Before You Learn Hindi

Are you intending to learn Hindi? You may not use the language to communicate with your family and friends but you may use it to communicate with business partners or important clients. Now is the right time to learn how to speak and write this native Indian language. But before you go on, it would be appropriate if you would learn several important insights about Hindi.

First of all, ‘Hindi’ is actually synonymous with the Indo-Aryan language. It is actually a dialect spoken by up to 41% of total population in India. It is specifically the main language used in central and northern India, which are often referred to as the ‘Hindi belt.’ It is one of the only two official languages that are used by the federal government of India.

Hindi is just one out of about 22 other languages and dialects that are used in India. Many users of the language also call it Standard Hindi, which is used along with English in the administration of the country’s central government. Standard Hindi is also serving as the official language in the nearby island of Fiji.

As a language, Hindi evolved from another one, the Prakrit. It emerged from being a local dialect like Braj, Awadhi, and Khari Boli. Through the years, Hindi evolved, mixed with influences and several terms from other languages, including Arabic and Persian.

To date, Hindi is the most spoken among all of India’s official languages. Hindi is the main language used in the Indian northern states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Himchai Pradesh, and Jharkhand. It is the second main language in the nearby Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where it is spoken alongside other regional languages like Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, and Marathi.

Knowing more about Hindi, it is actually a subject-object-verb language. Verbs used in speaking and writing Hindi are usually found at the end of every sentence instead of before the object (the usual case in English). Another distinction from English is that Hindi does not use articles (like ‘the’ and ‘an’).

There are two genders that are used as nouns. Male humans and animals are masculine while all female humans and animals are feminine. Inanimate articles, things, and even abstract nouns could be masculine or feminine according to the convention used. In the case of pronouns, there are first, second, and third person referring to only one gender. Thus, unlike English, there is no ‘he’ or ‘she’ in this Indian native language.

It is a weakly inflected language. The relationship of nouns with other elements in sentences is often indicated by postpositions (prepositions following a noun). The language plays a vital role in the national popular culture. It is not surprising that most Indian films and literary pieces use it.

Are you ready to learn Hindi now? You might be surprised that it is not actually a hard language to learn. You might find it easy and exciting to actually know how to speak and write this Indian language with or without a reason.