Hindi Learning Tips from Rosetta Stone
About the Hindi language
Hindi is the official language of India and around half the country's population are native speakers. Worldwide over 500 million people speak Hindi and the language is used in many other countries, including Fiji and Nepal. Hindi speakers can also communicate with Urdu speakers easily, as the two languages are different versions of the same dialect.
Hindi Learning Tips
- In written Hindi, there is no distinction between upper and lowercase letters.
- Each character in the Hindi script has only one possible pronunciation, so you'll be able to pick up this particular aspect of the language quickly.
- There are two forms of Hindi vowel; independent and dependent. Usually, the independent form follows another vowel or is the first letter of a word, while the dependent form in general follows a consonant.
- It is common to see a Hindi consonant written without a vowel character following it. In these instances, a 'schwa' vowel sound is used when pronouncing the word. This makes Hindi spelling much simpler as the schwa is only used in the spoken form, not the written.
- You may find that some consonants sound very similar. This is because pronunciation can vary according to slight movements of the tongue or the amount of air released when speaking. Rosetta Stone's Hindi software will help you learn to differentiate between these sounds.
- Hindi nouns have two forms; masculine and feminine. Verbs and adjectives may change depending on the noun form used.
- You'll use both formal and informal ways to address others, depending on your age and relationship to the person being addressed.
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