Learn to speak Hindi

1. 1

   Week 1: sounds and greetings

   Say hello (नमस्ते) and thank you (धन्यवाद) until they feel natural. Learn the sounds that differ from English, and say ten short sentences about yourself. Hindi separates sounds English blends together, such as aspirated and unaspirated consonants. Listening and repeating gets your ear and mouth to notice the difference.

2. 2

   Week 2: everyday requests

   Learn to order, ask the price, ask where things are and say you do not understand. Build each as a full sentence and say it three times.

3. 3

   Week 3: questions and answers

   Practise question words and the answers to them. Listen to each Hindi sentence first, then say it, then compare.

4. 4

   Week 4: short exchanges

   Chain sentences into a mini conversation: greet, introduce yourself, ask a question, answer one. Record yourself and listen back.

Hindi is written in the Devanagari script. You learn to read it alongside speaking; you do not have to master it first.

It takes longer than European languages. Grammatical gender, postpositions and verb-final order are the main new ideas. Spelling is very regular.

A good first target sentence: मुझे पानी चाहिए। (I need water.).

• Ten to twenty minutes, same time every day.
• Say everything out loud, even when alone.
• Learn whole sentences, not isolated words.
• Repeat yesterday's sentences before learning new ones.
• After a couple of weeks, find a conversation partner or tutor and use what you have practised. At 30 minutes a day, Hindi reaches working proficiency in roughly 6 years, and you will be speaking well before that.