Some Idioms with मतलब and अर्थ

The words मतलब and अर्थ mean… well… “meaning”.

It is very common in Hindi to simply say “मतलब” to mean “what do you mean?”

मतलब? – “what do you mean?” / “meaning…?”

If you want to say “what do you mean by X” or “what does X mean”, you can simply say “X मतलब?”.

X मतलब? – “what does X mean?” / “what do you mean by X?”

To ask “what does X mean” explicitly, say “X का मतलब क्या है”.

X का मतलब क्या है – “What does X mean?”

To say that something “doesn’t make sense”, either मतलब or अर्थ can be used:

असम्भव प्रयास करने का कोई मतलब नहीं है – “I makes no sense to attempt the impossible!”

These words can be used to say “it doesn’t mean that…”:

सिर्फ इसीलिए कि मैं आपके जितना पढ़ा नहीं हूं, इसका मतलब यह नहीं है कि मेरी बात गलत है – “Just because I’m not as educated as you doesn’t mean I’m wrong!”

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