The conjunction जैसे कि (or simply जैसे) has a variety of uses.

“जैसे” has uses as an adjective (e.g. हमारे जैसे लोग – “people like us”), relative adjective (मैं जैसा हूं वैसा क्यों हूं – “Why am I the way that I am?”), adverb (आदित्य अपने पापा जैसे गाता है – “Aditya sings like his father”), relative adverb (जैसे ही हम पहुंचे वैसे ही हम सो गए – “We slept as soon as we arrived”), etc. However, this note is primarily about the use of जैसे कि and the short form जैसे.

Subordinating Conjunction – “As if”

It’s used as a subordinating conjunction that is like “as if”, or “like” in English. The subordinate clause requires the verb to be in the subjunctive mood.

हर दिन ऐसे जियो जैसे कि आखिरी हो – “Live every day as if it were your last”

हमने बात की जैसे हम पुराने दोस्त हों – “We talked as if we were old friends”

वह चलता रहा जैसे कि कोई परवाह नहीं हो – “He kept on walking as if he didn’t care”

जैसे कि in this usage is similar to मनो.

Lists of Examples

जैसे कि is used to list examples, such as “such as”, or like “like” in English. 🙂

जब हम भारत में थे तो हमने कई तरह का खाना खाया था जैसे कि रोटी, भिंडी, पनीर, पराठा, वगैरह – “When we were in India, we ate various kinds of food such as roti, okra, paneer, paratha, etc.”