a postposition). The infinitive in this example is पढ़ना (“to study”), whose oblique form पढ़ने.

This idiom can be understood in two ways:

1) Literally as “to make a decision of studying”

2) To treat का as an untranslated marker and to regard the infinitive as complementary: “to decide to study”

Refer to the article about conjunct verbs for more information.

Note that the normal word order is तुमने कैसे ये दोनों पढ़ने का फैसला किया. However, it is common in Hindi to defer words that qualify the sentence until the end of the sentence. The phrase ये दोनों पढ़ने का qualifies the otherwise equivocal फैसला किया, and was deferred until the end of the sentence.

The sense is “How did you make this decision – namely, to study both of these things?”.

Hindi exhibits a phenomenon called “ergativity”. This means that in some situations, the objects of transitive verbs are treated like the subjects of intransitive verbs; in other words, in certain situations Hindi verbs agree with their objects and not with their subjects.

Hindi exhibits ergative alignment whenever the verb is transitive and has the perfective aspect, or is a perfect verb form. Some verbs are exceptions, however.

All conjunct verbs are considered transitive. The verb in this example is किया, which is the past perfective form of करना. Since it is transitive and perfective, it exhibits ergative alignment. All nominal conjunct verbs align with the noun part of the conjunct verb. Thus, किया agrees with फैसला. Thus, although the “subject” is female (Anjali is speaking), the verb is masculine.

Whenever Hindi exhibits ergative alignment, the agent of the verb is marked with the postposition ने. The agent in the example above is तुम – “you”. It is suffixed with the postposition ने and thus has the form तुमने. Since तुम is followed by ने, the verb cannot agree with it. It is “blocked” by ने.

Sometimes, verbs that exhibit ergative alignment are called “ने-verbs”.

Refer to the article about ergativity for more information.

कैसे is an adverb meaning “how”. Syntactically, it follows the subject of the sentence.

ये is a demonstrative pronoun meaning “these”, and दोनों is an adjective meaning “both”.

Priya answers “मैं बस English पढ़ना चाहती हूँ, लेकिन पापा चाहते हैं कि मैं engineering पढ़ लूँ” – “I just want to study English, but Dad (papa) wants me to study Engineering”.

The adverb बस in this context is very similar to the English word “just”.

The verb चाहना means “to want”. When describing something that the speaker wants to do, a complementary infinitive is used. The infinitive precedes the main verb (चाहना) and describes what the speaker wants to do. The infinitive in this example is पढ़ना (to study).

The present habitual form is used (चाहती हूँ) for general or immediate desires, as in “I want to study English”, or “I want to go now”. Priya is a female, so the verb is feminine.

When चाहना is used to describe something that the speaker wants someone else to do, a complementary infinitive is not used. Instead, a subordinate clause is subjoined to the main clause with the subordinating conjunction कि, and the subordinate clause describes what the speaker wants the other person to do.

लेकिन पापा चाहते हैं कि मैं engineering पढ़ लूँ

The first clause is लेकिन पापा चाहते हैं – “but Papa wants…”, which is joined by कि to the subordinate clause “मैं engineering पढ़ लूँ” – “I study English”.

The sense is “but Papa wants that I study English”.

Refer to the article about चाहना for more information.

Verbs in subordinate clauses in Hindi appropriately are in the subjunctive mood (one of the uses of the subjunctive mood is to indicate subjoined verbs). Thus, Priya says पढ़ लूँ – which is a verb in the subjunctive mood.

Refer to the article about the subjunctive mood for more information.

The verb पढ़ लूँ is an example of a compound verb. Alternatively, Priya could use the simple subjunctive form of पढ़ना, which is पढूं. Compound verbs are formed by joining the stem of a main verb, and an inflected form of an auxiliary verb. The main verb provides the basic meaning of the compound verb, and the auxiliary verb typically nuances the compound verb. In this example, the main verb is पढ़ना and the auxiliary verb is लेना. The stem of any verb can be formed by removing the infinitive morpheme (ना) from the end of an infinitive, so the stem of पढ़ना is पढ़. लेना is one of the most common auxiliary verbs. The connotation that it imparts is that the action is somehow for the benefit of the subject, or toward the subject. Thus the sense is “study (for myself)”. However, in this context, the emphasis is perhaps not really any different than the equivalent non-compound verb would be (पढूं), and really is just a minor stylistic variation.

Another commonly used auxiliary is देना, which indicates an action that is for the benefit of another, or somehow away from the subject. Contrast “यह लिख लो” (“Note this down”) and “यह लिख दो” (“Write this out”). The former is for the sake of the subject, the latter is for the sake of someone else. The sense is “Note this for your own benefit”, and “Write this for someone else’s benefit”, respectively.

Refer to the article about compound verbs for more information.

Priya continues by saying “ममी ने अंत में उनको मना लिया कि उन्हें मुझे English भी पढने देना चाहिए” – “Mom (mumi) eventually convinced him to let me study English too”.

Since the main verb is transitive and perfective, the main clause exhibits ergative alignment, the verb agrees with the object, and the agent is marked with the agentive postposition ने.

Thus, although the agent of the verb is feminine (ममी), the verb is masculine. Since ममी is followed by ने, the verb cannot concord with ममी.

The object is उनको (“him”). This form is उन + को; the postposition को sometimes marks the object of a verb. उन is the oblique plural form of the demonstrative pronoun वह (“that/he/she/it”). It is in the oblique case since that is the case that all words assume when they are followed by postpositions. It is plural in order to show respect toward the referent (Papa); pluralization is a common means of showing deference in Hindi. Hindi lacks third person personal pronouns (he/she/it/they in English). Instead, Hindi employs demonstrative pronouns for this purpose (this/that/these/those in English). Thus the sense is literally “this (person)” or “those (people)” or “that (person)”, etc. Hindi has both proximal and distal pronouns, just as in English. Constrast “this/these” with “that/those” in English; the former indicates something that is somehow nearer, and the latter something that is somehow farther, etc. (although sometimes the difference is different and more subtle than that). In this example, उन indicates that Priya’s father is absent (he is presumably in India).

If an object of a verb is marked with को, then for the sake of agreement, the object is considered masculine and singular, regardless of the gender and number of the object of को.

Thus, the verb must be masculine and singular: मना लिया.

Note that this is another example of a compound verb with लेना. लेना is the most appropriate verb to use with मनाना (“to persuade”) versus देना; the idea is perhaps that the act of persuasion is for the benefit of the one doing the persuading.

The subordinating conjunction कि again introduces a subordinate clause: “ममी ने अंत में उनको मना लिया कि …” – Mom eventually convinced him that …”.

The clause “उन्हें मुझे English भी पढने देना चाहिए” (“he should let me study English too”) exhibits several notable idioms.

The verb चाहिए (also spelled चाहिये) is a fixed form (it does not inflect). It is a vestige of an older form of passive verbs. Its sense is literally something like “to be wanted/needed”.

It can be used without an infinitive to indicate something that is wanted:

आपको पानी चाहिए – “Do you want (some) water?”

In this idiom, the person who wants is marked with को; the literal sense is “is water wanted by you?”.

However, if चाहिए is used with an infinitive, the sense is not want or need but rather obligation (i.e. “should” or “ought to”).

Similar to ergative alignment, the infinitive agrees with its object if there is an object.

Thus when Priya says “उन्हें मुझे English भी पढने देना चाहिए”, the sense is “He should let me study Hindi”.

The person who is obligated is marked with को. In this example, however, a special form of उन + को was used (उन्हें), which is equivalent to उनको. Again, this is plural because Priya is showing deference to her father.

The sense is literally “to let me study Hindi is obligated for him”.

Refer to the article about चाहिए for more information.

One more idiom is expressed here; when the verb देना (“to give/grant”) is used with a masculine singular oblique infinitive (i.e. ending in ने), then the sense is “to allow to do”.

Refer to the article about देना for more information.

Thus, the sense of “पढने देना” is “to allow to study”.

देना is masculine singular because it has no object.

Thus, the whole sense of the entire phrase “उन्हें मुझे English भी पढने देना चाहिए” is “he should allow me to study English too”.

Just as in English, the oblique infinitive + देना idiom can have an object in addition to the complementary infinitive (मुझे “me”) – “allow me to study”.

The adverb भी means “also/too/as well” in this context; if it follows a noun, it indicates that the noun is in addition to something else.

Priya then continues by saying “बड़े लोग चाहते हैं कि हम या तो doctors या engineers बन जायें, है न” – “Older people want us to become either doctors or engineers, don’t they?”.

This is another example of the usage of चाहना. Since Priya is describing something that the subject (“older people”) wants others to do, a subordinate clause with the subjunctive mood is used.

The phrase बड़े लोग is translated here as “older people”. The usual sense of बड़ा is “big”, but when applied to people it means “elder”, as in “बड़ी मौसी” (elder mausi – mother’s elder sister).

Hindi has a variety of coordinating conjunctions, such as “या तो … या” (“either … or”).

The sense of the verb बनना is “to become to be made”. It is strengthened with the use of the verb जाना; जाना (literally “to go”) is used as an auxiliary verb in compound verbs to indicate change of state. Thus it is appropriate here, since बनना implies a change of state. The full compound verb is बन जायें, which is in the subjunctive mood since it is part of a subordinate clause.

Anjali replies with “हाँ” – “yes”.

Priya proceeds to ask “और तुम – तुम क्या पढ़ोगी?” – “And you – what will you study?”

Here Priya makes a minor stylistic variation, and uses a future tense verb instead of a future participle.

Anjali likewise replies with a future tense verb: “मैं pre-medicine पढूंगी” – “I am going to study pre-medicine.”

The note that follows is “एक दुसरे को देखके दोनों हंस दी” – “they looked at each other and laughed”.

This sentence uses a “conjunctive participle”: “देखके” (“looking”). Conjunctive participles are formed by joining the stem of a verb to the participle morpheme के or कर. In this example, देखके = देख + के. Conjunctive participles have a wide variety of usages. Their most common usage is to conjoin phrases just like a conjunction such as और (“and”), hence the name “conjunctive participles”.

The phrase एक दुसरे is literally “one another” and was translated as “each other” in the example.

Another compound verb was used: हंस दी – from हँसना + देना.

Anjali continues by saying “तुम किधर रहती हो?” – “where do you live?”.

The adverb किधर means “where”; an alternative adverb is कहाँ (“where”).

Priya responds: “अभी मैं dorms में रहती हूँ” – “Right now I live in the dorms”

The adverb अभी = अब (now) + ही (emphatic particle); thus the sense is “right now”, “just now”.

Note that Hindi lacks definite and indefinite articles (“the / a / an” in English). Indefiniteness and definiteness are related to context. Occasionally, demonstrative adjectives can behave somewhat like definite articles, and the adjectives एक, कोई, and कुछ can behave like indefinite articles.

Priya continues: “मैं शायद बाद में apartment ढूंढ़ लूंगी” – I’ll probably search for an apartment after a while.

The adverb शायद means “maybe / probably”; it basically conveys uncertainty. It is often used in situations in which “may / might” would be used in English. If it is used with the indicative mood, the sense is sometimes “probably” rather than “maybe”. If it is used with the subjunctive mood, then the sense is uncertain (“maybe / perhaps”).

The phrase बाद में means “after a while”.

Yet another compound verb, ढूंढ़ लूंगी, was used (they are very common in Hindi).

Priya then remarks “dorms काफी महंगे हैं न” – The dorms are quite expensive, aren’t they?

The adverb काफी can mean “enough” in some contexts, although in this context it means “quite / rather”.

The adjective महंगा (expensive) is literally spelled “mahanga”, although Hindi speakers will pronounce it as “mehenga”, due to a phenomenon known as “schwa allophony”; when two schwa sounds (अ) appear on both sides of ह, or even when a schwa and another vowel appear on both sides of ह, as in बहिन, both vowels will be changed to a sound that is like the English “e” in “bet”.

Anjali agrees “हाँ -मेहेंगे हैं” – “Yes, they are expensive” – note that in Hindi, a speaker may omit the subject if it is implied, whereas in English, we would not say “yes – are expensive”.

Priya then says “पता नहीं कहाँ से पैसा आएगा” – “I don’t know where the money will come from”.

The adjective पता means “known”. It is used in a so-called “indirect verb construction” to indicate knowledge. The idiom is as follows:

([person] को) पता (नहीं) (है) (कि) [subordinate clause]

to X known (not) (is) (that) …

The elements in parentheses are optional. The full sentence would be “मुझे पता नहीं है कि कहाँ से पैसा आएगा”. However, Hindi speakers prefer the elliptical expression “पता नहीं”.

Anjali then suggests “शायद तुमको कोई नौकरी मिल जाएगी” – “maybe you’ll get a job”.

The verb मिलना means “to meet”. However, when it is used in an indirect verb construction and its subject is impersonal, it means “to get / receive / find”.

The form of the idiom is:

[person] को [thing] [form of मिलना]

Note that the thing that is gotten is the subject – that is the idea of all indirect verb constructions.

Note again the use of a compound verb मिल जाएगी.

Anjali continues “अभी हम पैसे के बारे में नहीं सोचते हैं” – “Let’s not think about money right now”.

The verb form expressed in the present habitual plural can be used for exhortations – thus “नहीं सोचते हैं” means “let’s not think …”; for instance, “जाते हैं” – “let’s go”.

The postposition के बारे में means “about”. Postpositions in Hindi can consist of many words (“compound postpositions”). They are like English prepositions, but the come after their object instead of before (hence the name).

Anjali then says “तुमको भूख लगी है?” – “Are you hungry?”; this is yet another example of an indirect verb construction in Hindi. Experience will indicate which kinds of expressions require indirect verb constructions. Certain perceptions and states are expressed in indirect verb constructions in Hindi. Hunger is an example.

The verb लगना is very idiomatic; it is used in indirect verb constructions to express feelings, opinions, sensations, etc.

Finally, Anjali concludes “चलो – कुछ खाना खा लेते हैं” – “Come on – let’s eat some food”.

The verb चलो, although literally an imperative, is used in a hortatory sense, like “come on” in English.

The verb that Anjali uses is hortatory and compound – खा लेते हैं.

Exercises

  1. Use the oblique infinitive + वाला idiom to translate the following sentences:
    1. I am about to go outside. (बाहर = outside)
    2. I was going to go to the shop. (दुकान = shop/store)
    3. I am going to go to India next year (अगले साल = next year)
    4. Are you going to go anywhere next week? (कहीं भी = anywhere, अगले हफ्ते = next week)
  2. Use conjunct verbs to translate the following sentences:
    1. How did you decide to come to America? (X का फैसला करना = to decide X)
    2. I am trying to learn Hindi. (सीखना = learn, X की कोशिश करना = to try to do X)
    3. I am waiting for my sister. (X का इंतज़ार करना = to wait for X)
    4. I practice speaking Hindi every day. (X का अभ्यास करना = to practice X; रोज़ = daily)
  3. Use conjunctive participles to translate the following sentences:
    1. I’ll go there then come back after a while. (वहां = there; वापस आना = to come back; बाद में = after a while)
    2. I’ll eat some food then go to sleep. (कुछ खाना = some food; सो जाना = to go to sleep)
    3. I’ll bring the books for you tomorrow. (किताब feminine = book; कल = yesterday/tomorrow; के लिए = for; लेके आना = to bring, literally “to take and come”; often the conjunctive participle is used without any suffix, i.e. ले आना)
    4. Eat the rice and tell me how it seems to you. (बताना = to tell; चावल = rice; hint: use लगा for “seems”)
  4. Translate the following sentences using चाहना:
    1. I want to go home.
    2. I want you to study Hindi properly. (पढ़ना = to study; अच्छा से = properly, well).
    3. He wants us to read these books. (पढ़ना = to read)
    4. They want to go to India next year.
  5. Use indirect verb constructions to translate the following sentences:
    1. I’m hungry.
    2. Are you thirsty? (प्यास लगना = to thirst)
    3. I didn’t know that he lives here. (पता होना = to know)
    4. I found out that she quit her job last week. (पता चलना = to find out / realize; अपना = reflexive adjective, i.e. “her own job”, उसका would mean “someone else’s job”; नौकरी = job; छोड़ देना = to abandon/leave/quit).
    5. Do you understand Hindi? (X को Y आना – for X to know Y; more formally समझ में आना = “to understand”, literally “to come into understanding”)
    6. How did the movie seem to you / what did you think about the movie? (use लगना)
  6. Translate the following sentences using चाहिए:
    1. Friends should help one another. (की मदद करना = to help, conjunct verb)
    2. I shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night. (जागना = be awake; देर तक = until late; कल रात को = (during) last night; इतना = “so much”, adjective
    3. We should practice speaking Hindi every day. (बोलना = to speak; का अभ्यास करना = to practice, indirect verb construction)
    4. You ought to eat some food before you go. (अपने जाने से पहले = “before you go”, literally “before your going”)
    5. You should talk to your mother today. (X से बात करना = “to talk to X”; बात is feminine).

Answers

    1. मैं बाहर जाने वाला/वाली हूँ
    2. मैं दुकान जाने वाला/वाली था/थी
    3. मैं अगले साल भारत जाने वाला/वाली हूँ
    4. आप अगले हफ्ते कहीं भी जाने वाले/वाली हैं
    1. आपने कैसे अमेरिका जाने का फैसला किया
    2. मैं हिंदी सिखने की कोशिश कर रहा/रही हूँ
    3. मैं अपनी बहिन का इंतज़ार कर रहा/रही हूँ
    4. मैं रोज़ हिंदी बोलने का अभ्यास करता/करती हूँ
    1. मैं वहां जाके बाद में वापस आऊंगा/आऊंगी
    2. मैं कुछ खाना खाके सो जाऊंगा/जाऊंगी
    3. मैं कल आप के लिए किताबें लेके/लेकर आऊंगा/आऊंगी
    4. चावल खाके मुझे बताइए कैसा लगा आपको
    1. मैं घर जाना चाहता/चाहती हूँ
    2. मैं चाहता / चाहती हूँ की आप अच्छे से हिंदी पढ़ लें
    3. वह चाहता है की हम ये किताबें पढ़ लें
    4. मैं अगले साल भारत जाना चाहता/चाहती हूँ
    1. मुझे भूख लगी है / मुझे भूख लग रही है
    2. मुझे प्यास लगी है / प्यास लग रही है
    3. मुझे नहीं पता था कि वह यहाँ रहता है
    4. मुझे पता चला कि उसने पिछले हफ्ते अपनी नौकरी छोड़ दी
    5. आपको हिंदी आती है
    6. आपको मूवी कैसी लगी
    1. दोस्तों को एक दुसरे की मदद करनी चाहिए
    2. मुझे कल रात को इतने देर तक नहीं जागना चाहिए था
    3. हमें रोज़ हिंदी बोलने का अभ्यास करना चाहिए
    4. तुम्हें अपने जाने से पहले कुछ खाना खाना चाहिए
    5. आपको आज अपनी माँ से बात करनी चाहिए

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