Learning basic Hindi words

Word # 25 is 'If" (Eng) and the frequently used Hindi word for this is "अगर" (agar).

Another equivalent, in some settings is "यदि" (yadhi).

Example, "if it rains, there is umbrella in car" = "अगर बारिश होती है, तो कार में छाता है" (agar bArish hothi hai, tho car mein chatha hai).

BTW, bArish = rain.

Word (actually phrase) # 26 is "Good bye" in English, which gets translated to "अलविदा" (alvidhA).

However, this is not the regular usage in day to day speech. In most Indian languages, including Hindi, the day-to-day usage is equivalent of the "see you later" in English.

In Hindi, it is "फिर मिलेंगे ' (phir milEngE).

Word #27 is ""Happy" (Eng) and we have a few words that are frequently used for this in Hindi and the most-often used one is arguably "खुश" (khush or ख़ुशी / kushi).

आनंद / आनंदित (Anandh / Anandhith) is also used from time to time.

One more word that we will come across in literary usage is "सुखी" (sukhi).

Word #28 is "have" in English.

This is a tricky word, being used for past participle (perfect tense) as well as a standalone verb. Look at the two different usages : "We have eaten food" & "We have food". In the first sentence it is used for perfect tense and in the second one as a simple verb. Let us see the Hindi for both.

When used for perfect tense, the word "लिया" (liyA) gets added. For example, "we eat food" = हम खाना खाते हैं (hum khAnA khAthE hai). When we change that to "we have eaten food", adding the word "have", the Hindi translation changes to "हम खाना खा लिया है" (hum khAnA khA liyA hai). That addition of "liyA" is equivalent of "have", though not a direct translation of the word itself.

When simply used as a verb, as in "having a possession", the Hindi phrase used is "पास रखना" (pAs rakhnA) or " पास होना" (pAs hOnA). Let me give a couple of examples : 1. We have food = हमारे पास खाना है (hamArE pAs khAnA hai). 2. They have good things = उनके पास अच्छी चीजें हैं (unkE pAs achchee cheezEn hai).

Word #29 (rather group of words) is "he / she / it" (Eng) - i.e. third person singular form.

We need to understand one interesting thing about Hindi here. (Actually this is a common thing across many Indian languages). It uses different words for the third person for being "near" or "far"

The word used for all three (he / she / it) in Hindi when "near" is यह (yeh) and when far is वह (vah).

The "near" thing in a way denotes a belonging to the speaker.

Please note that यह is used for "this" and वह is used for "that". That should make it easy to understand.

Word #30 is quite easy - "hello" in English.

The Hindi equivalent greeting is "नमस्ते" (namasthE).

Of course, you can choose to add a suffix "जी" (jee) for respect, greeting others nicely as "नमस्तेजी" (namasthEjee)!

Word #31 is "here" (Eng).

The Hindi word is "यहाँ" (yahAn, the last letter is not full 'n' sound but the nasal one).

As one can see in the speeches and conversations, this is an often-used word without doubt.

An alternate word that gets used every now and then is "इधर" (idhar). It is easy to remember this one as it sounds somewhat similar to "hither" (with no H) and conveys the same meaning

Word #32 is the first "question" word that we come across in this 100-word-group and it is "How" (English).

Most of us are already familiar with the "आप कैसे है" (Ap kaisE hai) enquiry (How are you?).

So, we have already learnt the "How" word which is "कैसे" (kaisE). Another tip when we recall this question word - all the question words (what, why, who, where, when and how) start with "k" sound in Hindi.

Though we'll be coming across the other question words in course of this thread, let me give them here as an "advance payment" now itself.

how = कैसे (kaisE)
what = क्या (kyA)
why = क्यों (kyOn)
where = कहाँ (kahAn)
when = कब (kab)
who - कौन (kaun)

Word #33 as I see in the list is "little" (English). I want to also add "Small" along, as that one is not in the 100 word list but another often-used word.

For "little", the Hindi word is "थोड़ा" (thOdA) and for "small", the Hindi word is "छोटा" (chhOtA).

Please note that both these are masculine forms and the corresponding other forms exist as well. (थोड़ी / थोड़े - thOdi / thOdE & छोटी / छोटे - chhOti / chhOtE)!

Word #34 is the preposition "in" (English).

The Hindi equivalent of this is "में" (mEin).

A simple example,"food in the fridge" gets translated to "फ्रिज में खाना" (frij mEin khAnA).

Please also note that the slang "fridge" is used as such in Hindi

Word #35 is "be" and its equivalents (am, is are).  

There are a few words in Hindi also for this. 

When it is used for the first person, as in "am" - it is "हूँ" (hoon). For "is", it is "है" (hai) and for "are" it is "है" (hai. At times it is also used as hain, nasal sound ending). 

As in the case of all verbs as used in sentence construction, in Hindi this comes in the end (unlike English). So, "How are you?" is translated as "आप कैसे है" (Ap kaisE hai) where "are" (hai) comes in the end. So, the sentence construction in Hindi is "you how are"

Word #36 is "know" (Eng, which for some strange reason is pronounced without the "k" sound - that way, "know, now, no" - all sound similar to a foreigner).  

The Hindi word for the verb "know" is "जान(ना)" (jAn / jAnnA) which takes various forms for the present / past / future / infinite / male / female / singular / plural etc, as in the case of all other verbs.  

A simple "I know Kevin" will get translated as "मैं केविन को जानता हूं"" (main kevin kO jAnthA hoon). In this sentence, the form is "jAnthA"which is present tense in masculine form.

Just to make the life of a language learner more complex, the Hindi noun (not verb) "jAn"(जान) also means "life".  So, a simple noun जान means "life", but the verb जान takes various forms to mean "know". We need to know this difference to avoid confusions.

Word #37 is "last" (Eng). 

The Hindi equivalent is "आखरी" (Akhri). Sometimes another word "अंतिम" (anthim) is also used. 

The often-used phrase of "last days" is thus translated as "आखरी दिन" (Akhri dhin). 

"In the last days" = "आखिरी दिनों में" (Akhiri dhinOm mEin). 

Please note that Akhri and Akhiri - both are OK to use.

Word #38 is "like" (Eng). There are two different applications (meanings) of this, as in "I LIKE apple" and "The cricket ball looks LIKE apple". 
(BTW, this is not the insect cricket but the game of cricket).  

For the first one, the Hindi word is "पसंद" (pasandh). For the second one, it is "जैसा" (jaisA).  This is actually related to the word "how" (kaisA) and thus sounding the same way, except K getting replaced with J.

Two sentences to showcase these two meanings : 
1. I like apple = मुझे सेब पसंद है (mujhE sEb pasandh hai).
2. Like father like son = जैसा बाप वैसा बेटा (jaisA pAp vaisA bEtA). Please note that 'vaisA' is also like This can be literally translated as ' How his father is, same way son is". That way, "jaisA" = how. "vaisA' = same.  In English, both are "like".

I want to introduce one concept here - in English (and Tamil), we use the same word "how" for both question and comparison. "How are you?" is a question; "how father is same way son is" is a statement - we use the same word "how" in both cases. On the other hand, in Hindi, for question it always starts with "K" and for statement, it starts with "J".

This is not only for How but for other question words too. For example, when = kab & jab.  who = kaun & jO. Where = kahAn & jahAn.

Word #39 is "love" (Eng). 

The Hindi word is perhaps already well-known to most in our group

प्यार (pyAr). 

However, if you do google translate (or look up some older books / publications), you will come across another word - प्रेम (prEm). That is also used by many. 

Actually, lot of people in India have their names where that word is a part. (Prema, Premkumar etc.)

Word #40 is "me" (Eng). 

While in some cases it is same as "I" (which we learnt earlier), it could mean different on other cases. 

So, we have two words in Hindi. मैं  & मुझे (main / mujhE). Depending upon the context, we'll use either of them.  

The sentence "please give me" gets translated as "कृपया मुझे दे दो" (kruypayA mujhE dhe dhO). 

On the other hand, "not me" will get translated as "मैं नहीं" (main naheen).

Word # 41 is "many" (Eng). 

The direct word in Hindi is "कई" (kayee). In addition, words like अनेक (anEk) and  बहुत (bahut) are also used in certain contexts.  

See what google translate does for very similar sentences, with minor change :

Don't worry about many things = कई चीजों के बारे में चिंता मत करो (kayee cheesOn kE bArE mEin chinthA math karO)
Don't worry about too many things = बहुत सी चीजों के बारे में चिंता न करें (bahut see cheesOn kE bArE mEin chinthA na karO)

Word #42 is "make" (Eng). 

Please remember that any verb takes many forms in any language and same way in Hindi too.  

The root word in Hindi is "बन" (ban). 

It takes variety of forms - बनता,  बनती, बनते , बना , बनाना (ban-thA, ban-thi, ban-thE, banA, banAnA). 

It will be interesting for you to figure out which is masculine / feminine / plural / past / infinite etc.

Word #43 is "more"(Eng). 

This is kind of similar to much / many, with a slightly bigger degree of comparison. 

Accordingly, we typically use this Hindi word : ज्यादा" (jyAdA / zyAdA). 

This is the same word in Urdu also. That way, there are a lot of common words between Hindi and Urdu in use today. Also, the sentence structure is same. 

The main difference between Hindi and Urdu is the script being used today. (Urdu uses an Arabic-like script and it is read from right to left).

Word #44 is "most"(Eng) which is the highest in the degree of comparison (please refer our previous word, "more"). 

There are multiple Hindi words used for this "अति" (athi) is one. "सब से अधिक" (sub sE adhik) is another which literally means "more than all" (i.e. equal to "most").

परम (param) is another word often used in older books.

Word #45 is "much" (Eng) - the lower one in that degree of comparison. 

The Hindi word is "बहुत" (bahut). 

Interestingly, in practical speech, they use the phrase "बहुत कुछ" (bahut kuch) - which means "much, a lot". 

And the literal meaning of the word "kuch" is "some" (or little).  I fail to understand how combining the words for "much" and "some" makes sense

Word #46 is "my / mine" (Eng). Obviously very often used in any language

The Hindi is "मेरा / मेरी" (mErA / mEree) - male / female versions.

Example : My name is Inba = मेरा नाम इन्बा है  (mErA nAm inbA hai)

Please note that the gender is decided by the object (and not the subject). 

That way, in the above sentence, "name" decided the gender as mErA (name is masculine it seems, I don't know what logic).  

A different sentence, "listen to my talk" = मेरी बात सुनो (mEree bAth sunO). Here "talk or speech" is feminine.

Word(s) #47 - never & ever (Eng). 

We know that "ever" is similar to “always” and the words "hamEshA / sadhA" can be used for ever also. 

We are getting one more word here "कभी" (kabhi) which means "sometimes" and interestingly they also use this for "ever" occasionally. 

Accordingly, for "never" we use the phrase "कभी नहीं" (kabhi naheen). 

Once again, quite often we will see that they drop the negative word "naheen" and simply use "kabhi" for "never". It's a little confusing that why they drop the negative word. However, such peculiarities are not uncommon in languages. For e.g. "invalulable" means "highly valuable" (and not negative). 

Anyways, we can use "kabhi naheen" for “never”, as a formal usage.

Word #48 is "new"(Eng). 

This is possibly familiar to the group already

Being an adjective, this takes masculine / feminine forms in Hindi. नया / नयी (nayA / nayee). 

By now, we may be familiar to the idea that masculine forms have the "A" sound and feminine forms have the "ee" sound in many cases. 

Examples to showcase this word : 

new heavens : नया आकाश (nayA AkAsh)
new world : नयी दुनिया (nayee duniyA)

nayA / nayee sounds very close to the English word New

There is another case of 'nAm' being very close to the English word 'Name'.

Word #49 is "No"(Eng). 

No need to emphasize the frequency with which this word is used. 

The Hindi equivalent is "नहीं" (naheen, with nasal ending). 

As you've probably noticed, this is often used which a short form "na" in spoken language. 

This word is also close to English in phonetics (of its equivalent), like new and name. (That way, there's some "n" connection between English and Hindi  )