Hindi, Urdu and Bengali (a lonely planet phrasebook)

I thought it mandatory to make at least a little bit of effort to learn Hindi whilst living in India. I carried this book around me everywhere and my Indian work colleagues referred to it as the “joke book”.

You can buy the book here on Amazon.

Let’s not kid ourselves; you will never learn a language from a phrasebook. Nevertheless, this little lonely planet book will get you started with the basics.

Here is a few tips from me, if you want to use a little bit of Hindi during your trip:

• Useful Tip: The basic word order is different from English. Indians put the verb at the end of the sentence. For example "Ye bohot accha hay." would be literally translated as "This very good is."

Basics

Namaste.                          Hello.
Phir melenge.                    See you later.
Challo.                              Let's go. (e.g. to the driver)
Haan ji.                            Yes sir.
Nahi.                                No.
Theek hai.                        Okay.
accha                               good
burra                                bad
ye                                    this
hay / hain                         is
aur                                   and
uske baad                         after that / later
daru                                 alcohol
Ye bakhwas hay.                That's bullshit.
bhaya                                brother (commonly used to address men)
didi                                   sister (can be used to address women but depends on age, familiarity level etc.)
aunty                                can be used to address older women
mataji                              mother (or also older woman)
pitaji                                father
mera (masculine) / meri (feminine)    my
Aap kaise ho?                    How are you? 
Me accha hay. (male) / Me acchi hoon. (female)         I'm fine.
Aapka naam kya hay?         What is your name? 
Meraa naam Lucie hay.      My name is Lucie.
aaj                    today
kaal                  tomorrow (and confusingly it can also mean yesterday!)
chutti                holiday
 

Shopping

Kitna paise?                       How much does this cost?
Ye mehengha hay.              That's expensive.
 

Directions

sidha                                straight (to te driver; they understand left, right  and u-turn but not straight)
sidha le lejiye                    go straight
right le lejiye                    turn right
bas bas                             stop (to the driver)
jaldi                                 fast
diri                                   slow
piche                                behind, back (also useful for the driver)
Aapko Khan Market ka raasta pata hay?        Do you know the way to Khan Market?
Khan Market jaana hay.                               Take me to Khan Market.

Food & Eating

Mujhe masaledar khanna nahi chahiye.         I don't want spicy food.    
Mujhe masaledar khanna nahi pasand hay.    I don't like spicy food.
masaledar         spicy
mirchidar          spicy
bohot                very  
murgh               chicken
makhan            butter
dhal                  lentils
mirch               chilli
chai                 tea
shimla mirch    green pepper
mosambi          sweet lime
haldi                turmeric
dalchini          cinnamon
elayichi           cardamom
paneer            cheese
aloo                potato
gobhi             cauliflower
saag              spinach
roti                bread
naan              type of bread
paratha          type of bread           
kg                  kilo
biri                type of local cigarette with no filter
garam            hot
thanda           cold
charas            hashish
kulfi               type of local ice cream
paani              water
paani ke bothal    bottle of water
 

Some useful numbers:

shunya    zero
ek          one  
do          two
teen       three
chaar      four
paanch    five
che         six
saath      seven
aath        eight
noh         nine
das         ten

pandrah    fifteen
bis            twenty
pachis       twenty-five
tis            thirty
chaalis      fourty
pachaas    fifty

ek so        one hundred
do so        two hundred
...
ek hazaar    one thousand
ek lakh        hundred thousand
ek crore      ten million
(Indians do not count large amounts in hundreds of thousands or millions, they use lakhs and crores.)

With this vocabulary, I was able to get by, as well as bargain and utter sentences that instantly helped me make friends, like for example: "Mujhe government nahi pasand hai."