Are you wondering how to learn Hindi?  Before you dive into learning Hindi, it might help you to know a few things about the language in general.  Here is a list of six things to know about Hindi.

1.    Word Order.  In Hindi, there is some freedom in word order.  Word placement can change for reasons of style or emphasis, but not as much as in other languages that are more heavily inflected.  In Hindi, the verb usually comes at the end of the sentence.  In a simple sentence, the word order of a sentence is usually

• subject
• object
• verb.

In more complex sentences, the word order goes as follows

• subject
  
• adverbs
• adjective and noun phrase of any indirect object
• adjective and noun phrase of any direct object
• Negative or interrogative marker, if any
• Verb, with auxiliary verb following the main verb.

Hindi uses postpositions instead of prepositions.  That is the word follows the noun instead of preceding it.  Adjectives precede nouns, as in English and German, but unlike Romance languages like French. 

2.    Case.  Hindi is a weakly inflected language.  That means that the endings of a noun will tell you its role in a sentence.  Hindi has three cases:

• the direct case is used for the subject of a sentence and for other nouns that are not followed by a postposition
• the oblique case is used for nouns that is followed by a preposition 
• some nouns have a separate vocative case, the form of the noun used when the noun is used as a form of address.

Singular and plural nouns are not always distinguishable in all declensions.

3.    Gender.  Hindi nouns recognize two genders, masculine and feminine.  The masculine gender is used for male people and animals and for other objects deemed by usage “masculine.”  Similarly, the feminine gender is used for female people and animals and for other objects deemed by usage “feminine.” 

4.    Pronouns.  In Hindi, nouns do not reflect gender and the third person singular, comparable to the English “he,” “she” or “it,” actually corresponds to the English “this” or “that.”  In addition to the direct and oblique case that Hindi nouns have, pronouns also have

• the accusative case, which is used for direct objects and
• the genitive case, which shows ownership.

There is no vocative case for pronouns.

The second person, corresponding to the English “you,” conveys three levels of honorifics.

• the formal form, which can be either singular or plural and is used in formal settings or when speaking to someone older or otherwise senior to the speaker
• the informal form, which can be either singular or plural and is used in informal settings or when speaking to someone younger or otherwise junior to the speaker
• the extremely informal, which exists only in the singular.  It is used only between very close friends or in sacred poetic language and can be perceived as an insult if used inappropriately. 
  

5.     Verb Forms.  Hindi verbs agree with their subjects in both number and gender.  If the subject of a verb is a pronoun, the verb agrees with the noun that the pronoun represents.  Hindi verbs indicate both tense, that is, whether an action is past, present or future, and aspect, that is, whether an aspect is habitual, progressive or perfective.

6.    Interrogatives.  As in other languages, questions can be formed in Hindi by using who, what, when, where and why.  Additionally, the Hindi word kyaa, when placed at the beginning of a sentence, indicates an interrogative.  Intonation can also indicate when a sentence is a question. 

Do you want to know how to learn Hindi?  It’s simple.  Check out Rocket Hindi.

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Thinking about visiting Mumbai?  Here’s yet another reason — the Mumbai laughter clubs.

Mumbai is a busy, busy city.  With a population of about 19 million souls, this tropical metropolitan area on the Arabian Sea is the fourth largest urban area in the world.  Mumbai is the commercial, shipping and financial hub of India, a multicultural, multilingual city that is the home of Bollywood, the thriving Indian film and television industry.  You might forgive residents of Mumbai for being a little stressed out.

But there is a solution for stress.  And Mumbai owes it to Dr. Madan Kataria.  The solution is laughter.

In the mid 1990’s, Dr. Kataria was researching the scientific literature that demonstrates that laughter aids in healing both mind and body.  It occurred to the good doctor to start a laughter club.  He sought participants by visiting a Mumbai park.  Rather than engaging professional comedians, the few participants in the laughter clubs stood in a circle and told each other jokes.  But then they ran out of jokes, so Dr. Kataria used his creativity to devise new ways of encouraging laughter.  In doing so, he developed laughter yoga, a process that incorporates traditional yoga poses, yoga breathing and group laughter exercises that don’t depend on jokes or comedy routines.  Dr. Kataria has continued to encourage laughter as a positive influence on physical, mental and spiritual well-being.  And Mumbai is known as the birthplace of laughter yoga.

In a large and diverse city, the creation of laughter yoga is a charming slice of life. 

Mumbai is a multilingual city in a multilingual country.  The three most common languages spoken in Mumbai are Hindi, Marathi and English.  Hindi is the official language of India and almost everyone in India can speak it, at least a little.  So if you are visiting Mumbai or anywhere else in India, and you want to speak directly to the residents there, Hindi is the best language to learn. 

Do you want to know how to learn Hindi?  You can learn Hindi like a rocket with Rocket Hindi. 

Speaking of Bollywood, have a look at these videos:

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