Hindi cheat sheet

Devanagari

Devanagari combines consonant letters with vowel signs. The inherent vowel and consonant combinations affect how a word is read.

क / का / कि

Clause order

A basic Hindi clause commonly places the verb after the subject and object. Word order can vary with emphasis.

मैं हिंदी सीखता हूँ। — I learn Hindi (masculine speaker form).

Postpositions

Relationship words generally follow the noun phrase. The noun’s form may change before a postposition.

घर में — in the house

Agreement

Gender, number, politeness and construction affect agreement. Learn the complete phrase rather than translating a single word.

नया घर / नई किताब — new house / new book

Negation

नहीं commonly negates an ordinary declarative predicate. Its position depends on the construction; a complete model sentence is more useful than a word-for-word English template.

मैं हिंदी नहीं बोलती हूँ। — I do not speak Hindi, with a feminine speaker in this example.

Yes–no and information questions

क्या can introduce a yes–no question and can also mean “what” in another construction. Identify its function from the whole clause.

क्या आप हिंदी बोलते हैं? — Do you speak Hindi?

Gender agreement

Many adjectives and verb forms change with grammatical gender and number. The relevant agreement pattern depends on the clause construction.

लड़का आया। — The boy came. लड़की आई। — The girl came.

Vowel signs and reading order

A vowel sign can be written to the left of a consonant while being pronounced after it. Read a consonant–vowel unit rather than treating visual left-to-right order as a sequence of separate sounds.

In कि, the sign ि appears before क but represents the vowel following it.

Worked example: a routine

मैं रोज़ हिंदी पढ़ती हूँ describes a daily activity using a feminine singular habitual form. रोज़ supplies “every day”.

मैं = I; रोज़ = every day; हिंदी = Hindi; पढ़ती हूँ = study/read, with a feminine speaker here.

Common mistake: all agreement follows the English subject

Hindi agreement depends on grammatical gender, number, respect and the construction, including case marking. English subject–verb agreement is not a complete model.

Learn a sentence together with who is speaking and the level of address.

Check your understanding

In कि, is the vowel pronounced before or after the consonant?

After it: the syllable is ki, even though the vowel sign is drawn to the left.

Curriculum connections

Sources