होना to be

होना या न होना — that is the question. This verb is too common to need examples; it occurs (either independently, meaning ‘to be, to exist’, or as auxiliary, as in ब'दर नाचता , ‘the monkey dances’) in so many types of Hindi sentence.Asian Studie

बदलना — to change

बदलना means to change — which is perhaps nothing to get very excited about. But this everyday verb has two points of interest that make it stand out from the herd.Asian Studie

ज"ता — shoe

!रा ज%ता ' जापानी, + पतल%न इ.iग12तानी सर 4 लाल टोपी 7सी, iफर भी iदल ' iह=2तानी !रा ज%ता ' जापानी … This song from Raj Kapoor’s 1955 film >ी ४२० must have graced almost as many Hindi classrooms as it has cinemas. It addresses cultural authenticity, contrasting imported items on the one hand with an abiding Indianness of spirit on the other. Ironically, while Kapoor’s filmic persona seeks to promote Indianness, it actually derives from the ‘tramp’ character developed forty years earlier, in Hollywood, by the British actor Charlie Chaplin.Asian Studie

कमरा room

Even the most ordinary, everyday words can have an interesting story to tell. कमरा is one of the first Hindi nouns a learner encounters, and many course-books use it to introduce the ‘oblique case with postposition’ construction: कम% & 'या ) ?Asian Studie

ककत$%यiवम*ढ़ nonplussed, bewildered

This fine expression — actually a Sanskrit phrase rather than a single word — is nicely translated as ‘nonplussed’, which itself derives from the Latin non plus ‘not more’, describing a moment when we can say nothing more about a puzzling situation.Asian Studie

तनाव — tension

There’s maybe just enough time to write this note before the English loanword !"शन completely ousts the fine word तनाव from Hindi usage! The two words are in fact related to each other, which may account for the…er…tension between them.Asian Studie

घuसना — to sneak in

The verb घuसना is so articulate as to be almost a one-word justification for learning Hindi. Its range of meanings, or rather its suggestions and attitudes, is a real challenge for lexicographers, whose various glosses can only hint at what घuसना has to say.Asian Studie