Hindi Lesson 3: Talking Nationality
by In Lesson Three of this series of Hindi Lessons we learn to talk about nationalities: How to talk about your nationality and how to ask others theirs.
Before we begin – if you’ve missed previous lessons, or just want to brush up – then you may want to go back and repeat them:
Hindi Lesson 1: Hindi Greetings
Hindi Lesson 2: Introducing Yourself
Namaste! Hello! Welcome to lesson 3 in my series of basic Hindi lessons. In this lesson, we will cover how to talk about nationality and learn some of the names of foreign countries. Let’s go!
If you were talking to an Indian, you might hear
मैं भारतीय हूँ Main Bharatiya hoon / Mai-n Bha-ra-ti-ya hoon – I am Indian
Here hoon means ‘am’ and Bharatiya of course means ‘Indian’ with the sentence meaning, literally: I Indian am. Bharatiya is Indian, but what is India?
भारत Bhaarata/Bhaa-ra-ta – India
Now if you were speaking to an American, Bharatiya would be replaced by Ameriki, derived from the obvious:
अमेरिकी America
मैं अमेरिका हूँ Main Ameriki hoon/Mai-n Am-ri-ki hoon - I am American.
English:
इंग्लैंड Inglaind - England
मैं अंग्रजी हूँ Main Angrazi hoon/Mai-n An-gray-zi hoon – I am English.
Chinese:
चीन China
मैं चीनी हूँ Main Chinee hoon/Mai-n Chi-nee hoon - I am Chinese.
Obviously there are too many countries to deal with here without it degenerating to a list. However, before we finish, I’d like to ask you to try to answer this question in the comments using what you’ve learnt in the lesson:
आप किस देश से हैं? Aap kis desh say hain? – Which country are you from?
You can use latin script if you like and if your country is not represented here, then feel free to ask what the Hindi for your nationality, I’ll do my best to respond.
Until next time, Namaste!
Read More:
Lesson 1: Greetings
Lesson 2: Introducing Yourself
Lesson 4: Now You Can Always Get What You Want
Lesson 5: Thank You, Goodbye and Farewell
Liked it
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Post CommentRosettaartist1
On August 10, 2011 at 12:08 pm
good to know
stine1
On August 10, 2011 at 12:13 pm
I’m from Germany, what would that be?
toomanysounds
On August 10, 2011 at 12:23 pm
German : जर्मन Jarman
anitismo
On August 10, 2011 at 12:24 pm
interesting.
Sebastian Onciu
On August 10, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Very interesting!
aheed411
On August 11, 2011 at 9:45 am
Wonderful article and beautiful
toomanysounds
On August 11, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Wow thanks for your kind words!
salmontaste
On August 14, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Great article. It could be quite useful when traveling out of state, or going on vacation.
Ned Moore
On August 21, 2011 at 12:24 am
toomanysounds….Main Ameriki hoon. And I found your article to be interesting and informative. You use basic terms so there is no misunderstanding, and are very clear in your directions for pronunciation. The style is very personable, and you didn’t try to do too much in one lesson. I like learning languages, so I’ll be visiting your other articles in this series to begin from the beginning. Thanks for sharing this with everyone….
toomanysounds
On August 21, 2011 at 1:08 pm
That’s really good to hear, thanks for saying so Ned. Glad you found this article interesting and I hope you’ll enjoy the others as much.
Kristie Claar
On October 8, 2011 at 11:22 pm
interesting article