LESSON TRANSCRIPT

Absolute Beginner S1 #8
"Where Are You From" in Hindi

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
LESSON CONVERSATION
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
VOCAB LIST
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
LESSON FOCUS

# 8
[Link] ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #8 1
INTRODUCTION
Neha: "Namaste," I'm Neha, and welcome to the Absolute Beginner Series, Lesson 8, Asking "Where are
you from?" in Hindi.

Maya: "Namaste," I'm Maya.

Neha: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask and answer the question "Where are you from?" in Hindi.

Maya: The conversation takes place in a bar.

Neha: This conversation is between Nilam and Lily who have just met.

Maya: Since they are strangers and do not know each other, they will be using formal Hindi.

Neha: Let's listen to their conversation.

LESSON CONVERSATION
नीलम: आप कहाँ से ह?

लीली: म अमे रका से ँ।

नीलम: तो आप अमे रक ह?

लीली: जी हाँ।

Maya: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed.

Neelam: aap kahaan Se hain?

Leelee: Main amerikaa se hoon.

Neelam: : To aap amerikee hain?

Leelee: Jee haan.

Neha: Let's now listen to the conversation with English translation.

नीलम: आप कहाँ से ह?

Neha: " Where are you from?"

लीली: म अमे रका से ँ।

Maya: " I am from America."

नीलम: तो आप अमे रक ह?

Neha: " So you're an American?"

लीली: जी हाँ।

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Maya: "Yes."

POST CONVERSATION BANTER

Neha: You know, anywhere in the world you go, one of the first few things that people want to know is
where you're from.

Maya: That's so true. I guess it makes sense because nationality is a big part of your identity, just like
your name, age, or gender.

Neha: And learning about your own country's name and how it got there is always a fascinating story.

Maya: Yes, did you all know that the full name of India is actually the Republic of India?

Neha: A and its official short names are Bharat and India.

Maya: I think Bharat will not be that familiar to many of our listeners.

Neha: Perhaps. Well, anyway, the name India comes from the Indus River while the name Bharat has
been used in Holy Indian texts, the Puranas, where the country is called Bharatavasha after King Bharata
Chakravarti.

Maya: What about Hindustan? I've often heard India being referred as Hindustan.

Neha: Hindustan is actually derived from Persian and though it's not an official name many people in
the Middle East still refer to India by that name.

Maya: I see.

VOCAB LIST
Neha: Well, let's move to our vocabulary section and look at the words that were used in the
conversation.

Maya: We'll first say the words at natural speed, then a bit slower, and finally we'll give you the meaning.

Neha: Our first phrase is आप कहाँ से ह? " aap kahaan se hain," "aap kahaan se hain," "aap kahaan Se
hain?"

Maya: Which means "Where are you from?"

Neha: Next, we have म "main," "mai-n," "main…"

Maya: Which means "I."

Neha: Then is अमे रका "amerikaa," "a-me-ri-kaa," "amerikaa…"

Maya: Which means "America."

Neha: Next is से "se," "se," "se…"

Maya: Which means "from."

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Neha: Then is ँ "hoon," "ho-on," "hoon…"

Maya: Which means "am."

Neha: Next is तो "to," "to," "to…"

Maya: Which means "so."

Neha: Next we have आप " aap," "aa-p," "aap…"

Maya: Which is a formal "you."

Neha: Next is अमे रक "amerikee," "a-me-ri-kee," "amerikee…"

Maya: Which means "American."

Neha: Then we have ह "hain," "ha-in," "hain…"

Maya: Which is the to-be verb "are."

Neha: And finally we have जी हाँ "jee haan," "jee ha-an," "jee haan…"

Maya: Wwhich is a formal "yes."

KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES

Neha: Let's discuss a couple of these words in detail.

Maya: Let's. So, the word से came up twice in the conversation.

Neha: It means "from" and is a postposition.

Maya: Postpositions are like prepositions in English like from, to, toward, on, in, under, etc, and they are
called so because in Hindi, unlike in English, they come after the noun.

Neha: Instead of saying "from India,", the Hindi equivalent would be "India from."

Maya: This might sound confusing, so let's use the sentence "from India" as an example.

Neha: In Hindi it would be भारत से .

Maya: Here, भारत is India and से is "from."

Neha: So literally it is, "India from," but translates as "from India."

Maya: Similarly, let's take another postposition, "till."

Neha: W which is तक in Hindi.

Maya: If you wanted to say "till here" and "till" is तक and "here" is यहाँ, how would you say it?

Neha: यहाँ तक.

Maya: Great. Now let's look at another word.

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Neha: जी हाँ.

Maya: This is a very useful phrase to know so we're repeating it again even though we've talked about it
in Lesson 4.

Neha: You say जी हाँ to say "yes," that is, to agree with someone in a respectful way.

Maya: जी can be used alone to mean the same respectful yes, while हाँ on its own only means "yes.".

Neha: It's not rude. It's actually pretty neutral.

Maya: And to say "no," you say…

Neha: नह ।. But to make it more formal and respectful, you say जी नह ।

LESSON FOCUS
Maya: Great. We can now say "yes" or "no" in Hindi in a respectful way without offending people!

Neha: Okay, let's now focus on how to ask the question "Where are you from?" in Hindi.

Maya: This is easy because you don't have to modify the question based on genders.

Neha: आप कहाँ से ह?

Maya: Here, आप is a formal "you,", कहाँ means "where,"", से means "from," and ह means "are."

Neha: Therefore, आप कहाँ से ह literally is, "You where from are?"

Maya: Which translates as, "Where are you from?"

Neha: Remember that Hindi is a verb final language so the to-be verb "are" that is ह comes at the end of
the sentence.

Maya: And like we just said a couple of minutes ago, the postposition "from," which is से, comes after the
noun.

Neha: So, कहाँ से "(kahaan se") is literally, "where from," but means "from where.".

Maya: Let's practice this question. We'll first read it at natural speed and then slowly.

Neha: Listen and repeat. आप कहाँ से ह " aap kahaan se hain," "aap kahaan se hain," "aap kahaan se hain."

B. Perfect.

Neha: Now let's learn how to answer this question.

Maya: This is also relatively easy because the sentence structure stays the same whether you're a male
or a female.

Neha: Which means unlike in some other sentences you don't have to worry about adjusting your verbs
and possessive pronouns according to different genders!

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Maya: So, "I am from America" in Hindi is…

Neha: म अमे रका से ँ.

Maya: Here म is "I,", अमे रका is "America,", से is "from,", and ँ is "am."'

Neha: So, literally it means, "I America from am."

Maya: T that's because Hindi is a verb final language, so ँ, or "am," goes to the end, and the
postposition से, or "from," goes after the noun.

Neha: Let's try some more sentences.

Maya: How would you say, "I am from Pakistan?"?

Neha: म पा क तान से ँ।?

Maya: "I am from Japan."

Neha: म जापान से ँ।.

Maya: It's all very easy!

Neha: Except for a few countries that have their own Indian names. Like "Russia" in Hindi is स and
"China" is चीन.

Maya: But you don't have to worry about these names too much. The standard international names will
be more than enough.

Neha: Well, that's all we have for this lesson. Check out the lesson notes for more examples on this
topic.

Maya: Thanks for listening! Until next time.

Neha: "Shukriya aur fir milenge!"

[Link] ABSOLUTE BEGINNER S1 #8 6