Emergency Bengali
সাহায্য করুন! — the sentences you hope never to need, learned before you need them.
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Learn this page backwards: start with সাহায্য করুন! (shahajjo korun — please help!), ডাক্তার (daktar — doctor), হাসপাতাল (hashpatal — hospital), পুলিশ (pulish — police). Four words, and any crowd in Bengal will organise itself around you — Bengalis help first and ask questions later, especially when a foreigner speaks their language in trouble.
The body has its own vocabulary: ব্যথা (byatha — pain), জ্বর (jwor — fever), ওষুধ (oshudh — medicine), রক্ত (rokto — blood). এখানে ব্যথা (pain here), pointing, is a complete medical consultation for starters. আমার ডাক্তার লাগবে (I need a doctor) is never misunderstood and never ignored.
Being lost is the friendliest emergency: আমি হারিয়ে গেছি (ami hariye gechhi — I am lost) turns every stranger into a guide. Add your hotel's name plus কোথায়? and follow the pointing armada — in Bengal, lost foreigners get escorted, not just directed. Keep your hotel card in your pocket and your phone charged.
Two practical sentences close the kit: ফোন করতে পারি? (phone korte pari — may I make a call?) and ঠিকানা লিখে দিন (thikana likhe din — please write the address). Paper, pen, pointing and politeness solve what vocabulary cannot — and দয়া করে (please) said with eye contact has rescued more travellers than any phrasebook.
Words and phrases for this topic
| English | Bengali | Sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Please help! | সাহায্য করুন! | shahajjo korun |
| Doctor | ডাক্তার | daktar |
| Hospital | হাসপাতাল | hashpatal |
| Police | পুলিশ | pulish |
| I am lost | আমি হারিয়ে গেছি | ami hariye gechhi |
| Pain | ব্যথা | byatha |
| Medicine | ওষুধ | oshudh |
| Give water, please | জল দিন | jol din |
| Call a doctor | ডাক্তার ডাকুন | daktar dakun |
| Danger | বিপদ | bipod |
| May I make a call? | ফোন করতে পারি? | phone korte pari |
| Pain here (pointing) | এখানে ব্যথা | ekhane byatha |
| Please write the address | ঠিকানা লিখে দিন | thikana likhe din |
Language, culture, and common traps
Practice: recall, then use
Use this quick recall drill for Emergency Bengali. Hide the script and romanisation columns; say the Bengali form for each cue before revealing its row, then check spelling and sound. The phrase-table speaker buttons provide a model when a matching browser voice is available.
- Please help!
- Medicine
- Please write the address
Context check. For Emergency Bengali, “Please write the address” belongs to a particular setting. A common mistake is to treat an English gloss as universal; read the language-specific note above and ask a fluent speaker when local usage differs.
Check your recall: answer key
- সাহায্য করুন! shahajjo korun — Please help!
- ওষুধ oshudh — Medicine
- ঠিকানা লিখে দিন thikana likhe din — Please write the address
Questions learners ask
সাহায্য করুন! (shahajjo korun — please help!), loud and clear, then point at the problem. In a real emergency nobody grades your grammar — volume, pointing and the word ডাক্তার (doctor) communicate everything.
জল (jol) in West Bengal, পানি (pani) in Bangladesh — same water, different word, and a famous shibboleth between the two Bengals. জল দিন (jol din — give water) works everywhere on the Indian side.
আমার ওষুধ লাগবে (amar oshudh lagbe — I need my medicine) and keep the prescription on your phone. Pharmacy staff in Bengal cities usually read English prescriptions without trouble.