It’s often useful to talk about remainders, i.e., something that is left over, or remaining, etc.

There are two primary words used to express remainders in Hindi:

• बाकी
• बचना
  

बाकी

The adjective बाकी means “remaining”, “left”, etc.

कितनी रोटियां बाकी हैं – “How many pieces of bread are left?”

आठ बजने में ग्यारह मिनट बाकी हैं – “11 minutes are left until 8 o’clock”

कमरे में लगभग बीस लोग बाकी हैं – “About 20 people are left in the room”

Another note is available about the use of बाकी with infinitives.

बचना

The verb बचना means “to be left over”, “to remain”, “to be saved”, etc. It’s participle बचा (हुआ) is used to express something that remains.

कुछ खाना नहीं बचा हुआ है – “There’s no food left”

अब भी मेरे हाथ में थोड़ा दर्द बचा है – “There’s still a little pain in my hand”

जब तक मेरी सांसें बची हुई हों तब तक मैं तुमसे प्यार करता रहूंगा – “As long as I have breath remaining, I will love you” (Sounds very filmy, no?)

क्या कुछ लस्सी बची हुई है – “Is any lassi (yogurt drink) left?”